National Geographic Society

The band on the main stage of the Festival is winding down, and we're already contemplating the next annual National Geographic-National Park Service BioBlitz. It's planned for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a 15,000-acre urban park accessible to Chicagoans via commuter train.

Indiana Dunes boasts 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, plentiful undulating sand dunes, swamps, prairie, and forest land.

According to Carl Sandburg, "Indiana Dunes are to the Midwest what the Grand Canyon is to the West." Costa Dylan, Superintendent of Indiana Dunes, agrees. "Did you know that there are more varieties of orchids at our park than in the state of Florida?" he asks. "I'm looking forward to adapting BioBlitz to our diverse, fragile ecosystem."

We are too. And you're invited.

Photograph by Christopher Light, courtesy National Park Service

POSTED BY EMILY LANDIS AND FORD COCHRAN/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 5:59 PM PDT

It's official: The 24-hour Santa Monica Mountains inventory has come to an end, but the party's just beginning!

Teams turned up 1,364 unique plant and animal species by noon today--more than twice the hoard volunteers ID'd in the same time at Rock Creek Park last year. More still will come in the days ahead as bio-sleuths resolve the identities of a slew of mystery species.

For now, at least, the breakdown looks like this:

Algae - 22
Amphibian - 4
Arthropod - 628
Bird - 86
Fish - 6
Lichen - 3
Mammal - 12
Marine Invertebrate - 91
Other Invertebrate - 2
Plant - 495
Reptile - 15

TOTAL - 1364

The Celebrate Biodiversity Festival's in full swing, with the Banana Slug String Band on the main stage. We'll have more updates in the hours to come, so stay tuned!

POSTED BY FORD COCHRAN/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 1:26 PM PDT

Sometimes it's hard to get kids enthused about plants when there are snakes around. "Vertebrates are cute and fuzzy, and we're vertebrates, so it's easy to relate," says plant ecologist Jocelyn Holt. Nurturing a child's sense of kinship with plants requires some effort.

Jocelyn works with the National Park Service to bring EcoHelper students from the Los Angeles Unified School District to hike, pull weeds, and replant healthy native plant species. Students get hooked on plants and keep coming back. "Sometimes I wonder if we're getting through," says Jocelyn. "It can take years, but you can tell when it really sinks in, and the students say 'Hey, I understand this! Plants are cool!'"

The Mediterranean climate that accounts for today's perfect weather also allows more than 1,200 native plant species to flourish in the Santa Monica Mountains. This natural diversity is threatened by some 70 species of prolific non-native plants.

Why does it matter? Exotic "invasives" like eucalyptus, storksbill, and horehound get a head start in the growing season, towering over native species in no time at all, shading them out of their territory and sucking up more than their share of water. Adding insult to injury, when some invasives die, they create thick mats of organic material that prevent native species from getting established. What's more, many invasives increase the rate and intensity of fires in these tinderbox hills.

Photograph of Julian McCoy with invasive mustard grass by Phil Crosby

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Native plant species identified so far: 302

Non-native plant species identified so far: 107

POSTED BY EMILY LANDIS AND FORD COCHRAN/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 11:07 AM

Students use an ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) to search for fish in Malibu Lagoon.

Photograph by Phil Crosby

POSTED BY FORD COCHRAN/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 9:17 AM PDT

The Santa Monica Mountains seems like BioBlitz central this weekend. But right now in St. Louis, Missouri, another cadre of BioBlitz field biologists, teachers, and public volunteers is hard at work documenting diversity in Forest Park. Four weeks ago, Balboa Park in San Diego, California, enjoyed the spotlight. Four weeks before that, Auckland, New Zealand, hosted a 'Blitz down under.

Wherever you live, someone may be planning a BioBlitz near you! Here are a few on the horizon:

* Montpelier, Vermont BioBlitz
* Nova Scotia BioBlitz
* Oklahoma BioBlitz
* Rhode Island BioBlitz

Photograph by Ford Cochran/NGS

POSTED BY FORD COCHRAN/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 5:20 AM PDT

It's 3:30 a.m. and quiet here at Base Camp.

There's still hot coffee--terrific news, since the temperature's down to the high 30s (Fahrenheit) and I can see every breath. A solitary National Park Service ranger still plugs away at a laptop, entering the names of observed and identified organisms into the master species database. The NG Maps crew continues to pin photos and stories to their interactive map. The night sky brims with stars and passing satellites.

Quietly in the dark, the Santa Monica Mountains BioBlitz marks a milestone: 683 logged species, more than turned up during the entire 'Blitz last year in Rock Creek Park (where at noon on Saturday the tally stood at 666). Subsequent species identifications brought that number up, but will likely do the same for the total here.

Biodiversity lives out there in the darkness, even if the very plants seem sound asleep.

Photograph by Ford Cochran

POSTED BY FORD COCHRAN/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 3:30 AM

It's midnight, the temperature's dropping fast, and we're halfway through the Santa Monica Mountains BioBlitz.

A field team just arrived at Base Camp with, in the words of one volunteer, "a pretty humongous spider. This is, like, the main event!"

Blaine Hebert of Pasadena City College, who led the spider search, isn't immediately certain what kind of spider this is. "I'm not even sure what family it's in. I've encountered three or four today that I've never collected before."

Blaine's group carries bags of small sealed plastic tubs containing wolf spiders, orb spiders, a sun spider (ironically named--they come out at night), and several varieties of daddy longlegs.

Next up? "I'm headed out now to find some scorpions."

Photograph by Mark Christmas/NGS

POSTED BY FORD COCHRAN/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 12:14 AM PDT

A two-striped garter snake, Thamnophis hammondii, found by volunteers on an expedition team led by wildlife biologists Todd and Heidi Hoggan. These snakes have evolved natural resistance to deadly toxins in the poisonous newts on which they prey.

Photograph by Heidi Hoggan, U.S. Forest Service

POSTED BY FORD COCHRAN/BIOBLITZ TEAM, 6:48 PM PDT

Saunter down the main street of Paramount Ranch and you get the odd feeling that you've been here before. That sheriff's office and the swinging door of the saloon look familiar, don't they?

Before the all-star BioBlitz team came to town, stars of a different variety filled this ageless ranch. More than 100 classic western films were shot here in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. Outlaws and lawmen settled duels in such famous titles as Gunfight at the OK Corral, Geronimo, and Gunsmoke. John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich,and Roy Rogers all worked here. More recently, "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" dispensed therapeutic wisdom from what is now the BioBlitz's First Aid building.

The National Park Service purchased the ranch and surrounding lands in 1980. When it's not reserved by Hollywood, Paramount Ranch finds fame as host to the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest, the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival, and various weddings, bar mitzvahs, and family picnics. This well-loved site lends a palpable sense of place and human history--actual and imagined--to the BioBlitz.

Photograph by Ford Cochran/NGS

POSTED BY EMILY LANDIS/BIOBLITZ TEAM, 4:52 PM PDT

Danitza, a 5th grader in the Students Helping Restore Unique Biomes (SHRUBs) program at Manzanita Elementary School in Newbury Park, makes a field sketch on a BioBlitz hike to look for native plants.

Photograph by Patricia Norris/NGS

POSTED BY FORD COCHRAN/BIOBLITZ TEAM, 2:47 PM PDT

"We're just here to educate, engage ... and survive!" says Karma Graham, District Interpretive Specialist with California State Parks.

Paramount Ranch is abuzz with rangers sporting their classic uniforms, complete with hats and sequoia cone belts. Some serve as interpreters and educators, others manage logistics, security, and crowd control. Everyone is busy ensuring that all goes well in a two-day event that represents the culmination of one full year of hard planning.

And what do they most want to accomplish during the BioBlitz? NPS Chief Ranger Evan Jones says it's about "reaching kids. To keep the concept of the National Park alive, the younger generation needs to inherit the vision."

In California, the youth population is on the rise, not declining as in some parts of the country. "So reaching out to kids is the most important thing," agrees Ranger Amy Lee. "We're interpreting the language of nature. Once you start learning about something, then you can really begin to appreciate it. What was once just a sparkly rock is now a microcosm of geological history."

Photograph by Phil Crosby, Volunteer/California Department of Parks and Recreation

POSTED BY EMILY LANDIS/BIOBLITZ TEAM, 1:30 PM PDT

...3, 2, 1

The Santa Monica Mountains BioBlitz is underway!

"Take a look around," said Ray Sauvajot, chief of planning, science, and resource management for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. "This is what we're exploring, from Griffith Park all the way out to the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains at the Oxnard plane and Mugu Lagoon.... Jump over the top of these hills and you're down at the coast. All these places provide habitat for different species, and we're going to find them."

KNBC-TV meteorologist Pablo Pareira hosted kickoff remarks with a sunny forecast. Jon Jarvis, director of the National Park Service's Pacific West Region, dedicated the BioBlitz to the memory of the late Jill Swift, a former teacher who loved to hike and helped lead the effort to create the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in the 1970s. Director of California State Parks Ruth Coleman celebrated the state's commitment to keep all the parks in the region open despite a tough economy.

National Geographic Vice President for Research, Conservation and Exploration John Francis called the National Parks "America's hearth: They reflect what we value, what we love." U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman, a champion for the nearly-complete Backbone Trail that spans the Santa Monica Mountains, noted that in this park so close to Los Angeles "we've kept nature near the kids. With gas at $4 a gallon, that's a good deal!"

Duke University professor and conservation biologist Stuart Pimm summed up why we 'Blitz: "We know so much about our universe. And I get to travel to exciting places all around the world, looking at nature. But here, just over the hills from Los Angeles, we don't fully know what's here."

Photograph by Ford Cochran/NGS

POSTED BY FORD COCHRAN/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 12:14 AM PDT

There'll be lots happening on the ground during the next few days at BioBlitz Base Camp, Paramount Ranch: nature walks, mini-BioBlitzes, kids' crafts and activities, live animal demonstrations, and scientists hard at work in the science tent. The public programming schedule spans the full 24 hours of the BioBlitz, from noon Friday until noon Saturday, plus the Celebrate Biodiversity Festival that follows on Saturday afternoon until 6 p.m. This map should help you find your way around!

POSTED BY MARK CHRISTMAS/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 6:38 AM PDT

POSTED BY MARK CHRISTMAS/BIOBLITZ TEAM AT 5:57 PM