Creating environmental detectives

One of the projects the accredited Pee Dee Land Trust in South Carolina is working on — with some Land Trust Alliance Excellence seed money — is called the Black Creek BioBlitz. This is a one-year series of one- to two-hour field trips with school kids as "environmental detectives," conducting inventories of native flora and fauna at our new Dargan Nature Preserve. By the end of September we’ll have had over 650 children in the field who have identified hundreds of species, and they’ll share the results with many other students, teachers and parents through social media and as part of an international "i-naturalist" program.  

The project has benefits on many levels, including what we've learned in Alliance Excellence trainings:

• Using our preserve as an "ambassador landscape" to reach a broader range of people in the communities we serve (including the growing subset of kids who’ve never been in the woods).
• Inspiring children to overcome their doubts or fears and use their inherent skills as amateur naturalists. We are helping to create our next generation of conservationists.
• Serving as a catalyst for schools and youth groups in the area to consider starting their own bioblitz programs to enhance the limited environmental education offerings.

As students explore the rich oak-pine forest laden with a wide variety of biodiversity, they will use fun surveying techniques, such as searching under cover boards, rocks and fallen logs for hidden creatures. They will be provided with field guides that will assist them in identifying organisms and a workbook to document their findings. This hands-on learning experience will enhance skills for observing, documenting and analyzing data.

Check out our website and you’ll see lots of happy kids: www.peedeelandtrust.org/bioblitz.

David Harper is executive director of Pee Dee Land Trust.