Cincinnati Re-Wild - Backyard Ecological Restoration Umbrella's Journal

These are just ideas... even if you ignore them you're welcome in the umbrella. These "best practices" might lead to a more consistent approach across individual projects leading to increased engagement within the umbrella.

Add "notes" to your individual observations.
The whole point of being a project within the umbrella is to engage with other like-minded land owners. If your photograph is a picture of an insect on a flower... the notes should tell the story of why that flower is there. Did you plant it? Did a former owner plant it? Are you encouraging that colony of plants to expand? If that colony expands, what colony might be contracting and what insects are using that colony? Answering questions like these in the "notes" for each observation triggers thought and engagement from those participating in the umbrella. We all think about these things and are interested in each other's thoughts. If you simply post a picture, someone will id it and think "yep, trillium". If you tell the story of colony expansion / contraction for that plant and its colony it will be more engaging for other participants in the group. I'm terrible at this myself btw. I get too focused on adding to my life list and forget about the bigger picture.

Look and feel of member projects should be consistent.
The umbrella and several child projects use a project summary background of "#32440d". Each child project uses the leaf "Project Icon". Feel free to email me if you want a copy of it. Choose a nice picture from your property for the banner.

Property Boundary
If you aren't sure of how to create the kml file to delineate your property boundary, I'd be happy to help. Just shoot me an email.

If you want to use the older "traditional style" project, you are still welcome.
The look and feel will be different, but that's ok. The main thing is the content. I'm pretty sure these allow you to obscure the location of your observations and the property itself (since traditional style projects don't require a kml file to define approximate property boundaries).

Consider the story that the "framing" of your picture tells.
The first picture of any observation shows up in the "recent observations" timeline on the umbrella's project page. Is it possible to frame the organism in a way that communicates something about the way you manage your natural area? Consider this first photo...

This is a perfectly ordinary picture of a Christmas Fern. It shows the intricate closeup detail of the fern. It doesn't show the micro-preserve that the fern has come to reside within.

This second image also shows a Christmas fern. It's harder to see the fern, but it's there (bottom right). What's hi-lighted in this picture is the restoration I've tried to do to my backyard. I can add a second picture to the observation that is a closeup image and keep this one as a default that shows up in the "recent observations" timeline on the umbrella's project page. Inat is about depth of knowledge. It's about closeup images of individual organisms. But I believe detailed information about healthy ecosystems that these organisms exist within is also what Inat is about. Sometimes it's hard to capture the ecosystem for a tiny organism and only the closeup of the organism itself is possible. Other times, you can photograph an organism in such a way that hi-lights how that organism fits into a larger ecosystem.

Here's another example. This picture effectively communicates how this eastern cottonwood is insisting on survival despite an imperfect micro-environment. The picture itself tells the story of why thoughtful stewardship is important. A closeup of the cottonwood, captured only for my life list, would give no indication of the larger story.

Other Stuff:
What is a micro-preserve?

Add My Project

I realized a while ago that Josh had several observations at his home property. Until he was added to the umbrella, I had NO idea that 381 of the 522 species (almost 73%) were insects! Obviously some of this is selection bias… he’s taking more time than others to find and photograph insects. The sheer number also suggests that his stewardship of the property is attracting them. At the very least, he’s doing a terrible job chasing them away! I’m guessing some of the insect loving bird species he’s documented are happy with his work.

If we get more members, maybe I can persuade him to do a journal post about his insect observations, the birds he's observed that may be eating them, and the plants he’s established that support the insects.

I don’t mind if he keeps going exactly in the way he has been, journal post or not. He’s gonna make it interesting to compare this project’s insect species count over time to the total count for Hamilton County. 401 insect species on the umbrella’s two acres vs. 2983 insect species documented on Hamilton County’s 259,840 acres. 13.4% of Hamilton County’s documented insect species on just .0008% of Hamilton County land.

If all of these insects are merely the result of Josh looking more carefully for them, what explains some of the birds he sees on his micro-preserve that I don’t see on mine? I’ve looked pretty carefully for birds on my lot and I’ve never seen a Chestnut Sided Warbler, American Redstart, Red Headed Woodpecker or a Red Breasted Nuthatch. It’s possible that these same bird species would have sat for a picture if he had cleared his land and planted only grass. But I doubt it.

The Trails of Governor’s Hill is the newest project to be added to the umbrella. Each project within the umbrella is unique. Governor’s Hill is no exception. The project comprises both common area and privately owned area. The common area is limited to observations as regeneration is happening from a blank slate. Here’s what the project owner had to say about the project…

“Most of the common area is pure naturalism. Despite the Callery Pears and Honeysuckle, it has been a beautiful thing watching pure nature reclaim her own.

The back of our privately owned property, which borders the common area, slopes steeply. Years ago we let the back corner go to (managed) nature. We removed a large amount of honeysuckle, but were torn about one large specimen that serves as a deer den. As the years have progressed, more and more of the yard is being rid of lawn grass in favor of natives and large screening plantings.”

It’s a fascinating project specifically because it includes pure naturalism as well as assisted regeneration. Check it out…

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/the-trails-of-governor-s-hill