2019 Ontario Botanists' Big Year Summary
Wow. Just wow.
The 2019 Big Year was a huge success. Over 200,000 observations were submitted to the project. That's ten times the number of observations submitted to the first Big Year in 2018. Every single municipality and ecoregion in the province was represented this year and a total of 3,150 species were observed, 2,906 of which were vascular plants (Tracheophyta). Approximately 3,300 species of vascular plants are known to occur in Ontario which means that approximately 88% of the known vascular flora of Ontario was observed this year!
Some noteworthy observations submitted to the Big Year included a new species for Ontario found by Kevin Gevaert (@kevin_gevaert) and major range extensions for other species. Some elusive and charismatic species were submitted, like this observation of Splachnum luteum, a rare and mysterious moss that grows only on moose dung, submitted by Gwyn Govers (@gwynethgovers).
At the beginning of the year, I challenged participants to observe more than 1,000 species of plants in 2019. Not only were people up for the challenge but four of you succeeded in observing over 1,000 species this year. The top observers in 2019 by number of species observed were:
- Pat Deacon (@pwdeacon)
- Joanne Redwood (@jem9redwood)
- Quinten Wiegersma (@birds_bugs_botany)
- Reuven Martin (@reuvenm)
- Will Van Hemessen (@wdvanhem)
- Carl-Adam Wegenschimmel (@carl-adam)
- Graham Buck (@g_buck)
- Donald Sutherland (@donaldasutherland)
- Tristan Knight (@t_knight)
- Andrew Minielly (@aminielly)
Some of you might recall that not only did I challenge participants to observe over 1,000 species this year but that I also offered a Special Prize to anyone who did. I was not expecting four of you to do this! But I still want to give each of the "One-Thousand Club" a special gift for their contributions to field botany in Ontario in 2019. The One-Thousand Club in 2019 is Pat Deacon, Joanne Redwood, Quinten Wiegersma and Reuven Martin. Congrats!
For my part, I wasn't able to do nearly as much botanizing this year as I had hoped. But I lived vicariously through the rest of you by spending way too much time identifying observations. The top identifiers this year played an important role in confirming identifications and helping novice botanists identify difficult species. The top identifiers were:
- Will Van Hemessen (@wdvanhem)
- Brian Popelier (@popb25)
- Gwyn Govers (@gwynethgovers)
- Oliver Reichl (@arborsphere)
- Quinten Wiegersma (@birds_bugs_botany)
It's easy to find hundreds of species when you visit some of the more biodiverse parts of the province. Hotspots like Ojibway Prairie, Point Pelee National Park, the Norfolk Sand Plain and the Bruce Peninsula accounted for a large proportion of observations this year. But some parts of the province were underrepresented. The five municipalities with the fewest species observed in 2019 were: Kenora District, Perth County, Prince Edward County, Rainy River District and Timiskaming District. With this in mind, I'd like to formally invite everyone to participate in the 2020 Ontario Botanists' Big Year. In addition to the One-Thousand Club, I will give a special prize to the top observers in each of those five counties in 2020.
Thanks to everyone who participated in 2019. Happy new year and good botanizing!
- Will V
