By Riya Chinni
Carmel Clay Parks and Recreation will conduct its second BioBlitz from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 4 at West Park. The event aims to connect Carmel residents to the local ecosystem and help with species identification.
“It’s a free volunteer event and it basically asks people to come out to West Park all day and identify as many species as we can, and that includes invasive species,” said Brittany McAdams, CCPR natural resources coordinator said.
CCPR conducted its first BioBlitz in the fall of 2018 and conducted one in the spring to get species variation.
“Last year, we identified over 170 species at West Park, and that includes plants, animals, amphibians, birds, aquatic invertebrates, just a whole host of things that really engages and connects people to nature but also gives us really valuable information,” McAdams said.
University High School is partnering with CCPR because West Park is across the street from the campus. The park and school are separated by a wildlife corridor
“One of the challenges for natural ecosystems is habitat fragmentation, so when there’s an opportunity to connect a wildlife corridor, we really want to jump on that,” said Michael Allen, CCPR parks and natural resources director. “We’ve got this partnership with University High School because they are very aware of the same issue.”
McAdams said that all community members are welcome to attend at any point during the day.
“We encourage people for signing up for a time slot, so that that way we can know we have a good data collection team,” McAdams said. “We really just want to provide that opportunity for people to go out and connect with nature in a different way.”
