BioBlitz at LLELA (Lake Lewisville Environmental Learning Area) on Saturday, April 1, 2017
Volunteers needed!
(Submitted by Scott Kiester)

Bioblitz: {bahy-oh –blits] informal noun.
1. A one day survey to identify every living thing in a chosen place.

So in a Moment of Insanity Martha Peet and Scott Kiester decided to do a BioBlitz at LLELA, on April first no less. If you’re up for a working party on April Fool’s Day, come spend part of the day at LLELA helping to find and identify life forms.

A tall order for 2,600 acres, but we have a plan. LLELA has four ecosystems, a bit of Cross Timbers on the west side, a bottomland hardwood forest, a riparian corridor with associated wetlands, and a blackland prairie. Our idea is to have groups guided by local experts spending as much time as they can surveying the different plants and critters found in each ecosystem. Lists of what animal and plant groups we hope to sample as well as where and when and who will be participating in the different groups are being worked on.

Some folks may need the run of the place, bird teams for instance, others may spend half the day in one or two spots, say benthic stream sampling, depends on what needs to be done.

We already have several UNT faculty and grad students on board, but we need more local expertise. So if you have a particular passion, and you want to share it with others, whether it’s bumblebees, waterbugs, beavers, black racers, black widows, bluebirds, bluebonnets, bluestems or bluegills, this is an opportunity to pass that knowledge along.

If you want to learn about something new it’s a great opportunity to do that too. The goal is for each group to have folks with their eyes open and curiosity in top gear. We all know from experience that the more eyes the better, and nobody will see every fritillary, frog or flower!

So we need your help.

This is an informal event. Come stay for as long as you have time. We’ll be kicking things off at 0 dark thirty to go owling. From then on the different groups will gather and head out as people are available. Exact starting times and locations have yet to be worked out so we will be communicating with volunteers as things come together.  Oh and feel free to wait ‘til the last minute to decide. There will be a place for everyone who wants to get involved.

On the hospitality front, at the pavilion starting early, there will coffee and donuts, or bagels and fruit for the health conscious, water and snacks throughout the day and an informal make your own sandwiches/hotdogs kind of lunch.

That evening is the LLELA Volunteers Appreciation Event, which is also in its early planning stage.  Everyone is welcome, it’ll be a good time, but beyond that I got nothin’. So if you can help by leading in your area of expertise or by being an observer with a keen sense of the outdoors and curiosity to match:  PLEASE EMAIL Scott. [email protected] put bioblitz in the subject line. (and of course put April 1^st bioblitz on your calendar)