Welcome to the WOW newsletter

Winter 2019
 

Hello Australian orchid community!

Thank you for your interest in the Wild Orchid Watch project. The team at The University of Adelaide has been busy getting everything ready for the release of the app. We hope you enjoy this update.
 

Building the WOW App

The WOW technical team, based at The University of Adelaide, are in the final stages of building the Wild Orchid Watch app.

Orchid data, collected using the WOW app, will be stored and shared on the iNaturalist platform. By using iNaturalist, a joint initiative of the Californian Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, we are building upon 10 years of program development and citizen science expertise. iNaturalist is an open source system and WOW tech staff are collaborating with the developer community to deliver a robust and feature-rich solution to Australian native orchid enthusiasts and scientists. An open source system means that other citizen science projects can benefit from our efforts in the future.

The WOW project will also accept, store and share historical orchid sighting information. Many thousands of historical observations from local orchid enthusiast groups have been collected, and WOW will provide a place for them to be collated and preserved. Submission of historical sighting data will be via an online template.

Orchid photos uploaded using the WOW app will be identified by the citizen scientist community. Orchid specialists will be able to comment on identifications, which will improve the overall quality of the collected data. Scientists and data managers can apply to access WOW data, connecting them to the wealth of knowledge and expertise in the Australian orchid enthusiast community.

The app will be ready for testing soon, and we will let you know how to install it on your mobile device.
 

Wild Orchid Watch Video

We are producing a video to explain the Wild Orchid Watch project and let people know how to get involved.

Key messages from the video:       

  • WOW brings together grassroots activities by individual orchid enthusiasts and orchid societies across Australia.

  • WOW will provide a tool to capture new sightings in a fast and automated way.

  • WOW will provide guardianship of historical data; a safe, secure and sensitively managed repository.

  • The WOW project will be handed over to the orchid community once it is functioning well. The technology is being created with this in mind, to ensure that transfer is a straightforward process.

  • WOW aims to connect data collectors (orchid societies and individual orchid enthusiasts) with data users (research scientists and land managers).

Filming for the WOW video has been completed on site at Morialta Conservation Park, the State Herbarium of SA and The Waite campus of the University of Adelaide.

The videos are now in post production and we can’t wait to share them with you soon. Distribution will be online via our Facebook page.
 

Orchid Conservation Symposium

In June, WOW team members spent an enjoyable two days at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria for the Orchid Conservation Symposium. Thank you to the organisers who brought together a large and diverse group of orchid-loving people from across Australia. The presentations were inspiring and informative, and tours of The National Herbarium of Victoria and Cranbourne Botanic Gardens were also excellent.

Great to meet so many fellow native orchid enthusiasts and scientists!
 

Sensitive Species

A key feature of the Wild Orchid Watch app is the collection of orchid location data. Location information will be stored securely, and the location of orchids considered sensitive (i.e. threatened/priority/at risk from exploitation) will not be published for public viewing.

The Wild Orchid Watch Sensitive Species Guidelines were developed in consultation with academic and state government threatened species ecologists and data managers. You can read the guidelines on our website here.
 

WOW Orchid Walk - Morialta Conservation Park

On Saturday 7th September 2019, as part of National Science Week celebrations, WOW will host an orchid walk at Moores Road, Morialta Conservation Park, SA.

We invite orchid enthusiasts to come along, join members of the Native Orchid Society of South Australia (NOSSA), and learn more about Australian native orchids.

This is also an opportunity to help us test the new WOW app.

For more information or to book, please contact info@wildorchidwatch.org
 

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