Mapping Adjustment
Just a quick note to mention that I've replaced the polygon we used to define the area for our June 2022 Long Point bioblitz. The original polygon was hand-drawn and necessarily approximate; the replacement polygon was provided by The Trustees, extracted from their GIS system and representing the definitive legal boundaries of Long Point Wildlife Refuge. This change was made in association with an effort by The Trustees to set up an iNat project to collect and aggregate observations from all of their properties (123 of them!) across Massachusetts. Keeping the original bioblitz polygon would have risked confusion in the future, since there would then be two slightly different polygons with "Long Point Wildlife Refuge" in their names.
In making the adjustment, we lost a few observations from the June 2022 bioblitz, probably because I had attempted to "buffer" the property outline to make sure we didn't lose any observations from close to the refuge boundaries. But because we will use the new TTOR boundary for any future bioblitzes at this property, results will be comparable across years.
The Trustees hope to launch the "umbrella project" for their properties this spring sometime. It will presumably sweep in all the observations currently in our 2022 Long Point bioblitz project, along with other records, existing and future, for all Trustees properties on the Vineyard and statewide. I'd encourage everyone to visit Trustees properties often and iNat what you find - we can all help this important conservation organization work toward a solid catalog of the wildlife occurring on the lands they protect and manage.
