Hi everyone,

Thanks for posting your observations on iNaturalist, and for adding your observations to our 2017 Amargosa River BioBlitz "project". With a good deal of information yet to come from our plant and invertebrate researchers, we've already tallied 99 taxa! Exciting!

I look forward to seeing what gets posted next. If you notice that one of your colleagues has yet to add his or her observations to this project, please encourage him or her to do so.

Thanks,
Sophie

Hi Everyone,

We've kicked off the 2017 Amargosa BioBlitz with a bang at our reception at China Ranch this evening, and members of our group have already begun to identify species in the field. We have a group of 40 attending this event, and will begin our field orientation tomorrow morning at 7 am!

In case you are interested, our BioBlitz has gotten some press! I was interviewed by the Associated Press (AP) and KNX 1070 News Radio, and the story has been picked up by news outlets around the world. Here are some links:

AP: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b033ee9c85be46c398b5dcea6e4a5ab3/bioblitz-scientists-survey-california-desert-valley

The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/04/06/us/ap-us-desert-life-survey.html

ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/bioblitz-scientists-survey-california-desert-valley-46626557

The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/energy-environment/bioblitz-scientists-to-survey-california-desert-valley/2017/04/06/19ec3a48-1af6-11e7-8598-9a99da559f9e_story.html?utm_term=.0b0df14f14e8

Enjoy! We're making history!

Sophie

Hi Everyone!

I look forward to seeing you in the field for this year's Amargosa River BioBlitz. Please come ready to record all of your finds! The information you collect will be used to help conservation efforts in this region.

Here's some background: Since the early 1970s, The Nature Conservancy has worked in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management to protect the biodiversity found within the Amargosa River Watershed. These efforts have included land acquisition, restoration, scientific study, and conservation-focused management of lands along the Amargosa River. The Bureau of Land Management designated the vicinity as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern in 1983. In 2009, Congress designated a 26-mile stretch of the Amargosa in California as a Wild and Scenic River, and in 2016, the completion of the Desert Renewable Energy and Conservation Plan’s Land Use Planning Amendment designates the majority of the lands surrounding the California portion of the river as California Desert National Conservation Lands.

With these protections comes a need to effectively inform the conservation management of these lands, and that in turn requires knowledge gained through scientific inquiry. While we recognize that a select suite of ongoing research and surveys involving a number of agencies, institutions, and organizations is currently underway along the Amargosa River, we also have a need to foster a comprehensive, multi-taxa understanding of the unique biodiversity of this place. Thus, we’ve arranged for a BioBlitz to explore this area to gain additional information about the suite of organisms that occupy the Amargosa Canyon area. This short-term, high intensity survey effort will involve a broad suite of experts skilled in the identification of plants, animals, and natural communities and resources.

The 2017 Bioblitz is timed to occur 45 years after the original 1972 multi-taxon surveys conducted by various entities and documented by the Desert Pupfish Preservation Committee. This will give us an opportunity to compare findings across time, and see if any changes have occurred in the species present in this location.

Sophie