HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE: For a successful BioBlitz organizers try to recruit three types of volunteers 1) taxonomic experts, 2) citizen scientists, 3) general volunteers that just want to take part and help out.
CITIZEN SCIENTISTS: A successful BioBlitzes relies heavily on contributions from citizen scientists. Citizen scientists are those people in the community with a special interest in natural history; possibly they are bird or butterfly watchers, college ecology students, high school science teachers, or backyard botanists.These people are very important as much of the survey and collecting work requires more eyes and hands in the field. Citizen scientists are often teamed up to help taxonomic experts carry out their sampling work. Other times these citizen scientists may be tasked with performing their own survey work for specimens that we will send off to regional experts for proper identification. GENERAL VOLUNTEERS: We always need general volunteers to help with the logistics of the project. This might entail, helping with food service, organizing equipment checkouts and entering data. TAXONOMIC EXPERTS: A taxonomic expert is someone with a specialized skill in correctly identifying species from specific taxonomic groups. Such as birds, orthoptera (grasshoppers, katydids and crickets), or aquatic macroinvertebrates. Usually these people work for government agencies or educational institutions as professional biologists. This group may also include citizen scientists with an avid interest and skill in species identifications. If you have an ID skill just let us know. |
If you are interested in taking part in the 2012 BioBlitz please go to the registration page and fill out the registration form.