Prince Edward County/Longwood University
On Site Contact: Ed Kinman (kinmanel@longwood.edu) and Sujan Henkanaththegedara (Henkanaththegedarasm@longwood.edu)
The “Prince Edward Bioblitz” will occur on April 23 from 9:00am to 2:00 pm at Lancer Park, a small but diverse habitat at the confluence of Buffalo Creek and the Appomattox River that contains streams, ponds, wetlands, eastern forests, grassy meadows and some transitional habitats on the Longwood University campus. Here is a list of planned activities:
1) Guided nature explorations with experts- we would have separate exploration groups led by one or more local experts to cover birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, invertebrates, and plants in Lancer Park. We would expect Longwood students, local K-12 students, volunteers from local organizations and general public to attend this event.
2) Identification stations – we will organize both indoor and outdoor species identification tables for various difficult taxa including invertebrates, plants and herps. These stations will be equipped with field guides, identification keys, stereo-microscopes, hand lenses etc.
3) “Touch tables”- Trained Longwood students will run these tables with preserved specimens. This will serve as a public education tool to educate public about local biodiversity.
An evening event on bioblitz- We will organize an evening program before the bioblitz as an introduction to bioblitz which is open to Longwood students, faculty, staff, local community and any interested party. Date for this activity has not be set.
Lancer Park is just northwest of the main Longwood campus. In addition to the apartments, there is a newly built Environmental Education Center overlooking the floodplain of the Appomattox River. Directions to Lancer Park will take you to the site. We will have signs near the entrance to Lancer Park.
See photos of the day’s event at: http://blogs.longwood.edu/longwoodbioblitz/
More information can be found by visiting the Virginia Geographic Alliance’s registration site (http://tinyurl.com/VGABioBlitz2016).
