The most important thing that everyone hiking in the Bay Area needs to know, as unromantic as it sounds, is ….
How to identify poison oak.
Because from personal experience, I can pretty much guarantee a full month of suffering if you accidentally step in a patch. Oh, on paper it sounds easy enough. “Leaves in clusters of three that resemble oak” But on the trail, how’s that work out?
Poison oak can grow as ground cover, bushes or vines that climb high up host trees, and the oakishness of the leaves is up for personal interpretation, as there’s a lot of variance depending on the exact environment the poison oak is growing in. Its foliage can stand out, like in the fall when it turns a spectacular red, or become invisible in the winter when all the leaves fall, and not much more is visible than clusters of bare twigs (which are still very much capable of smearing their irritant oils on unwary passersby).
It’s almost easier to point out the plants that aren’t poison oak. I’ve seen folks mis-identify a variety of unrelated plants, such as wild blackberry or nettles as poison oak, and it’s fairly simple to point out definitively disqualifying traits (if it’s prickly, it ain’t poison oak).
I’d like to imagine our Project Humboldt app inspiring a wave of naturalists to understand the bay area’s ecosystems at a much deeper level. But, if I’m being honest, its greatest potential may well be to answer the fundamental question, “Hey, is that poison oak?”
There are worse contributions to be made to humanity.