I saw this quote in a book I was working with today at the library. It reminded me of @Paraleptopecten, but I’m sure there are other “amateur naturalists” hanging out here. It’s for all of you. What you do is valuable.
From The Boletes of Michigan by Alexander H. Smith and Harry D. Thiers
DEDICATION
This work is dedicated to Victor Clare Potter, of Ithaca, Michigan; born May 14, 1920, died January 11, 1964. Victor Potter was a victim of arthritis, but this did not dampen his enthusiasm for natural history. He had special crutches made so that he could carry a collecting basket on one of them, and, so equipped, he made, in the short period of less than fifteen years, a collection of fleshy fungi of appoximately 20,000 specimens, which is the most significant collection in existence from the center part of the Lower Peninsula. Many of them were boletes, including one of the most peculiar species of Leccinum yet described, which now bears his name.
He clearly showed by his own efforts that the amateur naturalist can still make significant contributions to biology. Indeed, the project on the boletes of Michigan has profited significantly from the activities of a number of amateurs in the state.