By KARIN ARGANO
Kitty Connolly of Friends of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve and I regularly seek out projects that further our missions of conservation and education. When Kitty suggested doing a BioBlitz, I jumped at the chance! Our focus would be on pollinators an essential link in the world’s food supply and a vital component of ecosystems.
A BioBlitz is a comprehensive accounting of plants, birds, insects and animals in a specific area and time frame. Technically, it’s the study of cyclical patterns of seasonal events in the natural world and named phenology. In the United States pollinators (such as bees, bats and butterflies) have declined at the alarming rate of 30 percent annually–making it vital to protect them by observing, recording and counting them. Our September BioBlitz reflected responses of birds, insects and animals to adapt to shorter days, lower temperatures, and dieback of some plants.
Leffingwell High School students, along with their teacher Justin Gish and Instruction Aide Gabriela Nunez met me at the Greenspace Creekside Reserve on a foggy morning to start our BioBlitz in the California Native Plant Garden. Many of the native plants were still in bloom and providing food for bees and hummingbirds. With an app called iNaturalist, we used phones to take pictures of what we observed and uploaded them with the counts we made to a database for this Parks for Pollinator BioBlitz. It will help scientists understand how we can better protect pollinators and other important wildlife in our community.
On the bank of Santa Rosa Creek, we found California Blackberry and other riparian plants and more insects including Asian Lady Beetles, banded beetles, damselflies and moths. For a comparison of inland and coastal sites, we traveled to the Bluff Trail on the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve. Many of the native plants were the same, but the insects and birds were very different. Sighting reptiles as well topped off a true lesson about biodiversity in Cambria.
For this BioBlitz our team submitted 178 observations, and 89 species identified and joined about 4,600 other citizen scientists that day. This September Parks for Pollinator BioBlitz, was sponsored by the National Recreation and Park Association. Kitty and I plan to expand this to a community-wide project next September. We wish to thank the community for keeping Cambria pristine through support of our two organizations: greenspacecambria.org and fiscaliniranchpreserve.org
