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Great Smoky Mountains National Park / Southern Appalachians: collection only where legal

Wild fungi biodiversity documentation (FunDiS protocol) — Southern Appalachians / Great Smoky Mountains.

Photograph a wild mushroom find in the Great Smoky Mountains / Southern Appalachians using the FunDiS protocol wherever collecting is legal. Read all of it

Not funded yet. Settles as earned credit, $140 proposed.

Claim this job

Proof it takes, the deadline, the level
  • ProofFull diagnostic photo set: cap, underside, stipe, base, substrate, habitat + Field Data Slip completed with date, location, habitat + Spore print taken where feasible + Uploaded to iNaturalist or Mushroom Observer under the FunDiS project + Zero edibility statements anywhere in the record
  • Open until2027-01-22
  • Levelentry
All of it: the words, the place, the proof

Photograph a wild mushroom find in the Great Smoky Mountains / Southern Appalachians using the FunDiS protocol wherever collecting is legal. Discover Life in America's MycoBlitz community-science surveys at Twin Creeks in Great Smoky Mountains National Park have already shown how much this ground still hides: the October 2023 event alone turned up 16 fungi species never before recorded in the park, 10 of them undescribed by science, including one confirmed new species, the webcap mushroom Cortinarius sp. 'TN02' (Smokies LIVE / Discover Life in America, 'Decoding fungi diversity in the Smokies'). The park has catalogued roughly 4,000 fungi species against an estimated 17,000 or more likely present, so most of this region's fungal diversity remains undocumented in any scientifically useful form.

Offer to pay $140. The receipt lands onchain once the proof is approved.

What it looks like
A citizen scientist photographs a wild mushroom's cap, underside and stipe at the site, takes a spore print, and uploads the observation to iNaturalist without ever naming it edible.

A description of this kind of work, not a record that it happened here.

Where
Great Smoky Mountains National Park / Southern Appalachians: collection only where legal. Open the map
Pay
$140 proposed

This job is not funded yet, so this figure is a proposed price, not money held for the worker. If a buyer funds it, approved proof settles that price onchain. If nobody funds it, approved proof earns provable credit toward the work instead of cash: recorded, and readable any time at vealth.net/labor/credit/(your wallet). You see which before you claim, never after.

Proof
Full diagnostic photo set: cap, underside, stipe, base, substrate, habitat + Field Data Slip completed with date, location, habitat + Spore print taken where feasible + Uploaded to iNaturalist or Mushroom Observer under the FunDiS project + Zero edibility statements anywhere in the record

This is exactly what gets it approved. Nothing settles without it.

Level
entry: anyone can start here
Open until
2027-01-22
Posted by
0x034F…6c89

The creator wallet. Its signature is what approves proof and settles the wage.

Safety, read before you claim

No special training is needed to document a find, but never make any edibility determination, and identification for eating is expert mycologist work only. Suspected mushroom ingestion or poisoning is a poison control emergency: call 1-800-222-1222 (US) now and keep a sample for identification.

The full safety list for this job:

  • Route any 'is this safe to eat' question to a local mycological society, such as the Asheville Mushroom Club (a NAMA-affiliated club serving western North Carolina and the Smokies) or another NAMA-affiliated Southern Appalachian club, and even then this library takes no position.
  • Even a species newly confirmed to science, like Cortinarius sp. 'TN02' from the 2023 MycoBlitz, carries no edibility information from that discovery alone — new-to-science status says nothing about safety.
  • Save a photographed and physical sample in a paper bag, not plastic, for expert identification.
  • Collect only where legal, and never handle or ingest anything based on this packet's documentation.
How this work is done

How this work is done

A documented method, so this packet comes out the same whoever does it.

Bring

  • camera with macro capability
  • small mirror or white card (for gill/pore backgrounds)
  • knife or trowel (for careful excavation of the base)
  • wax paper or foil and a cup (for spore print)
  • notebook or Field Data Slip
  • smartphone with iNaturalist or Mushroom Observer app

Steps

  1. 1. Confirm collection is legal at the site; if the site prohibits removal, plan to document in place with photographs only.
  2. 2. Locate the fruiting body and photograph it in its habitat and substrate context before touching it.
  3. 3. If collection is legal, carefully excavate the full specimen including the base and any underground attachment, minimizing damage.
  4. 4. Photograph the full diagnostic set: cap (top and profile), the underside surface (gills, pores, or teeth), the stipe, the base/attachment, the substrate, and the surrounding habitat.
  5. 5. Where feasible without damaging the specimen, cut the stipe and place the cap gill/pore-side down on wax paper or foil, covered with a cup, for several hours to take a spore print.
  6. 6. Complete a Field Data Slip (or equivalent) recording date, precise GPS location, substrate, and habitat.
  7. 7. Where FunDiS supports it for the target group and location, prepare a dried-tissue voucher for DNA barcoding and herbarium/fungarium deposit per the FunDiS collection protocol.
  8. 8. Upload the full photo set, spore print description, and Field Data Slip to iNaturalist or Mushroom Observer under the FunDiS project for triager and expert-identifier review.
  9. 9. Never state or imply an edibility conclusion anywhere in the record.

What counts as done

  • Diagnostic photo set present: cap, underside (gills/pores/teeth), stipe, base, substrate, and habitat
  • Field Data Slip or equivalent completed with date, precise location, and habitat
  • Spore print taken and recorded where feasible without damaging the specimen
  • Observation uploaded to iNaturalist or Mushroom Observer under the FunDiS project
  • No edibility conclusion, statement, or recommendation anywhere in the record

Proof is measured against these, not judged by taste.

What is promised, and what is not

Three separate acts, never one: a vote is a free signed preference that moves no money; a pledge is free signed backing intent, balance-checked, that moves no money and never marks the packet funded; funding is a real payment, made by the payer straight to the worker, with no Vealth fee. Paying Vealth is closed: Vealth takes no new card or wallet payment for a job. To fund a job, offer to pay the worker directly, then pay them yourself when you accept the proof, from your own wallet or by your own card or bank. From a wallet: prepare_token_offer, sign, submit_token_offer; after the proof is accepted you pay the worker on chain and the worker records it (prepare_token_settlement, or POST /labor/settle for USDC on Base). By card or bank: prepare_direct_offer, sign, submit_direct_offer; you pay the worker yourself and the worker records it with prepare_direct_settlement. Both are free, need no gas, and move no money through Vealth.

Claiming is free. You sign to prove the wallet is yours: no card, no deposit, no fee. Vote, Pledge and Fund are three separate acts: a vote is a free preference, a pledge is free signed backing intent that moves no money, and funding is a real payment.

An agent can claim this for you with one call to POST /labor/claim, documented at /llms.txt.

Every stage this packet actually passes, claim to settlement, is public in its receipt trail. A stage that has not happened is not claimed.

Posted pay is not paid pay: settlement follows accepted proof, never the other way around. Vealth does not employ or vet workers, and claiming is not a promise of payment. See how proof and receipts work.

Other acts: vote, pledge, fund
Vote for it, free Pledge backing, free

Packet WORK_1790209824330_45g12mw