Congratulations on your new project. It sounds wonderful as well as intensive.

You might want to contact your local forest service. They have botonists that may be interested as well as helpful, contact the local universities and see if they have any botanical/herbal/plant based classes that you may contact the instructor about.

Put ads in either the local newspaper or put up flyers on buletin boards advertising your project.

Consider trying to obtain grants so that you might want to make your group/organization non profit so anyone can help. It sounds like this is going or could be a major undertaking.

Good luck and would be great if you could keep us posted.. Wish I could be there to help but am too far away. (I'm at the other border LOL in Montana just south of Canada)

Contact Universities that have Ornamental Horticulture degree programs.. as a senior you are required to do an entomology study which most prepare for by collecting for the four years. They are also required to do plant identification in several classes. Both studies and collections would benefit from being involved in something like this. Good Luck Plokk D Rainbo

You might think of involving children and teens in your project, too....they will bring enthusiasm and many of them will learn a lot from the experience. Of course, you may want to bring their teachers into it, too. Especially biology teachers, etc.

You could also partner with water groups....those who have volunteered to test their local water may also be interested in the plants that grow near different water sources....

Definitely find the more environmental professors in nearby universities/colleges and talk to them about this project. Also check out University Research Centers, especially environmental research centers.

There were a few projects in the Appalachian mountains where students went to learn from the Elders. These because the "Foxfire Books."

www.foxfire.org/