Why NAFHA exists in the Northwest

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jonathan
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Why NAFHA exists in the Northwest

Post by jonathan »

A few months ago, someone posed the question “Why does NAFHA exist?” It was a good question. NAFHA has had an impact on me, and I wanted to respond.

NAFHA is where I got connected to the herping world. Brian Eager sent me here after I asked a question about some Utah lizards and wanted to find a place where I could learn about herping in California. The NAFHA forums were where I learned herping techniques and how I could make a meaningful contribution to herpetology. I grew up in the Northwest and had loved herps my entire life, but I'd never known another herper besides my father until Brian told me about these forums. Now, even though I learned about NAFHA from a Utah guy while I lived in California, I've gotten to talk to a lot of herpers from the Northwest and learn a ton.

I think that NAFHA is one of the best places for new herpers to learn the ropes. Not only to learn herping techniques and herp identification, but to learn ethical and responsible herping. This year about a dozen guys have introduced themselves on the Northwest board, some of whom who are relatively new to the world of herping. I don't know a better place for them to get their start that's as easy to find as we are.

The NAHERP database and NAFHA were born together, and with nearly 200,000 records and over 60 database requests already, I believe the database has a profound impact. NAHERP is now its own nonprofit entity and is not a part of NAFHA. But NAFHA remains a vital way of spreading the word about NAHERP to new people, reminding people about NAHERP's existence and importance, and give new information about NAHERP regarding changes in the database and new data requests. NAFHA has also been a spot to learn about many other fantastic citizen science projects (CROS, PARS, etc.).

NAFHA has done some fantastic surveys together. The Tejon Ranch project in California (resulting in a number of range extensions and helping the Tejon Ranch Conservancy secure a $15.8 million grant for over 100,000 acres of new land) is one big success story. But there have also been meaningful ongoing survey projects by NAFHA members in Arizona, Louisiana, NorCal, SoCal, and many other regions, as well as one-off surveys all over the country. Over 25 different regions have been surveyed by NAFHA members.

NAFHA also has been a means of organizing neat education projects – Desoto State Park, Grassy Hollow Visitor Center, City of Scottsdale, Orange County State Parks, school groups, and booths set up at multiple herp shows.

NAFHA forums have been a networking place to share information about current events – new laws, major issues that affect herps and herping, etc. - as well as a place to find out how to get involved, such as herp-related job opportunities, government studies, habitat restoration, and invasive species removal projects.

Finally, NAFHA has been the best place I've ever seen for different parts of the herping community to keep in touch. Young teenage herpers and experienced field herpers and herp-focused scientists all post here. And there's been real collaboration between herpers and government, which I think is something that needs to increase going forward if we're going to have any meaningful herp conservation and sensible herping laws.
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jonathan
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Re: Why NAFHA exists in the Northwest

Post by jonathan »

Of course, for any of these points to be meaningful, we have to keep doing them and figure out how to do them better. Learn how to be a more helpful and healthy community together, have continued outings and possibly education or survey projects together, do a better job regarding spreading the word about NAFHA and building partnerships with other herp-focused entities, etc. I think this is a platform where we can keep doing these things better and better, if we consider it worth doing.

I should add this paper about citizen science that Eimon posted on the California forum. Work like this can have a real impact:

http://www.wcs.org/press/press-releases ... dlife.aspx
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