Last week, fifth grade students from Nevada County schools identified lupine and miner’s lettuce, peered into blue bird nesting boxes and spotted mallards and Western pond turtles in a high-powered scope at Bear Yuba Land Trust’s Black Swan Preserve.

Naturalist Chuck Carroll, Conservation Ecologist Denise Della Santina from Sierra Streams Institute and Ornithologist Ted Beedy were also on hand at Black Swan Preserve to help students identify plants and animals at the old hydraulic mine site near the town of Smartsville.

The outdoor classroom was one of six Bear Yuba Land Trust’s nature preserves visited by kids, teachers and families during the trust’s first two-day Community BioBlitz held May 5-6.

What it’s about

In two days, hundreds of participants visited: 37-acre Adam Ryan Preserve near Alta Sierra, 2,700-acre Rice’s Crossing Preserve at French Bar on the Yuba River, 652-acre working cattle ranch known as Garden Bar on the Bear River, Rice’s Crossing Preserve at Yuba Rim near the town of Dobbins in Yuba County, Black Swan Preserve near the town of Smartsville and Woodpecker Preserve on Banner Mountain in Nevada City.

“Over two days we managed to get over 200 community members onto six of our nature preserves to appreciate the natural world and collect valuable data which will be used locally, statewide and globally to address climate change and natural resource management,” Director of Land Stewardship Erin Tarr said.

Volunteer Cathy Scott, who also attended Saturday’s BioBlitz at Garden Bar Preserve where the Bear River flows, said she observed plants and animals and learned about the human history of the place.

“I was very impressed with the observations and enthusiasm of the students during our fun outing at Black Swan Preserve,” she said.

At the northern end of Rice’s Crossing Preserve, 15 students from Grizzly Hill Elementary School accompanied by parents and teachers, talked about native and invasive species while they identified a dozen common trees along the Yuba Rim Trail.

All in a day’s work

“This was a fun day of hands-on learning and the kids really enjoyed themselves. It was great to work with the future conservationists of the world,” said trust Land Access Manager Shaun Clarke.

Throughout the day, students saw rock lettuce, Sierra chorus frogs, turkey vultures, lupines, buttercups, sticky monkey flowers, swallowtails, a red-tailed hawk, California towhees and even a bald eagle.

Armed with cameras, smartphones and notebooks, young and old participants became “citizen scientists.” Local experts in botany, biology, ornithology and other sciences helped participants identify species and document as many plants, animals, fungi and other organisms that they could see.

Data was compiled and uploaded to the Academy of Sciences’ community-supported web-based database, iNaturalist. The data will become part of a permanent record that will help land managers track the health of plant and wildlife habitat over time that can be used to monitor adaptations to climate change. The trust also hopes to create cool flora and fauna guidebooks for future visits to the preserves.

At French Bar along the Yuba River at Rice’s Crossing Preserve, volunteer and former science teacher J.D. Trebec was out with his phone snapping photos with kids from the 49th Gold Country Scout Troop.

“Down at French Bar there were lots of wildflowers blooming in the meadows, a stream to explore, and a visit to the Yuba,” Trebec said. “Nearly 200 observations were made and 65 species added to iNaturalist so far.”

The trust’s nature preserves are found within the watersheds of the Bear and Yuba Rivers — a region considered to be among the most biologically diverse places on the planet.

The BioBlitz is part of BYLT’s ongoing Kids Encounter Nature programming. Learn more at: http://www.bylt.org.

Laura Petersen is community engagement manager for the Bear Yuba Land Trust. Contact her at laura@bylt.org.