Joshua Tree National Park Announces BioBlitz 2016

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News Release Date: May 13, 2016
Contact: George Land, 760-367-5507
Contact: Neil Frakes
Contact: Jay Theuer

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK, Twentynine Palms, California –

Volunteers are invited to participate in Joshua Tree National Park's BioBlitz, on May 21st, 2016. In celebration of the National Park Service's Centennial, Joshua Tree and 109 other NPS units will feature projects to inventory and document the wide range of biodiversity within the national park system. Joshua Tree National Park's BioBlitz will focus on ethno-botanical resources. Specifically, we are looking to document the locations and abundance of a range of traditional use plant species within the park. 

The "Ethno-bot Blitz" will begin at 9 A.M. in the Rattlesnake Room at park headquarters next to the Oasis Visitor Center at 74485 National Park Drive, Twentynine Palms, CA. Following an orientation, volunteers and park staff will travel to assigned locations within the park to search for specific species. Locations, descriptions, and photographs will be taken using the iNaturalist smart phone application. The gathered data collected will be uploaded to an iNaturalist project webpage.

What to bring:

• Your smart phone.
• Water bottles for drinking water, enough to store up to a gallon;it will likely be hot!
• A lunch and snacks to bring with you to the field.
• Appropriate field attire: long pants and sleeves for sun/spiny plant protection, a brimmed hat, sunglasses.
• We will have some vehicles ready to go to the field, but depending on the number of participants, we may ask some volunteers who are willing to use their vehicles to head into the park.
• If you don't have a smart phone, please bring a camera and/or a GPS unit if you have one (we will provide an alternative method for documenting locations with a camera and GPS as we realize not everyone has a smart phone!)

If you are interested in participating, an RSVP via email to Neil Frakes, Vegetation Branch Chief is appreciated. If you have any questions about this event please contact Neil Frakes ([e-mail]), or Jay Theuer ([e-mail]). We hope to see you then!

To learn more about the NPS-wide suite of bioblitzes, please visit: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/biodiversity/national-parks-bioblitz.htm

To learn more about iNaturalist, please visit: http://www.inaturalist.org/ 

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