A BioBlitz will let community members become citizen scientists Friday and Saturday at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
The event — dubbed a treasure hunt for living organisms — will create teams of scientists and volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. The teams will develop snapshots of biological information in the park by counting and identifying plant and animal species.
Scientists from Clark College, Lower Columbia College, Paleoinsect Research, Portland State University, The Xerces Society, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. National Forest Service and the National Park Service will lead the teams.
The BioBlitz will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday with author Jack Nisbet’s presentation at Pearson Air Museum, followed by an evening survey of insects and bats in Fort Vancouver’s garden and along the Spruce Mill Trail starting at 8 p.m.
If You Go
• What: BioBlitz, a snapshot of plant and animal life at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
• When: 7 p.m. Friday; 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
• Where: Pearson Air Museum, 1115 E. Fifth St., Vancouver.
• Cost: Free.
Nisbet will present “I Do Not Go Alone: Natural History Forays from Fort Vancouver.” He will examine some of the significant collections made around Fort Vancouver through period journals and art, then consider what the work of early naturalists can tell us about the Columbia District’s human and natural landscape over the past two centuries.
From 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, BioBlitz headquarters will be at the Historic Hangar at Pearson Air Museum, 1115 E. Fifth St., Vancouver. Family-friendly exhibits and activities inside the hangar will be presented by the National Park Service, Columbia Springs Environmental Education Center, Confluence Project, Fort Vancouver Lions Club, Friends of Fort Vancouver, Intertwine Alliance, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service.
Data to be broadcast
Expert scientists will lead their teams from the hangar into the field, where they will document plants, insects and birds. Data will be sent to the national BioBlitz event in Washington D.C., where it will be broadcast on the National Mall with data from other participating national parks.
Pre-registration for the BioBlitz inventories and events is strongly recommended. Participants can obtain free tickets to all inventories and events, as well as view a full schedule, by visiting www.eventbrite.com and entering “Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Bioblitz” in the search bar.
For those who cannot sign up online, there will be assistance available Saturday at the BioBlitz festival.
“Just as the early naturalists worked with American Indian communities to find and identify new plant species 190 years ago, our citizen scientists will help inventory our natural world as it is today,” Fort Vancouver Superintendent Tracy Fortmann said in a news release.
