The BioBlitzkrieg begins

May 30, 10:30am

Based on the amount of people at the opening ceremony, the previously estimated number of participants seems severely overstated. That said, there are sizable herds of elementary, middle, and high school students grazing about. Several of them had to leave the opening speeches in order to begin their field studies—most notably the marine work held a few miles away at Malibu Pier and Lagoon. (We’re going there soon.)

One conspicuous aspect of this event, to me, is cost. There is a lot going on here and I wonder, frankly, who’s paying for it. Expenses are likely being absorbed by numerous entities, including the NGS and the park services. That the NGS is a non-profit suggests it may have received donations of time, property, and/or products.

Some of the logistical expenses include:

-reserving all the grounds surrounding Malibu Creek State Park
-buses: at last count there were ten school and two coach, plus drivers and fuel
-parking: orange cones demarcate the spaces, and there are a handful of park staff playing traffic cop, along with a California Highway Patrol cruiser (an actual traffic cop)
-Mounted Volunteer Patrol: three horseback riders are galloping across the ranch (doing what, I’m not certain)

…and also the musicians, vendors, signs, sound system, water coolers, t-shirts, other paraphernalia, and roughly 40 portable poop receptacles.

Clearly, this was not a cheap endeavor.

-j/d
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11:00am

Jay Snow, a former psychologist who migrated from Park City, Utah, to become a park ranger years ago, said many of the schools have done this type of event before. The last one was in Death Valley, a ways to our east. They documented plant life and some invertebrates. (They think they found a new species, but won’t be positive until the results of the field study are concluded*.) Snow said that kids from a Las Vegas school had never seen stars before**, and that Death Valley was a great spot to observe the brilliance of the night sky. Vegas and LA routinely expose their residents and visitors to hazardous levels of light pollution. Death Valley's isolated proximity easily affords star gazers an unhindered view of the galaxy above. (“Observing the night sky” in Death Valley may also just be a euphemism for “we can’t take prepubescent youths into that life-size microwave in daylight without risking costly liability.”)


*: Snow didn’t exactly explain what that entails, or when it will be.
**: We met this cat last night—a short, weathered and repetitively talkative fellow in his middle-age. He’s an awesome dude, but this is a dubious assertion.

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There is a crew on site operating the Science Mobile, a Fresno-based “mobile science workshop” that travels to different schools and science related events. It’s like an ice cream truck for science nerds, you know, except twice as long, with plenty of microscopes, and free of flag-colored popsicles and annoying jingles.

-j/d

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1:00pm

Base Camp this year is at the Paramount Ranch, where TV networks have filmed such examples of broadcasting mediocrity as “Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman” and some random episode of “The Biggest Loser.” It’s a cool historic western town where the buildings have retained their folksy architecture—which is presumably not the original.

It’s sunny, of course, there’s a slight breeze and a single cloud in the sky. The temperature is in the low 70s. When arbitrary religious scriptures speak about heaven, this is what they refer to. The chances of me returning east are slimming.

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There are vendors and informational tents and tables lining the perimeter of the Paramount. One of the tents belongs to the LA County Department of Regional Planning (DRP). Gina Natoli, the Supervising Regional Planner described the department as “land use regulators.” The DRP works on a range of county-wide projects, but today Natoli is educating Blitzers on the Santa Monica Mountains Local Coastal Program. The Santa Monica Mountains Coastal Zone “comprises about 52,000 acres…and is approximately 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles,” their handout-poster declares. Natoli claims their mission is to monitor and ensure that coastal zone development includes “green” (her word) buildings, and that preservation of the region was an utmost concern.

The Santa Monica Mountains Coastal Zone Plan, combined with the California Coastal Act (CCA), is the tool in which the DRP will implement its preservation intentions. The CCA—enacted in 1976—instructs “[each] local government lying, in whole or in part, within the coastal zone” to devise a plan that, according to the DRP, “[manages] the conservation and development of coastal regions.” The text on the subject is extensive. So, I’ll leave you with the most sensible and progressive statement found on the paperwork I’ve just sifted through. Beneath a header titled “Conservation and Open Space,” the DRP states as one of its “Guiding Principles” that “[r]esource protection has priority over development.”

The densest region of the most populous state in our Union has just declared that protecting its resources—some of which are scarily finite—transcends the desire to intrude with more human expansiveness (i.e. – for dollars). That is profundity we could all learn from.

-j/d

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1:30pm

Scientists from the Southwestern Herpetologists Society (SWHS) are attending the BioBlitz and will be searching for snakes, lizards, and other reptiles that can easily creep into the bottom of a sleeping bag undetected. As mentioned previously, rattlesnakes are not to be messed with; they’re the only venomous snake species in California. Rattlesnakes account for most of the approximately 45,000 yearly snake bites in the U.S. But the folks at the SWHS are quick to note that “more people die annually of bee stings, being struck by lightning [or] by golf balls” than from snake venom. (Makes you wonder how many snakes are killed each year by golf clubs.)

Outdoorsy types are advised to be aware of their surroundings and avoid putting their hands and feet in holes, under rocks, on ledges or other surfaces with obstructed views where rattlers might be hanging out. The reptiles don’t attack maliciously, but rather from perceived threats—like curious human provocation. Basically, what the SWHS representatives are implying is that many snake bite victims get what they have coming to them. If you’re reading this, do yourself a favor and don’t learn the hard way.

They brought out some toys to play with today. Three non-lethal dirt cruisers: the coastal patch snake (Salvadora hexalepis virgula); a striped racer (Masticophis lateralis lateralis); and a San Bernardino Mountain King Snake (Lampropeltis zonata parviruba). King snakes are cousins to the eastern milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum), but with a different scale pattern, that can be found in Ohio, among other states. They have a slender, congruent body and are harmless; those with triangular heads and thicker frames are not.

-j/d

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3:00pm

Today’s first study was of spineless aquatic life at the Malibu Pier. Divers extracted various invertebrates from around the pier pilings (and tried to not get strangled by thick strands of floating kelp). They didn’t pull out much, but what they did was interesting. In a small, clear bin—otherwise used to store fraying sweaters during a humid summer—were four starfish. Two of the Pisasters ochraceus were a deep purple and the others orange; each had similar spinacious* patterns. The fish were stiff and course, the top exterior of their arms like a cheese grater covering an underneath of a thousand malleable sucking tentacles. As we paged through a species manual, the slow moving creatures attempted to correct their positioning. In the water, when the fish are upside down, they use the tentacles to flip themselves over. They can’t do so in a plastic container with water not as deep as they are tall.

More than once, scientists Dean Pentcheff and Regina Wetzer would lift other tiny invertebrates that had latched on to a host organism (the big starfish, in this case). When asked whether any of the beings were dangerous, Wetzer, with an inch-long Brittle starfish (Ophiurida) in hand, answered, “We don’t have any parasites on this coast. That’s why we can put our hands in the water [bucket].” The few Brittle stars that had been taken from the backs of the pisasters were one of two feeding types. Some find food by using a web of mucous that captures particles from the water. Others use what Wetzer calls “snake-like, predator” arms.

There were about fifteen or so people rummaging through containers of sand and seaweed with utensils, searching for life. They sat around an unfolded plastic table and labeled what they had found. At one end, pairs of eyes peered into a microscope to observe the tiniest animals. A high caliber still camera and white board were set up to document the findings at the same end. The Pier team, along with a few others--one on the beach, about 200 yards up the point; and others inland studying the lagoon--documented 91 marine invertebrate species.

*: A scientist’s word; I’ve never heard it.

-j/d