• Home
  • About Us
  • Where We Work
  • Our Initiatives
  • News Room
  • Blog
  • My Nature Page
 

Potomac Gorge

Potomac Gorge
© Gary P. Fleming

Jason Gibson removes a turtle trap.

 Jason Gibson, herpetology (reptiles and amphibians) team leader, removes a turtle trap. © Roy Sewall

Smithsonian entomologist John W. Brown leader of the butterflies and moths team searches for insects

Smithsonian entomologist John Brown and team member search for insects.
© Mark Godfrey/TNC

Teams of research scientist, assistants and volunteers work at the Glen Echo Park event base camp.

Teams of research scientists, assistants and volunteers work at the Glen Echo Park base camp.
© Mark Godfrey/TNC

Postcards From the Field

Potomac Gorge BioBlitz

By Daniel White

In 1996, top scientists and naturalists gathered for the first-ever BioBlitz along the banks of Washington D.C.’s Anacostia River. This past June, the latest BioBlitz brought some 130 field biologists and volunteers back to the region’s urban wilderness for an intense 30-hour biological survey of the Potomac Gorge in Maryland and Virginia. Join the Conservancy’s Daniel White as he experiences life at BioBlitz base camp and rides along with three different survey teams.

South Arcade Base Camp
Saturday, June 24

5:00 a.m.

Rain drips from the dark clouds hovering over Charlottesville, so I swing by the Conservancy office to retrieve the rain gear stashed behind my truck seat. Then, for once, the road is mostly mine all the way from Highway 29 to the infamous Washington Beltway, the latter relatively lonely at 6:30 on a Saturday morning. Beating the traffic is a common preoccupation for DC commuters, but this particular morning I’m thinking ahead to beating the bushes.

This weekend, some 130 field biologists and volunteers participating in the Potomac Gorge BioBlitz will do just that.  But not only the bushes. They’ll wade into ponds and the Potomac proper, turn over rocks and logs, and use various tricks of the researchers’ trade to determine how many species they can uncover during a 30-hour race against the clock.

7:00 am

The BioBlitz concept—part scientific endeavor, part outdoor classroom, part festival, part endurance event—strikes me as unusual enough. My first glimpse of Glen Echo Park, however, hints of the surreal.  

 

Whatever I’d expected of “base camp” and Glen Echo, which is part of the national parks system, I’d certainly never imagined an amusement park. But navigating around an ornate carousel to a partially restored art deco building, I find that the South Arcade lives up to its name. I skim an interpretive sign and learn that the serpentine structure once housed Skee-ball and a shooting gallery.

 

This morning, though, its last two rooms serve as the BioBlitz headquarters and sleeping quarters. As volunteers stream into the team room, I touch base with Stephanie Flack and Mary Travaglini, director of the Conservancy’s program and manager of habitat restoration in the Potomac Gorge, respectively. Then I home in on the room’s most important feature at this hour: coffee.   

 

I fill my cup from the urn labeled “High Octane” and scope out the room. Along the rows of folding tables, various survey teams have claimed their work spaces. While some teams are still setting up, rows of microscopes, field guides, and more mysterious gear indicate that others are merely awaiting the official opening of the BioBlitz.

 

Next: The Cuddle Up


 

BioBlitz Resources

  • Read about how the BioBlitz revealed more than 1,000 species in the joint Conservancy-National Park Service press release. 

  • Learn more about the numbers of species identified by checking our updated species list (.doc, 8.72KB).

  • Get to know some of the 130 scientists who converged on the Potomac Gorge to take part in the BioBlitz.

BioBlitz in the News

The Washington Post
Critter Count Blends Family Fun With Science

Potomac Gazette
Researchers to race the clock to study Potomac Gorge