Mar 12 - more on New Goals

Two journal posts back we looked at Survey goals and targets, both original (2021) and revised (now).

How much work is involved in achieving the revised goals? Well, that depends...

Here are the 28 counties that are below our goals in terms of either number of observations or number of species. The numbers are how many observations or species are needed. Any empty spot means already above goal.

Some of these will be easy, some less so.

Confidence is higher in bumping up the county observation numbers than finding new county species. If you think about a reasonable wetland in June or July, you should be able to document 15 observations. A reasonable day is 3 sites. So around 1 person/day for 50 records. We have 5 counties that can get to the observation goal in a day. Worst case scenario (242 needed for Belmont Co) will probably require 5-7 days for one observer, or 1 day each from 7 observers, or something in between. Very do-able, may need a little coordination. Basically getting people in the field in these counties should do the trick.

Picking up new species requires more than boots in the mud. We'll need strategy. Example: Seneca Co. We need 10 species to get to 60. If we look at the data on species not yet recorded in Seneca in relation to the surrounding area we can zero in on potential target. Local means a county that shares a border with the target.

Running the data, with some slight edits, we get this list of species:

In this case, every county around Seneca has 3 species not found in Seneca, all but 1 have another 3 species, etc. Altogether, there are 17 species with a relatively high likelihood of being in Seneca Co. Then it's a matter of matching habitat (see your favorite field guide) and flight period (see the OOS flight charts). Easy-peasy? Probably not, but worth a try.

Posted on 12 de março de 2022, 10:31 PM by jimlem