Saturday, March 19th: Arbor Day Green Connection Bioblitz

March 11, 2016
Educator News
by Lynne Harden
Coit Tower in San Francisco

Photo by Travis Wise

Join the Academy, the SF Department of the Environment, the Department of Public Works, the SF Planning Department, Nature in the City, and Friends of the Urban Forest as we document all the plants and animals we can over the course of San Francisco's Green Connection #1.

Bioblitzes are gatherings of scientists, citizen scientists, land managers, and more, all working together to find and identify as many different species as possible. Bioblitzes not only help land managers build a species list and atlas for their park and provide invaluable data for researchers, they also highlight the incredible biodiversity in these Bay Area oases. People of all ages and skill levels are welcome! 

The Green Connections are routes designed by an innovative and thoughtful team to provide habitat corridors and healthy, safe streets for walking and biking. Route one, designed with Monarch butterflies in mind, runs from the Embarcadero and Filbert Streets to Lyon and Greenwich, passing by Coit Tower, Washington Square Park and Fort Mason on the way.

Encouraging your students to participate in this Arbor Day Green Connection Bioblitz and/or other bioblitzes with their families and friends is a great way to help them connect to your classroom units on ecosystems, biodiversity, and conservation.  Or, round up some chaperons and bring your entire class on a bioblitz field trip.    

What to bring and where to go

  • Bring your curiosity and tons of enthusiasm. We’ll rally some experts and folks who know city nature well. Together we’ll make some great discoveries, get to know the biodiversity along Green Connection #1 and each other better!
     
  • Bring your smartphone. Don't have an iNat account yet? No problem! Sign up for an iNaturalist account, then download the app. We’ll enter observations in iNaturalist and join together at the end to find out how many observations we made and how many species we found.
     
  • Bonus: camera, binoculars, and magnifying glasses. 

  • Join us for the fair and bioblitz on Saturday, March 19th at:

    Francisco Middle School, 2190 Powell St, San Francisco, CA 94133

    We will meet at 9:30, divide into teams, choose our routes, and get blitzing!

    We'll meet back at the school for lunch and to go over our finds!

Share This