Fortnightly Update

13 Oct 2023

Hello NatureMaprs!

The past couple weeks have seen some exciting updates and news for our platform:

- NatureMapr is getting involved with the Save Wallum intiative in Brunswick Heads on the north coast of NSW - show them some love on their socials in the name of conservation!

- We will be running our first webinar next week on Friday 20th Oct 6pm with a focus on how new users can get involved and contribute to citizen science (access the MS teams meeting via this link).

- Maps in list view now have their Species Richness Scores (SRS) referenced with the seedling symbol and, Survey Effort Score (SES) referenced with the graph symbol for quick comparison between sites.

- Have you been observing your local environment recently? Our homepage now houses a display with the highest and lowest survey effort scores.

- Our Geospatial data expert Jen Smits has kindly offered to create a map for your favourite park or reserve on our platform - feel free to comment yours below!

- Regional boundaries for Queensland have been installed.

- The NSW Bionet feed is in its final stage of testing and once operational will ensure local and state wide decision-making is informed by local data.

- For users creating event-specific collections, now have type, e.g. a School project.

From the NatureMapr team we hope you have a great weekend.

22 comments

trevorpreston wrote:

14 Oct 2023

Thanks for the update and all the great work making this platform even more awesome.
I do have some suggestions for Maps to add to Canberra Nature Map @jksmits
1. Dananbilla Nature Reserve, I took some photos here last week. Michael B is aware of this and has kindly volunteered, I'm not sure where he is up to with this, I know he has a lot on his plate!
2. Illunie Nature Reserve
3. Koorawatha Nature reserve (This part straddles the border of CNM so only half of it!)
4. Bendick Murrell National Park
5. Quamby Cemetery

Many thanks!
Cheers,
Trevor Preston

KorinneM wrote:

14 Oct 2023

Awesome! Well done!

Giralang Wetlands and McKellar Wetlands might be interesting ones to have added to a map in the mix.
There is also an area just adjacent on the west of Bungonia National Park that trails from there take you into that maybe should have something that can somehow collect/relate for that area.

Otherwise the big feature I'm missing currently that would be lovely to have in the mix: a search facility on the map to narrow down to an area quickly rather than having to zoom to place the observation if you don't have GPS coordinates. Additionally a way to create 'favourite' areas that you can have saved to zoom to then to pinpoint where it is. This is definitely part of what slows me down getting observations up.

jks wrote:

14 Oct 2023

@trevorpreston on it 🍒👍🩷! @KorinneM ill get on those wetlands and will talk to the boss about search function

KorinneM wrote:

14 Oct 2023

@jksmits thank you. And the bit I didn’t state was that that was about uploading observations in case that’s not clear.

trevorpreston wrote:

16 Oct 2023

@jksmits Thanks for the additions of my requested maps. I'm very sorry about the mix up with Quamby Cemetery, I meant to request Monteagle cemetery.
If I may request a few more......
1. Delegate Hill Scenic Reserve, or possibly the greater Delegate hill forested area? (Gippsland nature Map)
2. Combaning state conservation area (Riverina Murray Nature Map)
3. Nambucca State Forest (North Coast Nature Map)
Thanks so much for your work, these local maps are one of the things that makes NatureMapr so interesting and useful and will hopefully attract more users in the areas you are creating maps for.
Cheers.

jks wrote:

16 Oct 2023

@trevorpreston absolutely no problem! And I’ll get on those in the next day or two. Adding maps is also my favourite ❤️ 🗺️

For others, I’m still taking requests right across Australia, so post below 🌏👇🌿. Also, did you know you can become a moderator for a reserve or map polygon? Know your patch super good and have good skills in species ID? We would love to here from you.

Also, we are doing a project to add 748 National Parks across all NatureMapr regions.

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

17 Oct 2023

Hi @AaronClausen the addition of the new front page panes for SRS are welcome and interesting. However, having Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council (QPRC) LGA at the top of the list is misleading. It covers 532063.71 hectares and includes many reserves and parks. It is not a good comparison to the various nature reserves, parks and other land in the region. So maybe it could be treated as an exception and excluded. What do you think?

Darcy wrote:

17 Oct 2023

Thanks for the update! There's a few maps I'd love to see added:
Riverina-Murray:
-Woomargama State Conservation Area
-Livingstone State Conservation Area
-The Rock Nature Reserve
-Wiesner's Swamp Nature Reserve
-Doodle Comer Nature Reserve
-Redlands Hill Flora & Fauna Reserve
-Kentucky State Forest
-Milbrulong State Forest
-Matong State Forest
-Kindra State Forest

Far West:
-Yathong Nature Reserve
-Nombinnie Nature Reserve
-Round Hill Nature Reserve
-Living Desert State Park

Hume:
-Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park
-Warby-Ovens National Park
-Barmah National Park
-Heathcote-Graytown National Park
-Mount Lawson State Park
-Mount Granya State Park

Loddon-Mallee:
-Terrick Terrick National Park
-Heathcote-Graytown National Park (also)
-Mt Hope Nature Conservation Reseve

Generally also in NSW:
-Lord Howe Island

Thanks :)

jks wrote:

18 Oct 2023

Great @Darcy will let you know when complete

AaronClausen wrote:

18 Oct 2023

Hi @michaelb - yep I knew this was going to come up. It doesn't look right I agree, but at the same time, it is the largest polygon and therefore does genuinely have the largest species richness! But it may not have the largest species richness per hectare..

Species Richness Score (SRS) at the moment is an absolute value. Completely independent to size of reserve and also independent to the Survey Effort (SES).

If we start double dividing, i.e. SRS / AREA to come up with a "Species Richness Per Hectare" kind of figure, then very small polygons may end up with an advantage.

What I like about SRS is that it's an absolute and we can actually rely on it to know which reserve physically has more species. And if that's a larger polygon, then that's kind of OK to me and makes sense...

I need to think more about it MB!

AaronClausen wrote:

18 Oct 2023

@jksmits you rock. @Darcy thanks for all your contributions over a very wide area, I love watching your sightings come through!

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

19 Oct 2023

Yes Aaron, worth contemplation. The difference with Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council (QPRC) LGA is that it is not really a nature reserve, but the map of a whole project with many reserves.

trevorpreston wrote:

20 Oct 2023

@jksmits The map for Batlow State Forest looks like a town block. Can you please have a look, I think it might be incorrect.
Cheers

jks wrote:

21 Oct 2023

@trevorpreston good pick up! That is actually the building in town Batlow Forestry Corp. Batlow State Forest according to my NSW data doesn't exist! See Bago State Forest instead. I wonder how those sugar pines are going ...

trevorpreston wrote:

23 Oct 2023

@jksmits Your work is amazing.
A few more requests if I may?
In Gippsland Nature Map:
Mount Bendoc Bushland Reserve
Bendoc Nature Conservation Reserve
The Gap Scenic Reserve
Martins Creek Scenic Reserve
Deddick River Streamside Reserve
Cann River Bushland Reserve
Cann River Frontage Reserve
Little Bog Creek Nature Conservation Reserve
Bendoc State Forest
Cottonwood State Forest (Delegate River/Bendoc Area)
Delegate River Streamside Reserve
Bonang State Forest
Many thanks for your work.
Trevor

jks wrote:

24 Oct 2023

Yay love this challenge @trevorpreston! And @Darcy nearly done. 2 more to go - redlands and Lord Howe (sneak peak check out northern NSW nature mapr) thanks to the amazing Aaron for his NatureMapr #islandUpgrade. Please let me know if any maps aren’t working (showing SRS, SES, sightings or field guides). Thanks !!!!

KylieWaldon wrote:

29 Oct 2023

Um The add a sighting button and link seem to be broken right now. says page cannot be found? :)

KylieWaldon wrote:

29 Oct 2023

Its only the Albury Wodonga one that I get the error. the other Naturemaps go to the add sighting window. Kylie :)

KylieWaldon wrote:

29 Oct 2023

yay. Fixed. I'm back uploading....

Darcy wrote:

20 Nov 2023

Thanks @jksmits for the power of work you've done adding all these!

I've finally had time to look through my requests that you added, and there's a few maps not working, either not showing any entries within its boundaries, or showing entries made since you added the map, but not entries made prior to the creation of the map. The ones with issues are:

Riverina-Murray:
-The Rock NR
-Livingstone NP
-Woomargama NP
-Ringwood Tank SF
-Carabost Flora Reserve
-Barmah NP shows up, but is a Victorian NP

Far West NSW:
-Round Hill NR
-Yathong NR

Hume:
-Chiltern NP
-Mt Buffalo NP
-Warby-Ovens NP
-Mount Lawson SP

Loddon-Mallee:
-Hattah-Kulkyne NP

Also for the addition of Lord Howe to the North Coast NSW, it'd be worth bumping out the boundary around LH to the same distance as the region boundary extends from the mainland coast, as there's lots of boat tours that run from the island, including trips to Ball's Pyramid, which the current boundary extent around LH would miss sightings from.

I also don't want to add too much more work, but there was two maps I forgot to ask for in my initial request: Galore Hill Scenic Reserve added in Riverina-Murray, and Mutawintji SCA added in Far West NSW.

Thanks so much Jen!

-Darcy

trevorpreston wrote:

30 Nov 2023

Hi @jksmits.
I am hoping you can help with more of your amazing mapping skills.

I am hoping for maps of:
1. Bibbenluke Common (I can't find info on this boundary online. Snowy Mountains Shire Council may be able to help when they are less busy.)
2. Bibbenluke Cemetery
3. Black Lake near Bibbenluke, (I'm not sure if this is crown land or a reserve and can't find much about this on the internet other than the fact that it is one of the few Monaro ephemeral lakes that is NOT on private land. I'm waiting for some info from Snowy Mountains Shire Council but they are flat out at the moment.)
4. South East Forests National Park (the small section that overlaps into CNM from South Coast Nature Map.)

Thanks again for your incredible map work.

jks wrote:

1 Dec 2023

@Darcy thanks for picking them up. I’ll chat to @AaronClausen about what is going on, I had noticed this on a few other maps as well. @trevorpreston i will take a look if I can find those areas. #4 will be no problem.

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