<div dir="ltr"><font color="#0000ff">Please see below from Crystal Valenzuela, the Community Engagement Coordinator for Louis Robidoux Parkland & Pecan Grove. They are looking for help with iNat IDs and  "use these observations to help inform habitat restoration efforts" -- so a very worthy cause. Thanks! </font><br><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">---------- Forwarded message ---------<br>From: <strong class="gmail_sendername" dir="auto">Crystal Valenzuela</strong> <span dir="auto"><<a href="mailto:cvalenzuela@iercd.org">cvalenzuela@iercd.org</a>></span><br>Date: Mon, Jun 15, 2026 at 9:41 AM<br>Subject: Insect ID Practice for Students<br>To: Christiane Weirauch <<a href="mailto:christiane.weirauch@ucr.edu">christiane.weirauch@ucr.edu</a>>, John Heraty <<a href="mailto:heraty@ucr.edu">heraty@ucr.edu</a>><br>Cc: Aaron Echols <<a href="mailto:aechols@iercd.org">aechols@iercd.org</a>><br></div><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div>Hello Christiane and John, </div><div><br></div><div>I hope you're doing well! I wanted to reach out because I think there may be an opportunity for a mutually beneficial collaboration. Recently, IERCD staff, volunteers, and community members have contributed a large number of observations to our iNaturalist project documenting biodiversity at the Louis Robidoux Parkland & Pecan Grove. As our observations have grown, we've accumulated quite a few photos of bees and other pollinator insects that could benefit from more expert identification. </div><div><br></div>I was wondering if you, your students, or anyone in the UCR Entomology community might be interested in taking a look at the project and suggesting IDs for some of the observations. Even a handful of identifications would be incredibly helpful! Our Restoration Ecologist, Aaron (cc'd here), has contributed a huge collection of bee photos. We suspect his observations alone represent dozens of bee species. Many observations are currently identified only to family or genus, and we would love to improve our understanding of the native pollinators using the site.<div><br></div><div>Other than being a growing species catalog of everything we've documented on site, we use these observations to help inform habitat restoration efforts, evaluate the effectiveness of pollinator plantings, support public education programs, and engage community members in community science. Better identifications would help us tell a more complete story about the biodiversity our restoration work is supporting. It could also be a fun opportunity for students to practice identification skills while contributing to a local dataset and helping answer real-world conservation questions! </div><div><br></div><div>You can view the project <a href="https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=lrppg-species-inventory&subview=table&verifiable=any&iconic_taxa=Arachnida,Insecta" target="_blank">here</a>. I've filtered it down to insects and arachnids.Thank you for considering it, and please feel free to share the project with any students or colleagues who might be interested! We would greatly appreciate any help the UCR Entomology community is willing to provide. </div><div><br></div><div>Sincerely, </div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="color:rgb(255,255,255);line-height:0px;font-size:1px;border-spacing:0px;margin:0px;border-collapse:collapse;width:500px;padding:0px!important"><tbody><tr><td style="padding:0px!important"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="line-height:0px;border-spacing:0px;margin:0px;border-collapse:collapse;padding:0px!important"><tbody><tr><td width="102" style="padding-right:10px"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="line-height:0px;border-spacing:0px;margin:0px;border-collapse:collapse;padding:0px!important"><tbody><tr><td style="border-collapse:collapse;line-height:0px;padding:0px!important"><p style="margin:0.04px"><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.iercd.org/" style="font-size:0px;line-height:0px" target="_blank"><img height="150" width="102" alt="image" border="0" src="https://img2.gimm.io/2b66b75b-65f9-43f8-8cf6-2986260749ea/-/crop/1286x1879/396,109/-/preview/-/resize/204x300/img.png" style="max-width:100%"></a></p></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td style="border-collapse:collapse;background-color:rgb(46,158,196);width:2px;vertical-align:super;padding:0px!important"></td><td style="border-collapse:collapse;padding-right:10px"></td><td style="padding:0px!important"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="line-height:0px;border-spacing:0px;margin:0px;border-collapse:collapse;padding:0px!important"><tbody><tr><td style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;font-size:20px;line-height:22px;font-weight:700;padding:0px!important"><p style="margin:0.04px"><span style="line-height:22px;color:rgb(138,193,7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</div><div><br clear="all"></div><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><a name="SignatureSanitizer_SafeHtmlFilter_UNIQUE_ID_SafeHtmlFilter_UNIQUE_ID_SafeHtmlFilter_UNIQUE_ID_SafeHtmlFilter__MailAutoSig" style="font-size:12.8px"><font color="#000000" size="1"><font face="Arial, sans-serif">C</font><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">hristiane Weirauch</font></font></a><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:x-small">Professor & Chair</span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:x-small">Department of Entomology</span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:x-small">University of California, Riverside</span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:x-small"> </span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:x-small">Ph: 951-827-5707 (Office)</span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:x-small">Email: </span><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="1"><a href="mailto:christiane.weirauch@ucr.edu" target="_blank">christiane.weirauch@ucr.edu</a></font><div><a href="https://profiles.ucr.edu/christiane.weirauch" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:x-small" target="_blank">https://profiles.ucr.edu/christiane.weirauch</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:x-small"> </span><font color="#000000" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="1"><a href="mailto:christiane.weirauch@ucr.edu" target="_blank"><br></a></font><br></div></div></div></div>