The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) and the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Las Vegas Field Office are hosting a bioblitz at Gold Butte National Monument (GBNM) on May 2-6, 2024. This is a first for our monument and our expectations are high for a successful event. You are invited to attend and participate in the activities of their choice.

The bioblitz

What is a bioblitz you ask? A bioblitz, at its core, is a scientific event designed to find and document living organisms. Having more people significantly increases the probability of spotting elusive organisms. Scientists expect certain species to exist at GBNM based on factors like location, climate, geology, and topography. However, not every species/organism has been seen there let alone documented. The absence of scientific proof means some decisions are made based on estimates and assumptions rather than evidence and facts.

The challenge

The major reasons for this lack of evidence is the difficulty in reaching many of the remote sections of the monument and, that there are not enough scientists/observers nor time for conducting these thorough investigations. To address these shortcomings, both here at GBNM and at countless other locations around the world, scientists came up with two “tools”. First is the bioblitz, and the other is technology.

The volunteers

In a bioblitz, ordinary citizens become citizen scientists. They are paired with experts and formed into small teams. The teams go to specific areas at certain times to find, identify, and document their targeted species. For example, a “bird” group might go to a spring and sit quietly while waiting for birds to come to the area. Citizen scientists help by pointing out the birds so the experts can identify what bird it is. At the same time other citizen scientists can write down the information or take pictures. During this process citizen scientists gain knowledge and experience. In the end, your help contributes to the universal body of knowledge. Every job is important and ever person’s contribution is greatly appreciated.

The technology

With technology, citizen scientists can now contribute to the body of knowledge even without an expert standing next to you. Personal computers, the internet, and smart phones now provide unprecedented opportunities. The computer program and phone app iNaturalist is one example. This free program allows anyone to take pictures of living organisms and automatically uploads the pertinent details of the observation into a worldwide database. Once entered into the database, a computer algorithm helps with its identification. Other people, including scientists can also help identify and verify your observations.

The data

This collective data is currently helping scientists in hundreds of studies. As this article is being written, over 173 million observations were made worldwide by almost 3 million observers, both professional scientists and citizen scientists. Through this program, observers can communicate with experts to ask questions and increase their own knowledge. This program is also very useful in learning the names and characteristics of living organisms. Over time, many observers gain enough experience to help identify and verify other people’s observations. You can get the iNaturalist app is for free at Google Play for android phones and the App Store for i-phones.

Join us

The Gold Butte Bioblitz will use iNaturalist as the data collecting and storing method. We will host classes on how best to use iNaturalist at a future date. If you are interested in participating, you can create a profile on iNaturalist and sign up through NDOW at the following link:  https://nevada.volunteers.kalkomey.com/events/7853

You can also rewatch our Speaker Series on the bioblitz on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/DqLf0lNBi20?si=v87NEdAcRvbJwmvt

For more information, please contact NDOW biologist Matt Flores at: mhflores@ndow.org