August 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 35

pate in their bioblitz. The Palooza
featured pollinator experts, demonstration tables and many engaging
family-friendly activities, which
were broadcast on Facebook Live
(https://tinyurl.com/y6rxw8hv)
from NRPA.
The learning doesn't stop with
the bioblitz since the information
on iNaturalist has a life after the
event! That data feeds into the larger research world to help with biodiversity projects. Many agencies
are taking what they learned from
their bioblitz to inform how they
manage their open spaces, as well
as to find better ways to engage
their community on environmental issues, like the pollinator crisis.
Park agencies can also create their
own biodiversity indexes for their
spaces from the data. Even if you
haven't hosted an event, you can
create a guide from the data already
on the site (if your area already has
data). Simply go to the site, www.
inaturalist.org/guides, and create
your own guide and find what's in
your parks.

Some Feedback from Texas
A shout-out to our Texas agencies:
Five agencies from the Lone Star
State signed up to host a bioblitz
and three of them were atop the
leader board with observations. We
caught up with a few of them to
talk about their experiences. Dallas
Park and Recreation Department
ran its bioblitz for the entire month
of June, but right before its main
event a major windstorm swept
across the city. One area alone lost
255 large trees and the surrounding
neighborhood was severely affected. Many of the big trees it lost had
significant hollows, which are structurally bad for the trees but won-

A volunteer holds a monarch butterfly
that was found during the bioblitz.

derful for wildlife. From hosting a
bioblitz prior to its Parks for Pollinators event, the park agency now
has pre- and post-storm data. Brett
Johnson, the agency's senior environmental coordinator and urban
biologist, will use this comparison
data with future bioblitz information so that his department can
understand the changes in species
from habitat changes in that specific area.
Fort Worth Nature Center &
Refuge held a bioblitz with a pollinator-focused education day, while
also dedicating a new pollinator
sign! It hosted a bee program, native plant giveaway, a roving naturalist and a morning pollinator
hike. Throughout the day, families, community leaders, council
members and members of the local Natural Guard (conservation
volunteers) were engaged around
the importance of pollinators, including the Parks for Pollinators
bioblitz!
Georgetown Parks and Recreation had some well-versed blitzers
in attendance for its event, as well
as some people who did not fully
understand what a pollinator was.
Because of the diversity of knowledge levels, it was able to divide
attendees into smaller groups and
allow participants to share their
own knowledge with each other
(with staff assistance). Through
events like this, it hopes to develop a greater understanding of its
park's biodiversity, which will help
it address questions about species
in the park and help update the
master species list.

" It was wonderful to see so many
new visitors to the park helping to
chronicle some of our species' diversity, " says Rowan Prothro, recreation specialist for Garey Park,
Georgetown Parks and Recreation.
" Kids and adults alike were connecting with Garey in a way that
they had not before. Watching parents bring their kids out to learn
about pollinators was awesome -
very inspiring to see a new generation of nature lovers! "
NRPA is collecting stories, images and feedback from all who
signed up for this year's inaugural
bioblitz. Send us your stories. We
would love to share them, and we
hope even more of you will join
us next June for round two of the
Parks for Pollinators bioblitz!
Michele White, CAE, IOM, is an NRPA Program
Manager, Conservation (mwhite@nrpa.org).

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Parks & Recreation

August 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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