Volunteer monitoring groups and youth educators seldom have access to taxonomic guides that meet their needs. General keys cover all taxa from broad regions and include complex terminology with too much detail for successful use by non-professionals. Existing volunteer monitoring guides are often too simple, misleading or not regionally specific. We have developed a model for site-specific picture keys, in digital format, that allow users to point and click their way from a statewide photo, to a watershed, stream, and sample site. The taxonomic picture key is developed in user-friendly format that provides photos of whole organisms and key characteristics for easy identification.
Current photos are accessible to map changing land-use practices and geomorphic pattern change.
These data provide an active physical and natural history of the site, stream, and watershed.