Method
How an edition is made
Four rules decide what goes into a guide. They are built into how the guide is made, so a claim without its evidence can’t get in.
1. Dates are slots
Every date, weather station, distance and percentile in an edition is a slot, filled from a sourced record: a state wildlife agency, a dated sighting, a weather record. The source is printed beside it, with how many years the record covers. Where no record exists, the guide says “no record found” instead of guessing. Nobody types a date into the text.
2. Two sources for every plant
A plant goes on an edition’s list only when two institutions, such as a state agency, a university extension service or a native plant society, both support it for that area. We quote them. Nurseries are used only to say where a plant can be bought.
3. Plates are reviewed before they ship
The plates are drawn with AI assistance (ChatGPT), from written specifications of what each part should look like, and each drawing is checked against its specification: the number of legs, the bands, the shape of a leaf. Looking right and being right are different tests, so every plate that identifies a living thing is also reviewed by a lepidopterist or a horticulturist before the guide ships. Until then it carries the note “Draft, awaiting expert review”. Maps, layout diagrams and bloom calendars don’t identify living things and aren’t held for review.
The photo-style pictures on the site are generated images, not photographs, and each one says so in its caption.
4. Honest urgency only
The only deadline we mention is the plant’s: when milkweed needs to go in the ground to be ready for the monarchs. There are no countdown timers, and nothing is “almost gone”.
How the finder decides
The finder turns your ZIP code into a county using Census files, then looks the county up in our table of where monarchs breed, pass through, live all year or are rarely seen. Each county’s row names its sources and how sure we are. Where a source doesn’t draw a line inside a state, the county keeps the state’s general answer and is marked for review. Every answer shows a “Why we say this” line with its source.
When we get something wrong
We fix it and log it, with the date, on the corrections page. Tell us at hello@hometownfieldguides.com.