News and Info

See the educational videos about  Honey Bees.

"A BioBlitz is an event that focuses on finding and identifying as many species as  possible in a specific area over a short period of time. At a BioBlitz,  scientists, families, students, teachers, and other community members  work together to get a snapshot of an area’s biodiversity. These  events can happen in most any geography—urban, rural, or  suburban—in areas as small as a backyard or as large as a country.

Smartphone technologies and apps such as iNaturalist make collecting photographs and biological information about living  things easy as part of a BioBlitz. High quality data uploaded to  iNaturalist become part of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, an open source database used by scientists and policy makers around the world."

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/bioblitz/

Park professionals all abuzz about the benefits of a BioBlitz

By Jennifer Fulcher -May 21, 2020

Change can begin with one person. And that is why Jenny Corbett, lead naturalist at Wickiup Hill Learning Center in Iowa, believes so strongly in BioBlitz events.

The NRPA Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz promotes education about pollinators and facilitates the collection of data on the pollinators found in parks. During these events, individuals use the iNaturalist platform on their smart devices to take photographs of plants, insects and animals in a designated park space. The gathered citizen science data can help park professionals develop plans for protecting pollinators, as well as the plant life they rely on.

“No matter how many people participate…hopefully, they will go home, plant a little corner in the yard as a pollinator garden,” Corbett says. “If you can get one person to change how they see their yard, that they don’t need to have a ‘green desert’ all mowed perfectly, neat and tidy, you have made a difference.”

“Anything we can do to encourage the public to think about their role as ‘citizen scientists’ and to give them tools to provide data is very valuable in the long run,” says Cindy Haverkamp, parks planner for Pierce County Parks and Recreation in Washington state. 

“Events like Parks for Pollinators benefit the community because they raise awareness,” Haverkamp notes. Many people don’t understand how important pollinators are or how they connect to both the human and animal world. “If we can use tools like iNaturalist to get their attention or to increase their curiosity about their local environment, they will be more intentional about taking care of it, which will benefit all of us,” she says.

“A BioBlitz is a great way to reconnect with your parks,” says Rowan Prothro, recreation specialist for Georgetown Parks and Recreation in Texas. These events allow both park professionals and park visitors to gain a deeper understanding, better connection to and feeling of ownership of their park.

To learn more about the national Parks for Pollinators campaign and how to host your own BioBlitz, visit the NRPA BioBlitz webpage.   Clarissa Garcia is the Communications Manager at NRPA.

"Hummingbirds (family Trochilidae) are amazingly adapted pollinators, and  they play an important role in pollination. 

They have long, slender  bills and tube-like tongues that they use to drink nectar from  brightly-colored flowers; this gives them the energy they need to fuel  their high metabolism.

To attract them, you can either plant a  hummingbird garden or hang a hummingbird feeder. In your garden, choose  native flowers with a tube shape. Hummingbirds are not attracted by  smell, so chose plants with brightly-colored flowers."

https://www.nps.gov/articles/hummingbirds.htm