Bioblitzing Horn Point Laboratory by Michael Valliant
Kent County in 2014; went to Rocky Gap State Park in Allegany County in 2015; and documented the Howard County Conservancy in 2017. The chance to come to Dorchester County and work with scientists at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science on Horn Point’s 800 acres on the Choptank River is a partnership that’s been in the works for a while. Dr. Jamie Pierson, a professor and research scientist at Horn Point, was the point person for the bioblitz. Pierson and Brighton became friends years ago, and Brighton has given a seminar at Horn Point about the work MBP is doing as well as giving a talk to the graduate students at an annual colloquium meeting they hosted. “At that talk, Jim actually pro-
Bioblitz is not the name of a punk band, at least not yet. It’s an event where scientists, naturalists and volunteers get together in an effort to do an intense period ~ generally 24 hours ~ of biological surveying within a designated area. This fall, Maryland Biodiversity Project completed its fifth bioblitz, teaming with Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge to see how many living species they could find and document in a day. Founded by Jim Brighton and Bill Hubick, MBP is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cataloging all the living things in Maryland. They were born to bioblitz. They have gone to different parts of the state, beginning in 2013 with Chino Farms in Queen Anne’s County; they moved to Andelot Farm in
Photo by Meg Maddox
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