Conservation Florida hosted an immersive online series that explored the backyards of Florida and recorded their biodiversity.
Over 100,000 observations made during Conservation Florida's Great Florida Backyard Bioblitz
Conservation Florida (CFL), a leader in statewide land conservation, hosted its first virtual Great Florida Backyard Bioblitz series during April and May to provide an at-home exploration of Florida’s biodiversity during spring school closures and stay-at-home orders resulting from Covid-19.
This young lady found a colorful ringneck snake in her family’s pool. Our backyard wildlife may be wild, but sometimes they find themselves in need of a helping hand. Photo by Dr. Mark Cook @lightswitchaddict.
Using Facebook live and Zoom, CFL transformed an in-person bioblitz into an immersive online experience that was enjoyed by more than 14,000 viewers. Thanks to a partnership with the University of Florida’s Thompson Earth Systems Institute and their Scientist in Every Florida School program, webinars of the events were made available to K-12 students via thousands of teachers statewide.
In a traditional bioblitz, participants come together to find, count, and identify as many species of plants, animals, microbes, fungi, and other organisms as they can. Using the iNaturalist app, participants recorded observations from their own backyards, neighborhoods, and nearby wild spaces to CFL's Great Florida Backyard Bioblitz project. Over the course of two months, 9,427 participants logged 114,329 observations and recorded 7,585 species.
CFL hosted four live online Great Florida Backyard Bioblitz events that each followed a special guest who lead viewers through unique areas of Florida. The four hosts of the Great Florida Backyard Bioblitz allowed viewers and participants to virtually visit several Florida locations from an urban park in Tallahassee to a cattle ranch in the Northern Everglades.
The Great Florida Backyard Bioblitz as an online series was successful thanks to each of the participants, viewers, partners, and special guests. In addition to educating people of all ages about Florida’s immense biodiversity, this program allowed CFL to facilitate the recording of important species for scientists working to understand and conserve nature.
Meet the special guests who volunteered to support this program:
Peter Kleinhenz
Peter works as the Aucilla River watershed coalition coordinator for Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy. He also hosts an online video series, Wild Wander, that tells the stories of unique and important natural ecosystems. In his free time, Peter enjoys herbing, birding, and exploring new places while searching for plants and animals.
Chad Crawford
As a native Floridian, Chad has made it his mission to share his beloved home state with the world. He is often called Florida’s Ambassador for this very reason. Emmy award-winning how to Do florida began as a way to combine Chad’s passions – filmmaking, Florida, and literally anything outdoors – but has evolved into a passion project. Chad uses his platforms to create fans o f Florida, but more importantly, he is interested in creating advocates for Florida.
Carlton Ward, Jr.
An eighth-generation Floridian and Conservation Florida Advisory Board member, Carlton is a conservation photographer and National Geographic Explorer whose passion for nature was born from the Florida landscape. His mission is to inspire appreciation and protection of Florida’s original nature and culture. Carlton’s full-time focus since 2016 has been the Path of the Panther project, where he works as an ambassador for the recovery of the Florida panther. The project, that is supported by grants from the National Geographic Society and numerous partners, calls for conservation of hundreds of thousands of acres of ranchlands and forests and across Florida. Recent honors include receiving the Conservation Leadership Award from the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, being named a Florida Icon by Florida Trend magazine and serving as the Rolex Artist in Exploration with the Explorers Club.
Matt Pearce
Matt is a Florida native and 7th generation cattle rancher. He owns and operates Pearce Cattle Company, a family-owned cow/calf operation with locations throughout South Florida and Central Georgia. He has served on the Florida Cattlemen’s Association Board for 10 years and is currently the President. His goal is to serve the industry and assist in successfully passing down the ranching lifestyle to the next generation.