Bioblitz Starts Today!

Year-long plans for a Bioblitz at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (IDNL) will be executed today -- rain or shine!

Sponsored by National Geographic, BioBlitz is a free, 24-hour event in which teams of worldwide and world-reknowned scientists, volunteers and community members join forces to find, identify, and learn about as many local plant and animal species as possible. These teams will start carefully combing through the IDNL at noon today to begin their count, including wetland and terrestial plants, birds, amphibians, insects and fish found in Long Lake and Lake Michigan. While pre-registration closed for working with a scientist a week ago, it's possible that openings may still be available on site. To see a list of slots available, visit http://www.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Field/PDF/bioblitz-general/team-status.pdf.

Even if you are not interested in participating in the species count, consider visiting West Beach anyways, which is considered the Base Camp for the event. Throughout the event there will be talks and live animal demonstrations, exhibitor booths and nature hikes. One highly recommended demonstation is the Bird of Prey live demonstration to be held Saturday at 10:00 a.m. To see a complete schedule for the Bioblitz visit http://www.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Field/PDF/bioblitz-general/schedule.pdf.

The event will wrap up with a Biodiversity Festival from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Saturday. Scientists will be bringing their findings back to West Beach, a stage will feature musicians and other presentations, such as Professor Oops, a fun presentation
showing the many invisible connections that make up life on our planet.

You may also notice a lot of activity at the South Shore parking lot and at Marina Shores. Thousands of schoolchildren are coming by train from Chicago to the Ogden Dunes station to participate in the event, and Marina Shores is being used as overflow parking for West Beach with free shuttles running to and from the park.

National Geographic conducting a BioBlitz in a different park each year throughout the decade leading up to the U.S. National Park Service Centennial in 2016. The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was selected because it is an urban park and is the 5th most biodiverse national park property in the entire nation.