Bioblitz planned for Saturday at Woodbine Beach Dune Ecosystem

Local residents are invited to take part in the Great Canadian Bioblitz this Saturday at Woodbine Beach.

Organized by the Canadian Wildlife Federation, the bioblitz is a community effort to record as many species as can be identified within a designated location and time period.

On Saturday, Sept. 27, the Woodbine Beach Dunes Ecosystem (at the far west end of Woodbine Beach) will be the focus of a bioblitz from 7:30 a.m. to noon.

Participants will be asked to observe and document all forms of biodiversity in the dune area between those times.

Biodiversity includes plant life, birds, animals, insects, fungi and microrganisms. The results from Saturday’s bioblitz will then be uploaded to iNaturalist which is a global online citizen science platform to which users record, identify and share observations.

Across the country the Great Canadian Bioblitz takes place from Sept. 21 to 28.

According to the Canadian Wildlife Federation, “a bioblitz is a participatory search for species within a limited area and a limited timeframe that takes a ‘snapshot’ of as many living things as possible. People from all walks of life help out — expert and amateur naturalists, taxonomic scientists and the general public. Through use of the iNaturalist Canada app, the species records are compiled into a single data set of the biodiversity in that location at that point in time, which is then available to researchers, scientists and policy-makers to help them make informed decisions about wildlife management.”

More information on the Woodbine Beach Dunes Ecosystem can be found on INaturalist at www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=123927&subview=map, which currently records 1,049 observed species.