A BioBlitz is a day-long educational event that brings scientists and citizens together to explore the biodiversity of their own communities while conducting a "complete" biological inventory in an urban green space. As part of the Great Lakes Forever program, Biodiversity Project organized three BioBlitzes in Wisconsin in 2004. The events successfully brought community attention to local resources, recruited volunteers, and garnered remarkable media attention in newspapers, television and radio coverage.
Here's how we did it:
Biodiversity Project planned the BioBlitzes using the BioBlitz Organizational Guide , produced by the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History. Given the BioBlitz goal of engaging the public in exploring their "backyard" biodiversity, we identified city parks to be Blitzed, rather than wildlife sanctuaries, conservancies, or private lands that are owned by nature centers. City parks are not necessarily protected for biodiversity, yet they harbor, as we have shown, a diverse number of species. In addition, we scouted locations that had water bodies connected to the Great Lakes . These water bodies helped us to engage the public in aquatic exploration and they helped us teach participants that the Great Lakes basin is an ecosystem that extends well beyond the Lakes' coastlines.
Once parks were selected, we recruited volunteers and vendors, and secured dates that would accommodate maximum attendance - of volunteers and of species. We recruited taxonomic team leaders that could assist with the species inventory, professionals that could set up informational tables to educate the public the four issues of the Great Lakes Forever initiative (water quality, water quantity, habitat protection, and invasive species), and additional volunteers that could simply help the team leaders, create maps of the area, and set up and take down tables and chairs. Enthusiasm for the BioBlitz idea made volunteer recruitment relatively easy. Participants from local university, state and federal natural resource offices and other environmental non-profits all worked well together. In addition, we secured tent rentals and food and coffee donations from vendors local to the area.
We announced and advertised the BioBlitzes using many pathways - posters in local establishments, partner newsletters, long and short-lead press releases to local papers, word of mouth, and E-mail announcements. Within 36 hours, covering 513.2 acres with 284 volunteers, we identified 1,464 species (of course, 
the same species may inhabit all three parks) that make their homes in three city parks in Green Bay, Superior, and Milwaukee , WI . In addition, the BioBlitzes have proven to be of interest to the public and volunteers, and also captured media attention in each community where they were held. Although we would have liked more interested members of the public to pre-register their participation online at www.greatlakesforever.org , BioBlitzes have proven for us to be "walk-up" events.
The BioBlitzes in Brief
- Goals : Engage public and environmental scientists to work together to learn more about biodiversity and the local connections to the Great Lakes ecosystem. Secondary goal, to generate media attention for Great Lakes issues.
- Audiences: As with all Great Lakes Forever products, the target audiences were Great Lakes Lifestylers and/or Engaged Frequent Voters (click here to read more). Attendees included residents of the three coastal communities where the BioBlitzes were held.
- Distribution : Three BioBlitzes were held in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Superior, Wisconsin.
- Outcome : Nearly 300 citizen-volunteers in participated in the three BioBlitzes. Participants learned about biodiversity in their backyard by identifying a total of 1,464 species. The events generated significant media coverage for the Great Lakes , including cover stories on two Sunday papers. The BioBlitz concept was embraced by partner organizations in each city and some are planning new events in 2005.
Planning Your Own BioBlitz?
If you think a BioBlitz would be a good idea for your organization, we'd love to help! Contact Jeffrey Potter at jpotter@biodiverse.org or 608-250-9876.