ipomopsis

Joined: Oct 7, 2020 Last Active: Oct 10, 2024 iNaturalist

Hello fellow naturephiliacs.

I love exploring with a leave no trace approach and I still have a lot to learn about my own back yard. I try not to even leave footprints. My passion is wilderness before humans put trails everywhere (and now causing over-tourism).

I am an endangered born and raised native of- still living in- Incline Village, NV (or as I am now calling it Avarice Village). Do not, I repeat do NOT come to Lake Tahoe unless you are NOT a privileged-entitled-spoiled micromanaging A-hole or rude-loud disrespectful POS, and will be decent humans of a better world ecosystem with thriving life instead of declining life. If you move here, expect to experience worsening quality of life year after year with worse people that are pumping up wealth inequality. My town/region has been commandeered by ignorant, oblivious, greedy, profit-hungry, privileged, entitled, selfish and/or trashy humanoids! I seriously don't understand how people can be so ignorantly awful in today's world. If you are reading this while staying in an Airbnb or vacation rental, consider that you are contributing to the inequality problem.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
I'm interested in acoustic soundscape ecology and would be interested in collaborations in this field or any environmental science field for that matter.
I'm also interested in long-term changes and re-photographing the same place over long periods of time. I hope that some of my observations, especially of trees are useful to future generations tracking changes.
And, I must say, I am jealous of the people that seem to be retired just wondering around every day taking photos. If anyone has a paying job for me to just be out there observing/documenting, please let me know :)
If it matters to you, I do have a B.S. degree in Environmental Science, Ecology w/ minor in Sustainability.

ABOUT SOCIALIZING:
I am happy to meet like minded people.
Feel free to send me a message to say hello or meet up for a "naturalist" walk. I am inherently a friendly happy person but have to keep this in check because people take advantage, destroy what I love, continually not leave me alone in my own home, on my own property and pressure me to move out of my home.

ABOUT GEOPRIVACY:
Most of my local hiking observations will be private or obscure until a location gets so many observations it no longer matters or are of areas I deem appropriate. To be perfectly honest, I've seen my home town exploited, marketed, developed and polluted in all ways, wealth inequality explode and my quality of life continually decline. I am no longer afraid to voice strongly how people are blindly ruining this area/community! Therefore, I don't believe in sharing locations of trails or nice locations with the public to spread word and trample even more but torn on doing it for the science conservation aspect. I also feel uncomfortable sharing locations of plants and animals. I explore more if this topic in one of my journal posts on here. In spite of the negatives, I can't help but be addicted to this website because I am in love with wilderness, learning about nature and believe in citizen science documentation to observe changes in biodiversity (important now more than ever). Willing to share locations on request to researchers and like minded.

About Lake Tahoe:
If you think you love the greater Lake Tahoe region, like many places, it's ugly compared to when I grew up! We were freer. In addition to the intensifying toxic culture in this country, everything was cleaner, quieter, friendlier, less developed and more vibrant. Population growth (and wealth) is exponentially rising in the area destroying the very things people seek; nature, quiet, dark skies, clear clean lakes, pristine habitats, small friendly communities, safety, low taxes, less regulations, equality, respect, less laws and a beautiful outdoor playground.
I'm also fairly certain through another subjective observation of windshield washing that the insect populations have noticeably declined. (references in one of my journal posts)
The greater Lake Tahoe region is a resource that continues to be exploited via the Tahoe name. The powers that be continually create supply of recreational access beyond safe carrying capacity or human quality of life. This is financially motivated, ignorance, ego and greed (Seriously, how many millions of dollars do you need to be happy and keep having to make more at the great expense of others and other life? [reference Airbnb's, real estate speculators, a 2nd-3rd-4th...50th home, haphazard/ill-thought development, etc]). Because of this population growth and people abusing their freedoms, we require more laws, more taxes, higher prices, more regulations, and less personal freedoms to protect what's left and slow the rate of environmental AND social loss. People end up destroying the very things they (consciously and subconsciously) seek in life! They destroy the things that actually make them happy. I am beyond fed up with it and I am not very popular these days as I speak out against hypocrisy and illogic of the growing incompetent leaders.

ABOUT IDENTIFYING ORGANISMS.
Please see this guy's profile for how to make good observations on Inaturalist. https://www.inaturalist.org/people/tmessick

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