NEBRASKA CITY – The Nebraska City Riverview Nature Park is hosting a bioblitz on Friday, Sept. 12, to help document some of the signs of life in the critical ecosystem of a mature woodland and wetland along the Missouri River.

Brianna Graham, president of the Friends of the Riverview Nature Park, said volunteers can come to the park and download the free  iNaturalist app to begin documenting the park’s different species and promote more informed decisions about managing the park.

Graham: “We’re doing this to basically raise awareness for the pollinators and how important they are for our ecosystem.”

 

Photographs of anything living are encouraged from fungus and plants to butterflies, squirrels and birds.

Graham: “Whatever you see you can document and then researchers can use that to verify what they are and provide us with the information.”

The National Recreation and Park Association is partnering with Scotts Miracle-Gro for the national pollinator Bioblitz each September.

Graham said Riverview Nature Park is a natural for the program.

 

Graham: “I’d say it’s a huge hotbed actually of biodiversity. Being an upland forest, an old-growth forest above a river, a watershed, it’s really one of the most critical places to protect and preserve.”

The Bioblitz is scheduled from 3 to 5 p.m. but volunteers are encouraged to take photos for as long as they like.

Graham: “The important thing is to remember that these pollinators that we’re trying to protect are a vital component of our ecosystem and an essential link to the world’s food supply.”

She said the pollinators are responsible for the reproduction of 90 percent of the world’s flowering plants including two-thirds of our crops.