Sam McDonald Special Second Bio-Blitz: February 15 (rain date February 16)

Dear Friends -

On March 2, 2019, we did a Bio-blitz at Sam McDonald County Park. We were dodging raindrops and muddy roads much of the day, but still gained a respectable total (and lots of fungus!). However, the conditions precluded getting to the more distant parts of the park, where there is greater habitat diversity. So we are going to try again with a special planned type of blitz.

What makes this Blitz different is that we will start at 8:00 am and give everyone freedom to go to the targeted areas of the park. This will necessitate a preliminary hike of about one mile no matter where you start (and you can be blitzing along the way, of course, since we will use the same boundaries as on the March 2019 blitz). Once you have arrived at an "uncovered" location (not well-represented in the previous Blitz), you can stay as long as you want, provided you are back to the parking lot by closing time. There will be no formal "wrap-up" session, though there will likely be a convivial dinner meeting.

The trails in question are

1. Ridge Fire Road (from about 1/3 of a mile up from the gate off of Pescadero Road at trail#6 to trail #26; easy parking at large pullout just west of the gate on the south side of the road)
2. Towne Fire Road (from about trail marker 20 to trail marker 33)
3. All of the East Brook Trail (from trail marker 28 to a tad south of trail marker 32)
4. West Brook Trail (from trail marker 27 for about .75 of a mile south)
5. Heritage Grove Trail south from 21 to 30/31
6. For those averse to uphill walking, the bulk of the Heritage Grove Trail from trail marker 14 to 25 is uncovered, especially in the middle sections. One could start at either the main parking lot or the Heritage Grove Parking on Alpine Road (limited, dirt lot that is often muddy)

Here is the project link for the March 2019 blitz:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/2019-sam-mcdonald-park-bioblitz

For those of you not familiar with the African-American history of this park, check it out!
https://parks.smcgov.org/sam-mcdonald-park-history

DAY: Saturday February 15, 2020 (rain date Sunday February 16, 2020)
TIME: 8:00 am start; running all the daylight hours; come when you can, leave when you like
PLACE: Meeting at Sam McDonald main parking lot
CONTACT: Jennifer Rycenga (gyrrlfalcon@earthlink.net)

Let me know if you are interested in attending. I am hoping to garner talented iNat-ters of all types!

Jennifer

Posted on 12 de novembro de 2019, 06:26 AM by gyrrlfalcon