In Memoriam: BJ Stacey

BJ Stacey posted his first observations to iNaturalist in October 2012 when it was a relatively new online database for posting photos of wild organisms. His death on February 24, 2022, leaves a void in the iNaturalist community. A self-avowed nature lover all his life, he had been a nature photographer for many years and became one of the most prolific observers on iNaturalist. In just nine years, he amassed over 105,000 total observations under his username “finatic.” He contributed over 15,000 plant observations to the San Diego County Plant Atlas Project on iNaturalist. In 2015, he posted an observation of a plant, later identified by Jon Rebman as Arctotheca prostrata, an invasive plant that was not known to be naturalized in San Diego County. At Jon’s request, BJ graciously provided a specimen (https://sdplantatlas.org/StarZoomPA/HiResSynopticSZ.aspx?H=257940) of the plant for the herbarium at the San Diego Natural History Museum providing critical documentation of its presence in the county. BJ was a major contributor to the San Diego City Nature Challenge and the Border Bioblitz each year, usually placing first in both number of observations and number of species observed. In 2018, BJ spoke to an auditorium full of naturalists at the San Diego Natural History Museum about using citizen science platforms such as iNaturalist. BJ made many other contributions and will be missed greatly by the local naturalist community.

Posted on 15 de março de 2022, 08:49 PM by milliebasden