The inaugural SBECO Rotary Bioblitz took place on an unusually cloudy and wet morning at San Dieguito County Park.
Like us, the bugs and lizards seemed to be hiding from the rain, making it a challenge—but still fun—to find and photograph garden life. Community members, including families, professors, nature enthusiasts, and club members, gathered to try the iNaturalist app to document biodiversity in the SMRT Garden and compare it with a nearby butterfly garden and lawn. The uploaded photographs in the iNaturalist app get verified by naturalists and contribute to scientific data about wildlife. Ultimately, this information may lead to better understanding of biodiversity loss and solutions.
The event was held in conjunction with California Biodiversity Day on September 7 and a week of activities highlighting biodiversity in local communities. The goals of the SBECO Bioblitz were to educate the public about biodiversity loss, iNaturalist, the benefits of large natural parks like San Dieguito, and the role of SBECO Rotary. Despite the shy wildlife, the event successfully met all its goals. We found that the butterfly garden had by far the greatest biodiversity, likely because it has been established for more than a decade, while the native plants in the SMRT Garden have been in place for less than a year. The lawn had expectantly very little animal life aside from the usual snails and ants.
At the end of the event, participants received small prizes and learned more about our club, the park, and iNaturalist. Everyone seemed to enjoy the event to spite the rain, and we plan to host more bioblitzes in the future.