data sharing/security

[Karstad-Schueler]

Michael wrote:
>
> At 03:14 PM 12/7/98 -0600, Stuart G. Poss wrote:
>
> >It is not
> >clear that in the example of the orchids you gave subsequently, that
> >it was access to website collections records that was clearly shown to
> >have made the difference.
>
>  I have no proof that access to collection data facilitated the
> orchid collection example I gave the example to illustrate that
> the collecting problem is
> real & that I have encountered it on my own casual botanical forays.

>  More of a problem may be uneducated people,
>  who on finding a database such as the one for Wisconsin
> orchids, might then find precise site data linked to the picture of
> the plant in bloom.
> I grant that most people who appreciate these plants have some care
> about their survival.  But few understand the issues effecting their
> survival, and the idea that digging and collecting plants is a form of
> conservation approaches urban legend proportion (hobbyists who wish to
> believe it resist education to the contrary).
> I do think education is required, about how even well intended visits
> and limited collecting can impact fragile species and habitats

* Another aspect this brings up is that People who learn where rare
species live from *any* compiled source: database, website, or
literature, won't understand how rare the rare species really are. They
are exploiting those of us who wander at random across the landscape,
mostly looking for commoner species, and found the rare ones at great
intervals in places where they weren't known to occur (and where,
accordingly, there was no funding to support the search!).

fred schueler
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         Eastern    Ontario    Biodiversity    Museum
                Grenville Co, Ontario, Canada
(RR#2 Oxford Station, K0G 1T0) (613)258-3107   bckcdb at istar.ca
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