Shenandoah University | Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning

Identifiers Needed!

Do you enjoy using your expertise and training to identify plant, animal, and fungi specimens in photographs? We need volunteers to help us review Bioblitz results from Shenandoah University’s River Campus at Cool Spring Battlefield.

On September 26, 2026, from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM, volunteers from our chapter and the University will gather to photograph animals and plants and upload their observations to iNaturalist. While they may make initial IDs, best practices recommend that we take responsibility for ensuring all observations are identified to the lowest accurate taxonomic level. 

You need not be able to identify observations to the level of genus or species. For example, an observation without an identification (“Unknown”) can be assigned to Kingdom Plantae or Class Insecta as appropriate, which will help other identifiers find and identify the observation. But you should be able to back up your identifications with evidence and not have to rely on suggestions supplied by the iNaturalist software.

How to Help

Registered volunteers can log into iNaturalist any time between Saturday, September 26, 12:00 PM and Sunday, October 4, 11:59 PM to review observations and assign them to taxa.

We will provide:

• Instructions for joining our Cool Spring project in iNaturalist.
• Identification tips drawing from iNaturalist’s best practices.
• Access to an online “chat space” for questions and support during the identification period (staffed Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM).

Questions? Contact Hilary Sortor, hilary.sortor@su.edu