Why are you here?

[chris otahal]

Hi All,

Just wondering why you are volunteering your time with this project.

So, to get things started.....

I'm a wildlife biologist living in southern California, USA. My passion is wildlife conservation - with a special interest in birds. I think this project is a great opportunity to do some valuable work for conservation. It is so important to get all of this historical data available to the general public - get it out there where it can be used! Its also very interesting looking at some of these specimens - some over 100 years old. I just hope that someone will be looking at my work 100 years from now and finding it valuable

Anyway, that's a little about me. You can find out a bit more about my bird work on my web site: http://conservebirdhabitat.com

It would be great to hear from others!

Take Care,
Chris

[rudolfthered]

I read about this site in The Economist.

They had a special technology section in the 12/8 issue and herbaria@home was mentioned in an article about this type of user and institution relationship. It made me curious and here I am.

I am a Land Surveyor by trade and have always been facinated with old documents, mainly maps. Reading and trying to decipher 100+ year old handwriting is fun and interesting for me. I am glad ya'll are are here with me sharing this 21st century experience.

I love the internet.

~James Crupi
Cottonwood, CA, USA

[hallucigenia]

Dear All
I am retired to Lot, Midi-Pyrenees, France some six years ago.
A part of my working life was spent in some form of gardening/plants and having lived in the 'garden of England' for forty years plants were part of my environment.
I also studied Geology at the open many years ago so I guess I must have an affinity for the natural sciences.
I must say I find this work really interesting and cringe when I remember my hasty field note book scribbles in the rain and wind of Northumberland and Durham, at least nobody will read them in 100 years time.
I may even try my hand at collecting specimens and preserving myself.
Hallucigenia, France.

[alex lockton]

Just read the above comments and found them really interesting. So here's me: I'm coordinator of the Botanical Society of the British Isles, with the wonderful job of trying to make botanists collaborate to do things much bigger than any one person or organisation could hope to do alone. For years I've supported, encouraged and paid for digitization of herbaria, which has been the most horribly slow and inefficient process. When HatH came along, it was immediately apparent to me that it was infinitely better (and cheaper) than anything else, so I'm a big fan. Every time someone digitizes a specimen from Shropshire (my home county), I dial up to it and check the details are correct. Then it will, one day, appear in a new Flora of Shropshire. So thanks to everyone who takes contributes. I, for one, really do use this information.

[dawn nelson]

I am a amateur botanist living in Sussex near the Hampshire & Surrey borders and am doing this for 2 main reasons.
One is to get as many records of plants in Sussex into our new up coming Flora of Sussex. The other is to learn more about distribution and plants I haven't come across in the flesh. I may revisit some of the sites to try to refind the plants too.
It's good to become more familiar with the botanists of the past by seeing their specimens and comments. It also makes me very conscious of keeping my own records in better shape.