The New Brunswick Museum is leading the 13th annual BiotaNB field project this summer, the second of a two-year plan to document the biodiversity of the 22,000-hectare Loch Alva Protected Natural Area (PNA), near Saint John.

The project will take place from August 14 – 27, and will see more than 60 experts, volunteers, and students from across Canada, the US, and Europe come together to document biological diversity in New Brunswick’s protected coastal forest and wetland habitat.

Dr. Donald McAlpine, Head of the New Brunswick Museum Department of Natural History and the project lead notes that “months, sometimes even years of lab work in the NBM and other institutions worldwide can follow from the relatively short period BiotaNB experts spend in the field”.

The project’s field lab will be based in Musquash close to the Loch Alva PNA. In 2023 BiotaNB participants working in the Loch Alva PNA discovered various lichens, insects, and a frog that were all new to region. Several species were new to the province and one lichen was new to North America. Similar new discoveries are expected for 2024.

In addition to biodiversity experts, several Artists-in-Residence will be participating, including Aleta Karstad, an experienced scientific illustrator and natural history artist and 2018 recipient of the Canadian Wildlife Federation Robert Bateman Award; Mathieu Léger, a multidisciplinary contemporary artist based in Moncton and the 2024 Atlantic nominee for the Sobey Art Award, and Michael McEwing, a landscape artist and art educator from Carleton County, who creates in a variety of media, including oil and acrylic painting, printmaking and mixed media.

On Sunday, August 25 from 12:30-5:30 p.m., a public open house will be held in the BiotaNB Field Lab, located at the Musquash Volunteer Fire-Rescue Hall, 35 Malcolm Meehan Road, Musquash, N.B. It’s a wonderful chance to meet the experts, artists, and students participating in this two-week project, and to learn about their many fascinating discoveries.

The NBM wishes to acknowledge and thank the supporters who have made the 2024 BiotaNB possible through their contributions, including the New Brunswick Environmental Trust Fund, New Brunswick Department of Energy and Resource Development, New Brunswick Wildlife Trust Fund, The McCain Foundation, JD Irving Limited and Simpson Motors Limited.

For more information:

Luis Cardoso, New Brunswick Museum | 506-565-3700 | luis.cardoso@nbm-mnb.ca