May 6, 2010
Scrutinize arboretum’s plants, critters, crawlies as part of city’s first ‘bioblitz’
Seattle’s first-ever “bioblitz” gets under way this month, and naturalists, kayakers and other volunteers are needed to look for as many birds, plants, lichens, spiders, mollusks, frogs and other species as possible in the Washington Park Arboretum during a single 24-hour period.
Arboretum BioBlitz 2010 organizers are hoping that UW faculty, staff, students and other experienced naturalists will serve as team leaders and make the final decisions on species’ identification during the event.
Volunteers are being sought for shifts starting at 3 p.m. Friday, May 21, through Saturday afternoon, May 22. You can sign up for one or more of the three-hour shifts or volunteer for the entire event. You can even bring your sleeping bag and bed down at the arboretum’s visitor center Friday night. Kids, middle-school-age or older, may participate with their parents.
With funding from the Washington Park Arboretum Foundation, the arboretum’s bioblitz is being sponsored by the UW Botanic Gardens and the UW-based NatureMapping program.
The activities coincide with the International Day of Biodiversity, May 22, as declared by the United Nations.
Nobody has ever conducted a bioblitz in Seattle before, say organizers Sarah Reichard, UW associate professor of forest resources, and Karen Dvornich, forest resources staff member and director of the NatureMapping program.
The term bioblitz emerged more than 10 years ago, Reichard says, and has come to mean a field study by scientists and volunteers, usually conducted over an intense 24-hour period, in order to record all the species in a given area. Volunteers will converge first on the wilder areas of the arboretum: Foster Island, Duck Bay, which one passes on the way to Foster Island, and Arborteum Creek, which runs, ditch-like along Lake Washington Boulevard. The arboretum includes a collection of trees and plants from around the world, all of which have been cataloged, so that work won’t be repeated, Reichard says. Instead, the kinds of plants being identified will include weeds, native plants and invasives. The kinds of insects, fish, birds and other animals using the plants and waterways also will be surveyed.
Bioblitzes are conducted over 24 hours because different organisms are likely to be found at different times of day. For example, teams for the late-evening session, 9 p.m. to midnight May 21, may take bat walks or be issued large spotlights to assess night insect populations, Reichard says.
One member per team will be issued a pocket PC equipped with a GPS unit that links the device to the global positioning system, to record what and where species are seen. Those so-called NatureTrackers need to attend a free two-hour training session May 7, 12 or 19 if not already trained on how to use the handheld devices.
The devices are part of a system developed for the NatureMapping program to readily download data to a computer. Within an hour, participants start seeing what’s been collected, Dvornich says. Dvornich has helped volunteers conduct NatureMapping-related bioblitzes in places ranging from Gig Harbor and the city of Roy in Pierce County to Central Park in New York City. NatureMapping is a program that relies on school children, birders, farmers and other volunteers to collect data about wildlife they see to help communities protect biodiversity.
The last day of the event, May 22, from 1 to 3 p.m., team members and the public are invited to the Visitor Center to learn about any surprising finds and see the tally of species.
