Kickin off

Holy moly. You guys are awesome. 348 observations so far and a lot of ground covered. That is great. Looks like we're finding a lot of scattered buckthorn and honeysuckle in these areas, but a couple species stand out as being kind of isolated: barberry, multiflora rose, and bittersweet. Already I feel like a useful picture is beginning to be developed.

I downloaded (but haven't mapped) the first set of data to see how it looks and see if the spacing between frequently observed species is more than is necessary or not. Jamie had asked if there was a way to speed up the process since the 100' feels tight and he could go a lot faster if he was documenting things less frequently. I'll check out how things are looking on the map and get back to you. It is a fine balance between going fast and producing a useful data set, but if wider spacing results in the same quality data (but more miles covered) that is a good thing.

Thank you so much for taking such great pictures now. It makes it very easy to verify the species, and frankly there were a few pictures that were actually quite beautiful.

Are folks making use of the guide for all of the species when you've had ID trouble? Is it useful? Did we even talk about it?

The guide is accessible and downloadable for use when there is no cell service. Click on Guides on the bottom tab and search for Chittenden County you'll come up with a guide Chittenden County, Vermont - Invasives. Without download it is available with cell service, but will only be useful if you download it if no cell service exists.

The guide has a list of all (most) of the invasive plants that threaten new england forests. Its got pictures (swipe the picture of the plant to see more), descriptions and things like that. It may be useful for some of the plants that have been misidentified like mile a minute weed, Japanese stilt grass and bittersweet. When you download the guide, all 49 species will be in one window, it can be hard to find the one you're looking for. If you swipe to the left you will see a breakout of the plants: grasses, shrubs, trees, etc. This might help to narrow down a search. Please email or message me with any questions!

Happy mapping!

Posted on October 15, 2014 10:31 PM by kothomps