Wikipedia:GLAM/AoWPAL 2024/Cass

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Cass • 16–26 January 2024

The Cass railway station, subject of a famous painting by Rita Angus.

The Cass Field Station near the tiny settlement of Cass, New Zealand, is situated on 1775 ha of high country land and has been operated by the University of Canterbury for research and education purposes since 1914. For decades students have taken part in an annual field trip at the Field Station, where they learn about local botany and ecology. In January 2024 a Wikipedian will be accompanying this group—very likely the world's first-ever Wikipedian in Residence on a biology field trip. As well as enriching Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons content about the history and botany of the area, I will be teaching students how to upload photos to WikiCommons and iNaturalist under an open licence.

To do

Cass

• Improve Cass, New Zealand ✓
• Improve Cass (painting) (especially with photographs) ✓
• Improve Thomas Cass (surveyor)
• Create Cass Field Station ✓
• Improve articles for half-a-dozen species on the students' spot identification list, including photos ✓
• Create articles for spot identification species that lack them
• Add photos and Wikidata for surrounding landscape ✓
• Add Cass-related biology publications to Wikidata and create a visualisation

Species articles to create/improve

Species	Quality	Photos	Notes
Aciphylla subflabellata	– →	0 → 4	Created, added photos from iNaturalist
Ozothamnus leptophyllus	→	4 →	Needs heavy copy-editing
Acrothamnus colensoi	→	1 → 5	Rewrote with more refs, added cropped photo gallery
Discaria toumatou	→	1 →
Veronica brachysiphon	– →	0 → 2	Created, added my own photos
Celmisia spectabilis	→	1 → 5	Rewrote with more refs incl. Gosden books, photos from iNat
Coprosma propinqua	→	1 → 5	Expanded, and added photos from iNat

Done

• 

  Field Station accommodation block

  Took photos all around the field station buildings before any students and vehicles arrived, and uploaded them to the new Category:Cass Field Station. Added an image to Cass Field Station (Q117789585).
• Created Cass Station (Q124301969) and Category:Cass Station, and added properties to the painting Cass (Q122611500).
• Added photos of Cass, The Pyramid Peak (Q31686776), Baldy Hill (Q31688212), Mount Horrible (Q31688148), Mount Misery (Q31683549), Cass Hill (Q31688175), and Sugar Loaf (Q31666099), merging and improving Wikidata as needed. Created Category:Grasmere Stream for Grasmere Stream (Q32211888). Added photos of Remus (Q31688188), Goldney Saddle (Q32209505), Mount Foweraker (Q114251091), and Purple Hill (Q31673015). Photographed students and their instructor Pieter Pelser.
• Created Mountain Daisies: a guide to Celmisia in Aotearoa/New Zealand (2023) (Q124303331), newly-published by one of the instructors Jane L. Gosden (Q113712262), and created the publisher Manuka Press (Q124303335). Uploaded photos of Jane with her approval and attributed her publications in Wikidata. Used her publication on Aciphylla aurea browsing to improve the articles Aciphylla and Aciphylla aurea.
• Gave a presentation to the students on iNaturalist, Creative Commons licensing, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikipedia, including adding a photo taken yesterday to the article Acrothamnus colensoi.
• Created Cass Field Station article based on the Burrows book, and added the Rita Angus painting of the field station under Fair Use. Collected prints of the Field Station construction and student trips from the 1960s for scanning.
• Added images and improved Wikidata for Pylon Gully (Q49343169), Mount Binser (Q31691204), and Corner Knob (Q31688162). Uploaded photos of botany field trip and Lake Sarah, and created Category:Lake Sarah.
• Created list of seven species typical of Cass, and on the students' spot ID list, and created articles for Aciphylla subflabellata and Veronica brachysiphon. For each article, improved with references from NZPCN, the NZ flora, and reference books at the Field Station. Tasked students with taking photos of the diagnostic features of each species and uploading them to iNaturalist under an open licence.

• 
  An early Cass field trip
• 
  Pieter Pelser explaining plant collecting
• 
  Original field station buildings
• 
  Students collecting plants

Resources

Photo by student Hannah Gay

• Colin James Burrows, ed. (1977), Cass: history and science in the Cass district, Canterbury, New Zealand, Christchurch: University of Canterbury Department of Botany, Wikidata Q117789333
• Jane L. Gosden (December 2023). Mountain Daisies: a guide to Celmisia in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Cromwell: Manuka Press. ISBN 978-0-9583299-9-6. Wikidata Q124303331.
• William Philipson; Garth Brownlie (1958), The Flora of Cass: a list of species (excluding fungi) known from the vicinity of the Mountain Biology Station of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Christchurch: University of Canterbury Department of Botany, Wikidata Q124309027
• Laura Young; David Norton; Michelle Lambert (2016). "One hundred years of vegetation change at Cass, eastern South Island high country". New Zealand Journal of Ecology. 40 (3): 289–301. doi:10.20417/NZJECOL.40.38. ISSN 0110-6465. Wikidata Q124309018.
• Cass flora checklist (open in Safari or similar browser only)
• Cass field station information (open in Safari or similar browser only)
• 100 Years of the Cass field station (shows the Rita Angus painting and Ellen Heine photos)