A Year of BioBlitz: Celebrating Community and Connection in the Wild

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Last summer, Northeast Wilderness Trust’s Wildlands Ecology program launched a yearlong “BioBlitz” series at its Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve. Each BioBlitz installment homes in on a different ecological topic and invites members of the local community to hear from experts on rewilding and conservation. Attendees track and log their field observations, providing researchers with important data about species diversity and ecosystem health at Woodbury Mountain. Along with the “citizen science” dimension of the BioBlitz series, the events encourage participants to think of humans and our nonhuman counterparts as one ecological whole while fostering robust connections with their fellow community members.

The Wilderness Trust’s Wildlands Ecology Fellow Eric Bailey organized the past year’s seven BioBlitz events. Each outing took place within the 6,000+ acre Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve, the largest non-governmental wilderness area in the state of Vermont and one of the Wilderness Trust’s Ambassador Preserves. BioBlitzers, led by Bailey, input their observations into iNaturalist, which provides a running record of all the data collected via the series.

Chokecherry by Carlene Whitcomb.

Girgensohn's Peatmoss Sphagnum girgensohnii - Charlie Hohn

Girgensohn's Peatmoss by Charlie Hohn.

Mushroom BioBlitz with Dave Muska.

Orange Mycena by Carlene Whitcomb.

Common Garter Snake by Eric Bailey.

Coral Tooth Fungus by Carlene Whitcomb.

Experts Share Their Knowledge

A subject-matter expert leads each BioBlitz walk. Themes have included Woodbury Mountain’s birds, pollinators, plants, and more. The July installment, for example, was headed by Dave Muska, a well-known Vermont fungi and tracking specialist. Participants learned from Muska about the state’s mushroom species, from the rare to the common, the big to the small, and the colorful to the translucent.

Muska demonstrated to the group how to identify various species, guiding BioBlitzers through an ask-and-answer process for each mushroom encountered: Where is the species growing, and on what substrate? Does the fungus bruise? What do the gills look like? With fungi, small details are often the key to successful identification. Over seven species were documented on the property.

An earlier installment treated participants to a masterclass on amphibians. In the summer of 2023, Kiley Briggs of the Orianne Society, a conservation group specializing in amphibians and reptiles, brought participants on a BioBlitz walk featuring lessons on amphibian lifecycles, habitat needs, and ecosystem threats. Briggs taught attendees to identify various species found at Woodbury Mountain, including salamanders, Wood, Pickerel, and Green Frogs, Garter Snakes, and Eastern Newts.

The seven BioBlitz events of the past year generated a trove of data on the ecological goings-on at Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve. In all, 67 BioBlitzers catalogued on iNaturalist more than 200 observations of over 100 species. Some of the species appearing most frequently in the data include Wood Nettle, Striped Maple, and Maidenhair Fern.

These observations are a valuable resource for researchers studying Northeastern ecosystems and species, but data collection is just one of objectives of the BioBlitz series. A pillar of the Wilderness Trust’s mission is to champion wilderness. That means showing more people the intrinsic value of wild Nature and motivating them to play a role in its protection.

There is perhaps no better way to instill these values in individuals and communities than by bringing budding conservationists out into the field. There, where they can feel the sponge of pine needles beneath their feet, the sun on their faces, and the breeze on their skin, the power and spiritual wellspring of wilderness shines brightest. And by accentuating that each individual, with just an hour or two of quiet attention and patience, can contribute to the larger endeavor to understand ecosystems and document the myriad species that call them home, the BioBlitz series makes rewilding exciting, accessible, and personal.

The Wilderness Trust offered a final BioBlitz outing this fall. Ecologist and Wilderness Trust Board member Brett Engstrom will guided participants on a walk focusing on Woodbury Mountain’s diverse landscape formations, its general ecology, and the benefits of rewilding.