BioBlitz Report

Science Advisory Committee Report on the First Cheverly BioBlitz

The first-ever BioBlitz conducted in Cheverly achieved considerable success giving encouragement to both the organizers and participants to repeat the effort sometime soon, perhaps in the fall after the weather has cooled down a bit. After being postponed for week, because of the extreme 104-105 degree temperatures on July 7^th, the rescheduled event came off pretty much as advertised. We lost two session leaders due to vacation time, but were able to replace them on short notice and maintain the originally planned schedule. The July 14^th rescheduled day coincided with the Saturday Cheverly Community Market which brought the event to the attention of a larger audience than would have been the case otherwise.

The final count showed that 55 people of all ages took part in the tally. The most popular session was the black light-assisted insect capture hosted by the Smithsonian Institute entomologist, Warren Steiner, followed by the “Native Plant Walk” by Sara Tangren, the founder of Chesapeake Natives. Another team led by a NASA environmental scientist, Rebecca Ford scoured the stream and marsh at Woodworth for frogs, fish, snakes, salamanders and turtles, as well as for hydrophytic plants. Cheverly naturalist, Matt Salo, led two groups to identify mammals, birds trees, shrubs and other plants and assisted with four other sessions. An invasive plants expert, Jil Swearingen, documented the growing numbers of invasive plants at Euclid Woods that are threatening our ecosystems. Randy Pheobus, an ecologist and a grass and forb expert, led a group to view the new more vigorous growth at a forest glade microhabitat in Euclid Woods, recently restored under his direction. The area seems to have responded well and is now more hospitable to heliophilic plants, including some rare species such as blazingstars, Maryland milkworts and whorled loosestrife, that were threatened by encroaching scrub pines. A special “Mainly for Munchkins,” walk led by M-NCPPC Park Ranger, Dave Kneipp, introduced the youngest folks to nature, and received front page coverage in the July 19^th P.G.county Gazette. Activities at the table attracted both children and adults to identify animal signs such as tracks or other traces and to identify skulls of unknown animal species by their dental formulas. Soil samples were taken by the UMD soil scientist, Del Fanning, at two Woodworth locations in order to identify the soil types and test their acidity to shed light on the influence of soil on plant communities.

Because the previous work by Cheverly scientists on several categories of biota had been so thorough no new findings were expected nor made in mammal, bird, tree, and invasive plant inventories, but a few hard-to-identify shrubs in the viburnum and other shrub genera were added as previously unidentified species. Likewise, with herbaceous plants, grasses, sedges, rushes and fungi, numerous new species were added and several, that had previously been lumped together on the generic level, have now been assigned a more a specific identity. All together well over 300 species were identified and, after all the insects are properly documented, several dozen more will have to be added.

The black light collection added the most species to our ongoing inventories of Cheverly biota, but the fact that new species were also recorded for several other categories testifies to the biological wealth of our environments and the possibility of more discoveries still to be made.