Creation of Wildlife of SB County, CA

WELCOME ALL!
Feel Free Join And Contribute To This Project.

This project came out of a need to simplify identifications of wildlife observed in Santa Barbara County. Other counties have projects of their own, they simplify species identification. Naturally Santa Barbara County needs its own project. In having our own project, we can appreciate the vast diversity of our region. We are more able to learn and share with each other our findings, interests, and knowledge.

Before this project scouring through countless pages for similar species as our observation has been quite time heavy. Our county has several projects with robust information and contributions, however, they are very site specific. Having a countywide project allows us to be more inclusive in sharing our observations as well as referencing our findings. From this, if we so wish, we can compare our observations to other counties.

ANTICIPATED QUESTIONS ANSWERED:

Why A Project And Not A Guide?
A project is more interactive and is maintained by the members- you. A project is a living collaboration.

Why Were Some Observations Included And Not Others?
To start the project the best examples of species were chosen to reference new observations. As some observations are ubiquitous, their historical inclusion were limited. In that way, observations of coyote brush, for example, don't dominate when we are trying to look for images that are closer to black elderberry. While there is value in including all observations, to start this project, having references for the causal observer is a useful inception for the project.

There are other tools on inaturalist that can help with cataloguing more in depth interests, such as species specific population counts and/or species richness. This project can facilitate those efforts too.

What If I Believe My Historical Observation Should Be Included in this project?
If your historical observation is a unique and valuable addition to this project, please add the observation to the project. This county has hundreds of thousands of observations and we continue make more historical additions to the project. Your help is much appreciated.

What About Inclusion Of Future Observations?
As more inaturalists join this project, they (you) are free to include their own observations, whatever they be; within the confines of this project.

What Are The Confines Of This Project?
Include images and/or sounds to your observations. Try to include wildlife only. Wildlife found out in nature are preferred. Included in this project are observations from restoration sites. They are included in this project for reference sake. We ask that you refrain including domesticated (i.e. your cat) and or landscaped observations (ie. bougenvillia), which is in keeping with the inaturalist community standards and intentions.

Thank you for joining this Wildlife of Santa Barbara County Project.
HAPPY TRAILS.

Posted on July 6, 2017 01:36 AM by m0liveray-