Students help conservation district with ‘BioBlitz’ inventory

DOVER-FOXCROFT — The Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District (PCSWCD) conducted a “BioBlitz” natural resource inventory at the Law Farm in partnership with natural resource professionals, Piscataquis Community Secondary School students and their environmental science teacher Heather Doherty. A BioBlitz is “an event in which teams of volunteer scientists, families, students, teachers and other community members work together to find and identify as many species of plants, animals, microbes, fungi, and other organisms as possible in a designated area,” according to “National Geographic.”

The Law Farm BioBlitz was a great way for students to learn about diverse ecosystems and what they support, and also provided the PCSWCD with baseline data of the animal and plant species that live on the property. The students were teamed with natural resource professionals from the USDA Service Center in Dover-Foxcroft, including the staff and board of the PCSWCD, the soil survey team, staff from the Maine Natural Areas Program, and Unity College student Emily Higgins, who serves as the junior representative to the PCSWCD community forestry committee.

Projects such as this provide opportunities for students and others to learn about how planning and maintaining public lands for natural resources can have everlasting positive effects on a variety of important factors such as ecosystem biodiversity, the health of residents and access to outdoor education and recreation. Shaws Supermarket of Dover-Foxcroft kept the students warm and well-fed with its generous donation of food and beverages for the BioBlitz.

For more information about the BioBlitz, the public lands the PCSWCD manages or any of its programs and services, please contact 564-2321 ext. 3 or info@piscataquisswcd.org.