Conservationists in Langley, B.C., adopt new methods to catalogue biodiversity
Annual blitz to catalogue all living things goes on despite COVID-19 obstacles
Conservationists in Langley are hoping to catalogue hundreds of living things over a two-week period despite not being able to deploy volunteers en masse to the area's green spaces due to the pandemic.
Once a year, the Yorkson Watershed Enhancement Society organizes an evening in June where groups of people converge on Yorkson Creek, a salmon-bearing waterway, to try to catalogue all the living things there.
The activity, known as a bioblitz, is popular around the world as a way to create databases of biodiversity and monitor change.
"And hopefully see that it's not decreasing or see that we are learning more about what lives here," said Marlee St Pierre, a volunteer with the society and an outdoor educator in Langley.
This year, the society worried about how to run the event and respect physical distancing guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead of taking a year off, it decided to extend the event in a bigger — but different — way.
'Small little pockets of nature'
The Yorkson society reached out to other watershed societies and environmental stewardship groups around Langley Township to run the bioblitz over a two-week period where volunteers use online tools to record and catalogue plants and animals.
"There's a lot of different wildlife in the most urban places of Langley if you stop and look," said Kirk Robertson, a conservationist and volunteer with Yorkson.
"We need to do more in the Township of Langley to preserve those pockets of nature. Some of them are in danger."
Until June 14, organizers like Robertson are asking people in Langley to head outside — even just to backyards — to take pictures of any plants, birds, animals or insects that they see and then upload them to the Langley Watershed Bioblitz page on iNaturalist.org.
The app identifies species, eliminating the need for users to be familiar with the plants and animals they're photographing.
'Just opens your eyes'
St Pierre said she uploaded a picture of what she thought was a bee, but later learned that it was a type of fly that mimics a bee.
"It just opens your eye to how amazing our local places are and how many different things share this world with us and our little pocket of the world," said St Pierre. "It really just makes every walk so much richer and more interesting when I'm observant of the different birds and plants ... from the ground up to the sky."
So far more than 100 people have made nearly 1,000 observations of close to 350 different species.
St Pierre hopes those numbers will double by June 14. Robertson is hopeful too that the project will give a more accurate account of the species living in Langley Township and in each of the watersheds so that the information can be considered with future development plans.
"We want to make sure there is a lot more information," he said, adding that some green spaces are under threat.
"They could be developed in the near future if municipalities don't take deliberate steps [to protect them]," he said.
Langley Township's population increased by 13 per cent between the 2006 and 2011 census, the highest of any Metro Vancouver municipality.