Reports

	Reports

Final Report

The first US Biodiversity Month, May 2002 was a great success. Tens of thousands of people participated in sixty-seven events across America. IBOY provided the stimulus for Biodiversity Month and offered support to local event organizers, through resources such as activity guides, media resources, and biodiversity fact sheets and posters. The events organized were as varied as biodiversity itself, but their common theme was to link scientists and the public in exploring and learning about biodiversity.

In this brief report it is impossible to do justice to the variety, creativity and quality of events, the excitement, and increased awareness of biodiversity that they generated. Some highlights from just a handful of the events are below but we encourage you to visit www.BiodiversityMonth.org to find out more.

Backyard BioBlitzes

Eighteen teams registered to conduct a Backyard BioBlitz, including elementary and high schools, college classes and 4 H groups, from New Hampshire to California. The aim of the Backyard BioBlitz was to undertake a rapid biodiversity assessment of a local area. Evaluating the number of species present in different taxonomic groups was more important than identifying individuals to species. Eleven groups reported their findings to us. Unfortunately two groups were rained out, but the nine remaining groups reported a staggering total of 789 species observations! Some highlights include:

• the Upper Midwest BioBlitz, organized by INSciTE, found the highest number of species - 278 - including the gorgeous Indigo Bunting and stately Bald Eagle
• Orange Elementary School Science, IA, club spotted the first monarch butterfly of the season, later found to be the most northerly reported in Iowa for that date!
• Members of Santa Clara, CA, 4H club and scientists rescued a baby deer that was stuck in a drainage pipe as an unexpected part of their BioBlitz!
• Schools from the HabitatNet group reported the change from spring to summer in permanent biodiversity plots from New Hampshire to Louisiana
• Almost half of the species found by Kittrell Science Club, IA, were insects, which although very diverse are often overlooked in biodiversity surveys
• Some of the ‘coolest’ species observed were:
  • a displaying Woodcock and Mayfly nymphs, by Westminster West School, VT
  • a wood frog and pileated woodpecker, by Beall High School, MD
  • a butlers garden snake, by the team from Oak Creek WI,
  • Crayfish in an ephemeral stream, by students at Pennsylvania State University

We are delighted that so many educators found the Backyard BioBlitz useful and incorporated it into their curricula. Dr. Laura Guertin used the Backyard BioBlitz as a final exam for non-science majors studying ‘Biodiversity and Earth History’ at Pennsylvania State University. She said, “The exam was so much fun, for myself and the students! It really gave them a chance to take a close look at the environment around them and to think about what they’ve learned and how to apply that information…. This is something I definitely want to do again.”
Debra Smrchek of Academy of the Holy Cross School, MD, reports that, “We plan to make biodiversity our theme for the Science Department next year.” Ken Baxter of Beall High School, MD found that the BioBlitz helped his students get a better idea of what biodiversity is all about and impacted their perception of its importance. He said, “[Biodiversity] is strangely enough a difficult concept for kids to grasp and the event helped. This year, more than ever, students responded to a question on the final about the greatest environmental problem facing us today as ‘biodiversity.’ That is a strong indicator of the success of the event and the focus it provided.”

The Backyard BioBlitzes also provided a valuable opportunity for scientists, educators and members of the public to work together. Wendi Hill of the Santa Clara County, CA, 4H club told us, “It was absolutely wonderful to see a scientist working with a 5-year old, talking about what they had found and talking to them as if they were a colleague. I had incredible feedback. Everyone wanted to know when the next one will be.” Fred Rose, of InSciTE, MN, is also planning next year’s Backyard BioBlitz and said, “Next year we will get started earlier and work with the park boards to generate a bigger event.”

All reporting Backyard BioBlitz teams will receive official certificates and prizes of hand lenses, generously donated by Indigo Instruments.

BioBlitzes

Large teams of professional scientists also explored local natural habitats during Biodiversity Month in BioBlitzes. For example, on May 31, in Mohegan Park, Norwich, CT, 119 scientists worked against the clock for an intensive 24 hours to document as many species as possible in Mohegan Park. They found a staggering 1,898 species. Their survey’s findings included the tiny and rare Fairy Moth (Adela ridingsella) and a healthy population of a federally endangered species. The BioBlitz revealed the importance of temporal dynamics for biodiversity surveys; the BioBlitz was interrupted by an hour-long thunderstorm, after which several different species were found in abundance. Dr. Ellen Censky, Chair of Biodiversity Month and organizer of the Connecticut BioBlitz, and her colleagues performed a gargantuan task in organizing and promoting the event but it paid high dividends in terms of raising awareness of biodiversity. Over 2000 members of the public attended the event and it was featured in one of America’s major newspapers, the Boston Herald.

Biodiversity Fairs and Festivals

Many museums and botanic gardens across the country held special events to celebrate Biodiversity Month, just a few of these are described below:

• The Harvard Museum of Natural History, MA, held a month long celebration of biodiversity in which approximately 13,000 people visited the museum. Activities included the creation of a new permanent exhibit on endangered plant species, new tours and scavenger hunts with a biodiversity focus, and ‘creature features’ every weekend with live animals. On May 9, Dr. Jim Hanken, Chair of the Declining Amphibians Population Task Force, presented a public lecture attended by 200 people “Declining Amphibians: On the Verge of an Environmental Catastrophe.” The museum’s Biodiversity Month celebrations were the cover story on the HMNH Program and Events Guide, which is mailed to thousands of members and friends of the museum.
• On May 18, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, CO, organized “Amoebas to Zebras: A Celebration of Biodiversity” with interactive displays by scientists and natural resource professionals from around the state. Hundreds of visitors were able to learn more about identifying, protecting and preserving biodiversity, and Debra Klich, coordinator of the event reported that, “The level of personal interaction between all of the presenters and our visitors during this festival was unsurpassed.”
• Also on May 18, The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, CT celebrated “The World in Your Backyard: Biodiversity Day at the Peabody.” This biodiversity celebration focused on botany, the different ways in which plant diversity enriches our lives, and how we can conserve it. Plants known to attract wildlife were on display and for sale, and accompanying presentations and exhibits addressed landscaping for wildlife, using native species and their pollinating butterfly and moth species. Local organizations and professions that utilize biodiversity sustainably, set up interactive displays including the North East Organic Farmers Association, a beekeeper, and a master gardener. The “BioAction” lab that visits classrooms in the area provided hands on activities.
• On May 18-19, the Missouri Botanical garden hosted a Nature Days at its Shaw Nature Reserve, MO, in which over 120 members of the public joined scientists to survey the biodiversity and take environmental measurements.

Public Lectures

Several organizations marked Biodiversity Month with public lectures on biodiversity issues ranging from bromeliads, to wetlands, to sustainable development. Just a few of these include:

• On May 9, the IBOY Biodiversity Month Lecture on Biodiversity Research for Sustainable Development was held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. Dr. Andrew Dobson, of Princeton University, Chaired the lecture. In the first presentation Dr. Jonathon Margolis, Director, Office of Policy Coordination and Initiatives of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental Scientific Affairs, presented an overview of the US position on and preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in Johannesburg, August-September 2002. Contributions of biodiversity to sustainable development were then discussed for Oceans by Dr. Andrew Rosenburg, University of New Hampshire, for agriculture by Dr. Richard Harwood, Michigan State University, and for land use by Dr. Jonathon Foley, University of Wisconsin.
• On May 22 the National Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian Institution brought together leading biodiversity scientists to review progress over the last sixteen years, in the public lecture “1986 National Forum on Biodiversity: Current Perspectives”. The lecture was opened by Dr. Thomas Lovejoy (Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment). Dr. Fran Sharples of the National Academy of Sciences used the lecture to call for a third National Biodiversity Forum, to take place in 2006.

Other activities

Over 20 other groups chose different, but equally imaginative and effective, ways to mark Biodiversity Month, including field expeditions, restorations, classroom visits, films festivals, and the launch of webpages.

We are thrilled by the enormous success of this first Biodiversity Month, and we believe it has enormous potential to become a strong force for increasing our nations’ understanding of biodiversity and its connections to our society. Biodiversity Month can provide a strong galvanizing force for biodiversity education and outreach, but the findings from this first year also demonstrate that it has potential to yield important national data. Although, this year, no resources were available to compile the data from the many BioBlitz surveys in a scientifically rigorous way, the reports we received still captured an important national trend. Surveys in the north reported delayed emergence of flowers and insects as a result of a cold wet spring, and surveys in the southwest reported the opposite and parched conditions as a result of the prolonged drought. In future years, we hope that Biodiversity Month can collaborate with national surveys and citizen science programs to enhance our ability to inventory and monitor America’s biodiversity.

On May 9, the Ecological Society of America hosted a small ad hoc meeting in Washington DC to review the achievements of the first Biodiversity Month and explore options for continuing it. The meeting was attended by representatives from the Society of Conservation Biology, Ecological Society of America, World Wide Fund for Nature- US, The Smithsonian Institution, and IBOY. The unanimous consensus from the meeting was that we should try to continue Biodiversity Month beyond IBOY, with the aim of making it an annual event. We currently exploring funding possibilities for this.

We are enormously grateful to the many people that worked tirelessly to make Biodiversity Month possible. This includes in particular the members of the Biodiversity Month Steering Committee who met for the first time in November 2001 and spent the next few months working closely with the IBOY Secretariat and accepting our very tight deadlines to help develop and launch the month by May 1, 2002. We are enormously grateful to the US National Research Council Committee on DIVERSITAS, who sponsored the Biodiversity Month Steering Committee Meeting and provided ongoing advice and support. We thank also the many scientific and educational organizations that helped promote Biodiversity Month in their journals, bulletins, newsletters, list-serves and webpages, and the individuals that promoted Biodiversity Month by word of mouth. Finally, we are indebted to the organizers of local events whose enthusiasm and energy made Biodiversity Month a reality.