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The Inclusive Guide
Please check out the new The Inclusive Guide and consider donating to their GoFundMe! Founded by two black women, they have created something like “Yelp” for inclusivity and accessibility! So if you are male or female, white or BIPOC, are straight or identify as LBGTQ, have a health disability, or not, or any other identity or affinity that I’ve missed in this short sentence, you can provide feedback on your experience! The Inclusive Guide is set up to help both individuals and the businesses and places being covered.
Why mention this hear? Aside from just being an awesome idea, the founder, Parker McMullen Bushman, has extensive professional and educational background in environmental sciences and environmental education. Some of the seeds for this idea came from situations she and her business partner encountered when outdoors. So yes, The Inclusive Guide includes parks and other outdoor nature venues, too!
The Inclusive Guide is quite new, and in need of crowdsourcing, feedback and funding. So try searching for places you visit, try adding one or two if they are missing, and add a review for those that are there. And be sure to provide feedback (check their FAQ) if you run into problems!
Gall Week 2022
Looking for a wonderfully esoteric excuse to get out in nature and really investigate your native plants? Well, give Gall Week 2022 a try! Running September 3 – September 11, the goal is to search for plant galls and document them in this iNaturalist project. And check out the 2021 project for a small sample of what 2022 has in store for us!
What are galls? Plant galls are beautiful and sometimes bizarre growths on plant tissues induced by another organism, such as a wasp, midge, aphid, mite, or many others. They are surprisingly common, yet grossly overlooked – to the point where dozens of previously undescribed galls are discovered every year, sometimes in people’s backyards!
If you are new to galls, learn more about them on my podcast episode with Adam Kranz of gallformers.org. And check out this short video from Deep Look.
That’s all for now!
Nature's Archive Podcast 