Why does NAFHA exist?

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jonathan
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Why does NAFHA exist?

Post by jonathan »

A few months ago, someone posed the question “Why does NAFHA exist?” It was a good question. NAFHA has had an impact on me, and I wanted to respond. But this is not a definitive answer, so if anyone disagrees or has additional points, I would love affirmation and/or pushback.

NAFHA is where I got connected to the herping world. Brian Eager sent me here after I asked a question about some Utah lizards and wanted to find a place where I could learn about herping in California. The NAFHA forums were where I learned herping techniques and how I could make a meaningful contribution to herpetology. I'd loved herps for over 20 years, but I'd never known another herper besides my father until Brian told me about these forums.

NAFHA was a place where I could get to know other regional herpers, we could learn about each other, learn (to an imperfect degree) whether we could trust each other, and go on herping outings together. I've been herping in five states with NAFHA herpers, all of whom I met on the forums, and have been invited on trips all over the country. The combined national and regional reach of NAFHA has allowed that to happen in a manner that no regional group could.

I think that NAFHA is one of the best places for new herpers to learn the ropes. Not only to learn herping techniques and herp identification, but to learn ethical and responsible herping.

The NAHERP database was born out of NAFHA, and with nearly 200,000 records and over 60 database requests already, I believe it has a profound impact. NAHERP is now its own nonprofit entity and is not a part of NAFHA. But NAFHA remains a vital way of spreading the word about NAHERP to new people, reminding people about NAHERP's existence and importance, and give new information about NAHERP regarding changes in the database and new data requests.

NAFHA has done some fantastic surveys together. The Tejon Ranch project in California (resulting in a number of range extensions and helping the Tejon Ranch Conservancy secure a $15.8 million grant for over 100,000 acres of new land) is one big success story. But there have also been meaningful ongoing survey projects by NAFHA members in Arizona, Louisiana, NorCal, SoCal, and many other regions, as well as one-off surveys all over the country. Over 25 different regions have been surveyed by NAFHA members.

NAFHA also has been a means of organizing neat education projects – Desoto State Park, Grassy Hollow Visitor Center, City of Scottsdale, Orange County State Parks, school groups, and booths set up at multiple herp shows.

NAFHA forums have been a networking place to share information about current events – new laws, major issues that affect herps and herping, etc. - as well as a place to find out how to get involved, such as herp-related job opportunities, government surveys, and invasive species removal projects.

Finally, NAFHA has been the best place I've ever seen for different parts of the herping community to keep in touch. Young teenage herpers and experienced field herpers and herp-focused scientists all post here. And there's been real collaboration between herpers and government, which I think is something that needs to increase going forward if we're going to have any meaningful herp conservation and sensible herping laws.
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jonathan
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Re: Why does NAFHA exist?

Post by jonathan »

Of course, for any of these points to be meaningful, we have to keep doing them and figure out how to do them better. Learn how to be a more helpful and healthy community together, have even more education and survey projects and outings together, do a better job regarding spreading the word about NAFHA and building partnerships with other herp-focused entities, etc. I think this is a platform where we can keep doing these things better and better, if we consider it worth doing.
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Don Becker
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Re: Why does NAFHA exist?

Post by Don Becker »

NAFHA is where I got connected to the herping world. Brian Eager sent me here after I asked a question about some Utah lizards and wanted to find a place where I could learn about herping in California.
You mean FHF is where you were sent. NAFHA came out of the FHF community, but even without NAFHA, you would have been able to come to the forum to ask for help.
The NAHERP database was born out of NAFHA, and with nearly 200,000 records and over 60 database requests already, I believe it has a profound impact.
Not exactly. NAFHA came out of the database. Well, they were synonymous when it started I guess. NAFHA didn't already exist and then say, "Hey! Let's start a database!". The idea for the database came up, and NAFHA was spawned as the group to base it around.
But NAFHA remains a vital way of spreading the word about NAHERP to new people, reminding people about NAHERP's existence and importance, and give new information about NAHERP regarding changes in the database and new data requests.
I think people should be spreading word about any data collection projects that exist in their area. NAFHA's purpose shouldn't only to be about spreading the word about HERP. Pennsylvania members should be letting people know about PARS, Michigan users may want to let people know about the MI Herp Atlas, people in Texas may want to talk about iNaturalist. If anything NAFHA should be promoting citizen science in general, but people can do that without NAFHA, unless NAFHA is doing it in a coordinated way and working on promotion.
Finally, NAFHA has been the best place I've ever seen for different parts of the herping community to keep in touch.
Again, that's FHF, not NAFHA. You aren't going to NAFHA.org to keep in touch with people.

I think NAFHA has a great purpose. I believe it should be promoting citizen science, doing fund raising for research, education for the public, and even getting boots on the ground to provide some labor for habitat restoration work. I don't believe those are things that most people would be on board with though. If NAFHA arranged a field trip to Iowa so we could survey some land that's never been surveyed, how many people do you think would show up to help? How many people would blow off the trip because it's in Iowa, even though we need the help for conservation reasons? How about fund raising? People have been telling me for years that they wanted to donate to help fund the database. I've turned it all down because I didn't want to be accused of spending the money in the wrong way. I asked for donations on Facebook over the summer to help support a research team in my area, a few people pitched in, but no where near as many as those who have said they wanted to help over the years. Lot's of people liked the posts and shared it, but that doesn't really help much. As I said in a different post somewhere, it is easy to contribute data to HERP, because going out and herping is something we were all doing anyways, and something we all enjoyed doing. I think if NAFHA is going to continue to exist, they need to do more for the herps we all enjoy.
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jonathan
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Re: Why does NAFHA exist?

Post by jonathan »

Thanks a lot for the feedback Don, this is exactly what I am looking for.

Before I engage with your individual points, I would agree with your main point wholeheartedly - NAFHA needs to do more. As you say, "promoting citizen science, doing fund raising for research, education for the public, and even getting boots on the ground to provide some labor for habitat restoration work." I don't know how much you follow the California or the Northwest boards, but those are the chapters I'm involved with and I see those things happening. For instance, NAFHA in California has been used to spread the word about the Cal Roadkill Database (CROS), and as a result several NAFHA members became the largest CROS contributors in southern Califronia. At this very moment NAFHA is working to assist a trout removal effort in the San Gabriels to benefit endangered yellow-legged frogs. Earlier this year we've talked about how we could work to address specific habitat threats to endangered arroyo toads (San Bernardino Mountains) and alameda whipsnakes (Oakland). But a lot more of those sorts of things could be done, both in California and in every chapter.


Don Becker wrote:
NAFHA is where I got connected to the herping world. Brian Eager sent me here after I asked a question about some Utah lizards and wanted to find a place where I could learn about herping in California.
You mean FHF is where you were sent. NAFHA came out of the FHF community, but even without NAFHA, you would have been able to come to the forum to ask for help.
But I was looking for a place where I could specifically ask questions and engage about California and local knowledge. Now, of course, I can't say I know what FHF would look like without NAFHA. But the main FHF has always seem to hold a different purpose and a different atmospher than the NAFHA chapter forums. I'm not sure Brian Eagar would have sent me here when I specifically asked about California if there wasn't for the NAFHA structure. I think many people would be uncomfortable asking the kind of simple questions we ask and dinky little trip reports we make on the local forums if we were doing it on the main forum, which is more often a place for fantastic photography and big international herping trips.


Don Becker wrote:
The NAHERP database was born out of NAFHA, and with nearly 200,000 records and over 60 database requests already, I believe it has a profound impact.
Not exactly. NAFHA came out of the database. Well, they were synonymous when it started I guess. NAFHA didn't already exist and then say, "Hey! Let's start a database!". The idea for the database came up, and NAFHA was spawned as the group to base it around.
Yes, simultaneously, I should have made that clearer.


Don Becker wrote:
But NAFHA remains a vital way of spreading the word about NAHERP to new people, reminding people about NAHERP's existence and importance, and give new information about NAHERP regarding changes in the database and new data requests.
I think people should be spreading word about any data collection projects that exist in their area. NAFHA's purpose shouldn't only to be about spreading the word about HERP. Pennsylvania members should be letting people know about PARS, Michigan users may want to let people know about the MI Herp Atlas, people in Texas may want to talk about iNaturalist. If anything NAFHA should be promoting citizen science in general, but people can do that without NAFHA, unless NAFHA is doing it in a coordinated way and working on promotion.
Yes, I agree, citizen science in general. This has already been happening, with NAFHA members sharing about PARS, CROS, and all sorts of herp atlases and working in a unified manner to promote and contribute to them. But we can do more.


Don Becker wrote:
Finally, NAFHA has been the best place I've ever seen for different parts of the herping community to keep in touch.
Again, that's FHF, not NAFHA. You aren't going to NAFHA.org to keep in touch with people.
But here I'm really not specifically talking about FHF. I'm talking about the whole community - which interacts through the forums, emails, phone calls, regular surveys and outings, database requests, etc. If NAFHA disappeared and just the FHF was left here, I think that large components of the community (like the ones who are data-focused, or not particularly interested in trip reports and photography, or not internet-focused) would get much less contact with the other members that remained involved in the online FHF world.


Don Becker wrote:I think NAFHA has a great purpose. I believe it should be promoting citizen science, doing fund raising for research, education for the public, and even getting boots on the ground to provide some labor for habitat restoration work. I don't believe those are things that most people would be on board with though. If NAFHA arranged a field trip to Iowa so we could survey some land that's never been surveyed, how many people do you think would show up to help? How many people would blow off the trip because it's in Iowa, even though we need the help for conservation reasons? How about fund raising? People have been telling me for years that they wanted to donate to help fund the database. I've turned it all down because I didn't want to be accused of spending the money in the wrong way. I asked for donations on Facebook over the summer to help support a research team in my area, a few people pitched in, but no where near as many as those who have said they wanted to help over the years. Lot's of people liked the posts and shared it, but that doesn't really help much. As I said in a different post somewhere, it is easy to contribute data to HERP, because going out and herping is something we were all doing anyways, and something we all enjoyed doing. I think if NAFHA is going to continue to exist, they need to do more for the herps we all enjoy.
Those are good questions Don. I don't think we can know the answers until we try.

In California we've organized some surveys in some pretty random places that no one would ever consider a herping destination. In the NE you have Delmarva Peninsula, which isn't known as a herp mecca, but the survey focused on that region attracted a dozen herpers from at least half-a-dozen states. It's true that Cali and the Northeast have more herpers than Iowa, so that might make a critical mass easier, but if such a survey is going to happen then NAFHA if one of the few entities I know that might be able to pull it off. It might take some time to build up to it though - doing smaller surveys, or surveys in more exciting locales, or other kinds of events, to build member participation and interest before you start doing things that might only get a subset of that interest.

Fund raising is really hard everywhere. But the effort to fund NAHERP was organized primarily through NAFHA, and I'd say that went satisfactorily. I don't know how other people would feel about using NAFHA as a fundraising platform. But it's a thought.

As far as boots on the ground for habitat restoration, that's happening right now in the San Gabes with the California chapter. I'm sure it's happened other places. But we could do a lot more of that. I've also seen NAFHA used to get boots on the grounds for other survey efforts that weren't sponsored by NAFHA, but which were aligned with our interests.

Education for the public, like I said in the original post, is already happening via NAFHA. But a lot more good be done.

Thanks again for pointing out some of the priorities.
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Re: Why does NAFHA exist?

Post by hellihooks »

Before joining Nafha/FHF, I could count my friends on the fingers of one hand (and have a few fingers left over) Now I have what I could consider friends all over my State, the Nation, and even from Europe and other parts of the World!

Not only did my knowledge of herps and herping (didn't even KNOW you could flip for Rosys.. :roll: ) increase exponentially but I can honestly say that becoming an Officer for Nafha changed me... and markedly for the better. Not willing to risk any type of 'black eye' for Nafha... I endeavored to become 100% law-abiding, in regards to herping and my extensive collection... and did (and do). Thus... when someone made false claims about me, to my City's AC, and the City pulled a search warrent on my house... they were not able to find one single animal-related violation... but with like 40 city employees milling around my house, scratching their heads and realizing 'heads were gonna roll', if they didn't find some way to justify the warrent and take all my animals... they found a way. Long story short... cost me everything I had (and more) to get back in my house and get all my animals back. An FHF member brought it to light on FHF... and Nafha/FHF members sent me $ gifts to help me, and if not for that, I surely would have lost my home.

I fully support (and do) all the things I can, that are Nafha related... and not trying to downplay any of them, but rather share my story as an example of how special the sense of comminity and camaraderie that develops on these forums can be, and would urge everyone NOT to underestimate THAT. :beer:

On a related note... it's election time, and there seems to be this trend developing of people not wanting to hold offices. Take it from me... while it's a bit of work, and committment... you GET FAR MORE than you give, and it can (as in my case) make you a better person...I urge everyone who can, to do everything they can.. including stepping up to the plate, in a Leadership role... you won't regret it. :thumb: jim
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