The Cuddle Up
7:25 a.m.
A call goes out for the team leaders meeting, and a couple dozen folks flow outside to a turquoise pavilion called the Cuddle Up, interrupting the morning workout of a trio of tai chi devotees.
Entomologist Arthur Evans, a burly bearded man in khaki shirt and shorts, stands in hiking boots before the small bleachers. Serving as BioBlitz coordinator as well as leader of the beetle team, Art answers a few logistical questions and introduces Stephanie.
A couple of late arrivals find seats down in front. “The fly guys are here,” someone says. “We can start now.” It’s somehow reassuring that eminent researchers, many of whom are teachers, can slide easily into the role of wisecracking student.
The BioBlitz, after all, is partly about making science fun. It’s about the synergy created when scientists are liberated from their typically isolated research projects to join together on a festive quest. It’s a scientific scavenger hunt, except the players make up the list as they go.
Of course, the BioBlitz also is intended to produce useful information, so Stephanie passes out the paperwork for leaders to record their immediate results: surprising or disturbing finds, interesting interactions with the public, threats and, ultimately, the total number of species found and identified.
“We have to produce a number by 2:00 pm tomorrow,” Art says.
He adds that the real work will continue over the weeks following the BioBlitz. Each team’s detailed species list will be assembled into a collaborative report due in February to the National Park Service and the Conservancy, BioBlitz co-sponsors, to help inform management and conservation activities.
“So no slacking!” Art says, grinning. “We gotta get this one done.”
8:45 am
Minutes away from the opening, a call goes out for all BioBlitz participants to assemble back under the Cuddle Up. Besides repeating several earlier announcements for the benefit of the volunteers, Art, Mary and Stephanie give an overview of the Potomac Gorge and the BioBlitz.
The Potomac is considered the wildest urban river in North America. The river plunges 130 feet in all as it roars through the 15-mile Potomac Gorge corridor from Great Falls to Theodore Roosevelt Island. One of the East Coast’s most intact fall zones—where exposed river-scoured bedrock of the Piedmont gives way to sandier deposits of the Coastal Plain—the Potomac Gorge harbors tremendous natural diversity.
Thousands of animal species, from unusual invertebrates to American shad to bald eagles, live in the gorge. It also harbors more than 1,400 individual plant species and more than 24 distinct plant communities, including at least three believed to occur nowhere else on Earth.
“This is not your typical BioBlitz,” Art says, noting that this weekend’s goal is to seek out species that have received little previous attention, from snails to slime molds.
As the clock ticks down to the opening, the ominous skies continue to concern both team leaders and park administrators. Art notes that the last forecast he heard called for 2-4 inches of rain. Such a deluge not only would send most creatures deep into cover, but pose a risk to participants as well.
Rod Sauter, an interpretive ranger and the Park Service’s on-duty emergency medical technician for the weekend, pleads with everyone to make his job boring. “People do get struck by lightning,” he warns, “and there’s no sense in us getting a partially filled out data sheet.”
“What about the lightning bug team?” says a voice from the bleachers.
After a group photo, the BioBlitz is on the clock. Some 130 orange-vested participants disperse toward the parking lot, from which the teams carpool to various park sites along the gorge.
BioBlitz Resources
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Read about how the BioBlitz revealed more than 1,000 species in the joint Conservancy-National Park Service press release.
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Learn more about the numbers of species identified by checking our updated species list (.doc, 8.72KB).
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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
Join The Nature Conservancy on