Any time you step outside, you're surrounded by scores — hundreds, thousands, perhaps, of living species. This week, a BioBlitz in the Fort Smith area is observing and cataloging some of those species. Willow McFerran is a student researcher and senior biology major at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith organizing and leading the effort.
"We're getting people out onto these sites to learn about iNaturalist, learn about what a BioBlitz is, and identify all the plants and animals there," McFerran said.
iNaturalist is an app that's easy to use. See a bug, reptile or plant, snap a picture, then wait for the identification. Already this week, groups of students, faculty and community members have turned out at Ben Geren and Creekmore Parks in Fort Smith as part of the BioBlitz.
"People will come up, they'll see us under a booth and we'll introduce ourselves," McFerran said. "We'll ask them to complete an optional survey if they're interested, and then we take them out and show them some field techniques and show them how to use iNaturalist if needed. Let them use binoculars or butterfly nets potentially, and just get them outside and identify things."
There are still two more official events this week with the UAFS BioBlitz. Tomorrow night on the UAFS campus, McFerran and her colleagues will set up a specially lit tent.
"We're going to have a UV light set on a sheet to hopefully get some insects, and then also we might take a little detour and look for some reptiles and amphibians on campus," she said.
Already there have been some exciting observations.
"Rachel Putman actually had a really cool moth. I have never seen that one before," McFerran said.
Rachel Putman, director of Strategic Communications at UAFS, turned out to be a pretty good moth hunter.
"The BioBlitz has been on campus and anyone can join. And so I downloaded my app. It was super easy. And then we've been around taking photos. And so Willow and her group were working on a pond project. And so we went over to visit them and see if they'd found any cool animals in the pond. And on my way back, I saw a moth that was bigger than my hand. I don't know how to say its official name, but it was just waiting by a light."
Other observations this week on campus included a speckled kingsnake, and there should be dozens of other species observed Saturday for the final official part of the UAFS BioBlitz. It's taking place at the Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center on Wells Lake Road.
"This is a really cool nature center that has a big pond," McFerran said. "We're going to be set up in the multimedia room inside there, but we will be getting minnow traps out in the water, potentially seining it and just looking for anything cool there because they have a lot of native restored areas there."
When this particular BioBlitz concludes, the Fort Smith region finds can aid researchers via iNaturalist to calculate migration patterns and track species across the area. McFerran says there is a research project embedded within this BioBlitz, and there will be a paper published with the findings. As of Wednesday, already plenty of sightings.
"As of right now, we have 480 observations with 229 species," she said.
The great news is, even if you can't get to one of the UAFS BioBlitz activities, you can still help inform iNaturalist about the species near you.
"Outside of the week-long BioBlitz that we are doing, you can use iNaturalist every single day. You can use it anytime. iNaturalist is really simple, so families can use it. You can use it with your kids and you can use it in your own backyard."
UAFS BioBlitz activities open to all remaining this week include the survey on the UAFS Campus Green tomorrow night from 7:30-9 p.m. and Saturday at the Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. The project is supported in part by a Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship grant from the Arkansas Division of Higher Education.
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