Grand Lake Protected Natural Area Bioblitz 2013-2014

The Grand Lake Protected Natural Area (GL PNA) includes eastern Canada’s largest and some of its most significant freshwater wetlands. The 10,697 hectares that make up the PNA are spread across 21 parcels of land in the Grand Lake Basin and the Eastern Lowlands Ecoregions.

The landscape is relatively flat with elevations that range to no more 160 m. Much of the PNA is seasonally flooded. Biological inventory work carried for the 2013 and 2014 Bioblitz seasons will be co-ordinated out of the village of Gagetown, near the south eastern boundary of the PNA. Our Bioblitz field lab will be located in the Historic Queens County Courthouse, with thanks to the Queens County Heritage Inc. We have also had terrific support from the Village of Gagetown. Bioblitz 2013 and 2014 will be years 5 and 6 for the program established in 2009, and the 3rd of 10 large PNAs that the New Brunswick Museum’s Centre for Biodiversity Research will investigate over the 20 year duration of the project. As in the past, the program brings together biodiversity experts from across North America who spend 14 days intensively surveying a wide diversity of life-forms in these important conservation areas. Along with experts, students and local naturalists also contribute, with most volunteering their time. Data collected will help inform management plans for these sites and contribute to long-term monitoring across the larger New Brunswick landscape. Specimens collected during BioBlitz 2013-14 will be deposited in the New Brunswick Museum where they will be and readily accessible to researchers. The programme also provides training opportunities in the biodiversity sciences for students and a public open house in the Bioblitz field lab helps to foster a sense of stewardship in the community surrounding the PNA. Our Artist-in-Residence program, established in 2010, with certainly produce artworks documenting the life-forms and landscapes of the PNA, as well as the researchers engaged in their work. For 2013-14 we are pleased to have Wayne Clifford as Poet-in-Residence with us well.

Project Artist

In the summers of 2013-14, several Artists-in-Residence, including Aleta Karstad, Mathieu Leger, Tim Grear and Kim Stubbs and Poet-in-Residence, Wayne Clifford, will join the team of biodiversity specialists who spend time in the field at Grand Lake. Science is one way to interpret the world, arts is another. The bioblitz art program operates on the premise that these two approaches complement each other. Aleta Karstad, is an experienced scientific illustrator and natural history artist based in Ontario at the Bishops Mills Natural History Center; Mathieu Leger, has completed many artist- in-residence programs when not working from his studio, La Factrie, in the Centre culturel Aberdeen, Moncton; Kim Stubbs, is an experienced painter, who works from her home studio in Upper Gagetown, while her husband Tim Grear is a forester by trade and an avocational artist. Wayne Clifford, based in Grand Manan, is the author of many poetry books. Artists will join biodiversity specialists in the field and lab to document the landscapes and biological diversity of the Grand Lake PNA, as well as the work underway. Artists-in-Residence and Poet-in-Residence will be on hand for the open house to share their artistic interpretations with visitors.

Media

18 August 2014
Bioblitz turns up invasive snail in Grand Lake Meadows (CBC News)

18 August 2014
Bioblitz (CBC News)

14 August 2014
Bioblitz sets up shop in Gagetown (Oromocto Post Gazette)

12 August 2014
2014 NBM Bioblitz at Grand Lake Protected Natural Area

4 August 2014
BioBlitz at New Brunswick's Grand Lake draws biologists from all over (CBC News)

4-10 July 2013
Researchers come up with big finds (Here)

19 June 2013
Bioblitz tackling 10 areas in 20 years (Telegraph Journal)

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