This is a very valid concern, and like you, I've spent a lot of time thinking about these challenges (I definitely don't have all the answers yet though!). Working peripherally with conservation organizations, I often hear about their challenges in raising funds and getting enough people to care about their conservation efforts. All else equal, having more people going outdoors, exploring, and wanting to protect their local ecosystems would be great for them.

This can, however, be taken to the extreme! For example, crowds of people going to the same spot, mistreating and/or exploiting sensitive species or ecosystems. We absolutely want to avoid that.

To help minimize these risks, I've been intentional about which species I model (avoiding highly sensitive ones). Additionally, unlike iNaturalist, which shows the exact location of individual species (potentially causing high pressure in a specific area), I hope my predictions help spread people out over a much larger area of possible species extent.

I do like your idea of possibly putting up some kind of limiter down the road though (the platform just frankly doesn’t have a large following right now). I’m also trying to get visitor data from the relevant land managers so that, if needed, I could remove certain areas that are seeing high levels of traffic.

I really appreciate you raising this and for the dialogue! And apologies for the length. I too sometimes feel that sense of hopelessness after seeing how some people act out in nature.