Jericho Conservation Commission BioBlitz Page

The Conservation Commission is committed to public education and strives to help Jericho residents learn more about the natural communities within our town and beyond. As part of its mission to promote connections with nature the Jericho CC hosts occasional Bioblitzes for the town.

A BioBlitz is an event that focuses on finding and identifying as many species as possible in a specific area over a short period of time. At a BioBlitz, scientists, families, students, teachers, and other community members work together to get a snapshot of an area’s biodiversity. These events can happen in most any geography—urban,Continue reading

The 2021 fall venue is at Mills Riverside Park. Stay tuned for updates on this community nature project.

The Jericho Conservation Commission recently wrapped up the Spring BioBlitz at Mobbs Farm. More information to come the findings from the BilBlitz.Claytonia caroliniana

Andrena sp. (Mining Bee) on Salix sp. (Willow)

Fall Bioblitz 2020 overview:

The Jericho Conservation Commission hosted a BioBlitz in September 2020 as part of our mission to educate Jericho residents on the natural features in town.

Not only did the BioBlitz encourage people to get outdoors while maintaining social distancing, it enabled our collective observations to contribute to the greater scientific knowledge of Vermont’s flora, fauna, and fungi.

Kent McFarland, from the Vermont Center for EcoStudies, acknowledged the importance of our project in this statement:

“Knowing the identity and occurrence of organisms forms a backbone of understanding of our natural heritage. This knowledge is essential for monitoring the state of biodiversity and ecosystems, developing sound environmental management policies, and making ecologically sustainable development decisions. The interest and help from naturalists, students and other volunteers is invaluable because there simply aren't enough scientists to collect this data alone. Here in Vermont we're lucky to have so many folks interested and willing to help discover and monitor biodiversity across the state.”

Kudos to the many people who came to Mobbs Farm during the two weeks of the BioBlitz and submitted observations to iNaturalist. Another goal in hosting the BioBlitz at Mobbs Farm was to highlight the biodiversity of the park as the Mobbs Committee moves forward in its bid to permanently conserve the land with a conservation easement. We on the Conservation Commission hope that the efforts of so many volunteers will showcase this spot in Jericho as not only important to humans, but also to so many other living beings. It is without a doubt worthy of permanent protection from development.

At the end of two weeks we collectively observed:
Plants: 164 species
Insects: 95 species
Birds: 49 species
Fungi: 40 species
Mammals: 5 species
Arachnids: 2 species
Reptiles: 2 species

Autumnal Equinox Edition

Yesterday was the autumnal equinox. The nights have been frosty, but there is still lots to observe for the JCC Bioblitz at Mobbs Farm. We are up to 259 species recorded for science. So far Plant observations are in the lead, with Insects a close second.

If you are one of the 20 observers who has made a submissions to the project - way to go and many thanks! The last day of the bioblitz is Saturday so if you haven't made it over to Mobbs for a science observation walk you still have a few days.

Thank you to Conservation Commissioners Karina Dailey, Allaire Diamond, and Ann Kroll-Lerner, who volunteered to greet bioblitzers and answer their questions at Mobbs this weekend.

In other bioblitz news... Kudos to the teachers at MMU, BTMS, and CHMS for hosting a multi-school bioblitz this week. I volunteered at the CHMS bioblitz in 2019 and the amount of learning that happens when students are doing direct observation and recording of the natural organisms on their school grounds is amazing! The enthusiasm is palpable.

You can check in on their progress here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/chms-campus-fall-2020-bioblitz.
Bioblitz Updates

The first-ever Jericho Bioblitz is off to a great start. Many thanks to the people who have made it over to our project site at Mobbs Farm and made observations of nature for science. As of this posting we have noted over 213 species.
For this weekend we have several times when volunteers from the Conservation Commission will be hanging out near the kiosk at the Fitzsimonds entrance to answer questions. Those times are Saturday 9/19 from 12-2pm & Sunday 9/20 from 10-12am and again from 1-3pm.
The cool thing about posting our observations to iNaturalist (iNaturalist.org) is that it doesn’t require you to know exactly what you are looking at – just a picture of it. You can let the iNaturalist program help you with IDs. For the best results try to get as close to the subject as possible, try to photograph the subject from a few angles (e.g. a mushroom ID is best with pictures of the top and the underside), and try to submit the entry to the most specific taxonomic level you are comfortable with – if you see a bug and you know it’s a bee, but don’t know what kind, choose a label such as “bee family” rather than a blank “question mark”, or if you don’t know if it’s a bee or a wasp then label it as “insect”.
Please check out our home page on the town website for more ways to engage! We have created a virtual place for you to submit nature poetry and artwork. There’s even a map where you can pin the places in Mobbs that you really love to visit. The Bioblitz runs through Saturday, Sept 26^th so there is still plenty of time to participate.