Thursday, June 23, 2016

BioBlitz: Discovering Nature's Neighborhood


Among the forests, swamps, tidal wetlands, and ocean waves of Narragansett, Rhode Island, more than 200 adult volunteers, school children, working scientists, and avocational naturalists scramble in early June to tally as many species as possible in one 24-hour period within a designated parcel of land. The event is called BioBlitz.

BioBlitz is an annual event in which scientists and citizen scientists spend one full day and night observing, identifying, and recording as many fish, birds, mammals, insects, fungi, trees, and plants as they can.

BioBlitz: Discovering Nature's Neighborhood chronicles the 2013 event in a half-hour documentary that makes its television debut on Thursday, July 21 at 8:30 p.m. 

A special event by any measure, this particular BioBlitz was made even more notable for the volunteers braving the elements after a tropical storm dumped 4 1/2 inches of rain overnight. The Narragansett project, which included Canonchet Farm, Narrow River, and the Pettaquamscutt Cove, located 1,265 species of life.

Hosted by the Rhode Island Natural History Survey annually since 2000 in various sites around Rhode Island, BioBlitz: Discovering Nature's Neighborhood was filmed by the Coastal Institute at University of Rhode Island.

Presented as part of Rhode Island StoriesBioBlitz: Discovering Nature's Neighborhood will encore on Saturday July 23 at 11:30 p.m. and Sunday, July 24 at 7:30 p.m.


WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) content over the air on 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08/1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08/508HD, Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD (Comcast SD subscribers check local listings for channel), Verizon FiOS 18/518HD; on satellite: Dish 36/7776, DirecTV 36.