March 20 - June 21 2017 www.auduboninternational.org 1
In this Toolkit: About the Golf Course BioBlitz Getting Started Audubon International 120 Defreest Drive Troy, NY 12180 518-767-9051 Organizing Your Event Submission Instructions Rules for Counting Awards 2
About AI s Golf Course BioBlitz Audubon International is happy to announce the third annual Golf Course BioBlitz! BioBlitz is a species-counting competition designed to create awareness among golfers and the general public about the environmental value of the habitats supported by golf courses. You can invite any number of participants such as golfers and their families, local environmental organizations, youth groups, community members, and local experts to count plant and animal species located on your course. This toolkit will assist you with the logistics of setting up your BioBlitz and engaging the community around your course. BioBlitz is open to any golf course in the world, including those not affiliated with Audubon International. Questions? Contact: Allie Smith Program Specialist allie@auduboninternational.org 518-767-9051 x116 Tara Donadio Director of Cooperative Sanctuary Programs tara@auduboninternational.org 518-767-9051 x115 New for 2017 Extended dates This year s event will take place from March 20th to June 21st to better accommodate the migratory and life cycles of species on golf courses around the world. You can hold your own event for up to one week at any time during these dates. inaturalist This year we are introducing inaturalist s app to help you and your participants record and organize the results of BioBlitz faster and easier. The app is free and works on both iphone and Android phones. (We still recommend that you provide printed copies of the species checklist available for anyone who prefers that option.) Golfer Wildlife Scorecard You can also involve all of your golfers in by BioBlitz by distributing Golfer Wildlife Scorecards through your starters and at your Pro Shop. The scorecard is easy to print and easy to use! 3
Getting Started 1. Establish a Date Your event can occur on one day or a series of days. Earth Day, which is Saturday, April 22nd, would be an ideal time as weekends may offer a better chance to involve children, families, and volunteers in your community. In order to participate in the competition, your event can be no longer than one week long. 2. Identify a BioBlitz Coordinator You will need someone on staff to take the lead in organizing and implementing the event. Make sure he or she has support of the course leadership and time to handle the logistics. Use the BioBlitz logo to spread the word! Add it to your website and newsletters to tell the story, even create your own signs with your course logo! 2017 3. Choose Participants Will it just be your course members or the community as a whole? What experts will you invite? The involvement of experts, which will add to your species identification, is a key part of your event. 4. Consider Partners and Sponsors Partnerships and sponsorships in your community can help promote the event before and after the BioBlitz. Sponsorship opportunities could involve local businesses providing lunch or snacks for the participants. 5. Advertise the Event Once you have chosen who will participate and arranged any partners and sponsors, it is time to start advertising the event. Your BioBlitz toolkit includes a press release template for local media and posters to put up at your golf course and around town. Also consider posting your event to community event online calendars and asking local businesses if you can put up posters at their locations. 4
Organizing Your Event 1. Sign Up for inaturalist & Create a Project This year, for the first time, Audubon International is partnering with inaturalist to track the BioBlitz data digitally. Each course will be required to set up their own BioBlitz project on www.inaturalist.org, so your individual participants can add their species observations. Your individual participants can add observations by using the app OR reporting it to your coordinator directly, who will then need to manually import these observations. Once Bioblitz is over, your course will be an inaturalist site with a recording of species that the entire world can see and use! Getting kids involved Young kids can be involved too! Encourage their participation by creating a sheet with pictures of well-known animals in your area, and have them circle the animal to participate in the count! Here are the steps for setting up your event with inaturalist: 1. inaturalist is a free app and website that assists with identifying species. Create an account at: http://www.inaturalist.org/signup. 2. As noted above, this year, each course will create their own BioBlitz Project on inaturalist to track participants finds and make submission easier. For instructions on how to create a BioBlitz Project, please CLICK HERE. When you create your BioBlitz Project, you will need to take these steps to automatically upload your participants observations to your project: a. Under Observation Rules, choose Must be observed in place. b. Once you have created this rule, a new field will be created above called Observation Aggregation. Check the box Automatically add observations to the project and save. 5
Organizing Your Event (cont.) 2. Create a Meeting Spot or Headquarters This could be your clubhouse or a tent outside where you will have instructions for attendees, such as species recording sheets, instructions for using the inaturalist App, Audubon International Activity Book (available through GCSAA) and a sign-in sheet. The sign-in sheet will be important for Audubon International to award the prize for most participants! 3. Organize Groups The ideal way to set up a BioBlitz is to create groups among the participants. It is great to have an expert leader in each group to help identify plants and wildlife, while teaching others as they go. Groups can be assigned to certain types of species (i.e. plants, birds, reptiles) or you can have each group find as many species in all areas as they can. 4. Give Out Prizes Recognize groups or specific participants for a job well done. Print the certificates included in your BioBlitz toolkit to reward groups that recorded the most species or volunteers who went above and beyond. Also, remember to thank your community experts who got involved! 5. Gathering and Recording Observations This year there will be two ways for participants to record their observations during the event, so that they can be reported to Audubon International. 1. For individual participants who do not want to use the inaturalist App, we will still provide a Species List template that can be filled out by hand. 2. Interested participants will have the option to submit observations to your inaturalist BioBlitz Project during the event from their own inaturalist accounts. For instructions on how to record observations using the smartphone app, please refer to the inaturalist Observations: iphone and Android Apps Instruction Sheet. We recommend printing multiple copies of these out for your registration table. 6
Submission Instructions Collect the lists composed by your participants who did not use the inaturalist App so you can record their observations into your BioBlitz Project on inaturalist, taking care to eliminate repeated species. You may want to assign a few volunteers to complete this task to help out! You will also want to work with your experts to see if you identified any rare or endangered species. Understanding that your course is a home for these species is important to your management plan and the biodiversity of your course. Your BioBlitz Project is a great way to display your efforts to the members and community, so make sure to let them know how to access it on the inaturalist website! You could also create a press release describing your event, participants, and the species you found on your course. Talk about your success! 1. Posting a Single Observation through the Website Before posting an observation, sign in to your project. Click add observations. To add an observation, (1) enter what you saw making sure to click lookup and select one of the returned choices. It s okay to leave this blank or choose something broader like frogs and toads. (2) Enter when you saw it. (3) Use the map controls to record where you were. First search for your general location using the text field, then use the map to position the marker more precisely and adjust the accuracy circle accordingly. Change the geoprivacy settings below the map if you d like to obscure the public coordinates by 10 kilometers (especially helpful in the case of endangered species). (4) Add evidence in the form of photos or sound if possible. (5) When completed with the Details of your observation, be sure to click the dropdown Projects to attach to your course project. (6) Finally, save your observation. If your observation records when and where and provides evidence, the inaturalist community might suggest identifications. 7
Submission Instructions (cont.) 2. Posting Multiple Observations through the Website From the Add Observation form, there are links to several tools you can use to add multiple observations at a time. Import is useful for importing from Flickr photos or a CSV file. If you have multiple digital photos on your computer, From photos is a good choice. inaturalist will try to fill the date, location, and what did you see fields with your photo s EXIF data if it exists. If not, you can update those fields after the photo uploads. If your observation was made within an ongoing BioBlitz, inaturalist will use the date and location to add it to the Observation count from the BioBlitz. But it will need an identification to count towards the species checklist. If you expect to need help identifying your observations, make sure to take clear photos that fill the frame and consider adding multiple photos of different characteristics (like leaves & flowers) to each observation. 8
Submission Instructions (cont.) 3. Importing your BioBlitz Project into AI s Master BioBlitz Project Under the Projects tab, search for Audubon International BioBlitz 2017 and join the project. On the Join Audubon International BioBlitz 2017 page, for Allow project curators to view the private coordinates of your observations when added to the project by, select Project Members. 9
Submission Instructions (cont.) A. To add the observations that you uploaded to your BioBlitz Project yourself, go to your project page and select Add from your observations. Click on Observations. Click on Batch Edit. Select all of the observations you wish to add to AI s BioBlitz Project and click on Add to project. Finally, email allie@auduboninternational.org to alert her that you ve added your project to the Master Audubon International Project and have entered all of your sightings. B. When your participants upload observations to your BioBlitz project, they will also upload them to the AI BioBlitz Project. 10
Submission Instructions (cont.) 4. Species Photos Taking photos is not mandatory, but if you have photos from the event you are proud of, you may submit up to five photos for consideration in the Best Photo competition. Please email these photos to allie@auduboninternational.org. 5. Event Photos We are always looking for promotional-quality photos of people participating in outreach programs, so feel free to submit photos of your event. Please email these photos to allie@auduboninternational.org. 11
Rules for Counting Count Number of Species Each species can only be counted once. For example, if five bluebirds are seen during the event, bluebird should be recorded and counted as one species. Nighttime Critters Don t forget about the animals that come out at night! Nighttime creatures can add a huge number of species to your list, and you could dedicate a volunteer group of older kids and adults to go out in the later evening for some species ID. All Species Count All species can be included: plants, animals, fungi, and insects. Wanted Dead or Alive Any dead species found may also be recorded. Identify by Sight or Sound If you have a knowledgable participant who can identify species by the song or call, it is acceptable to record those species. Time Period All species counted must be seen or heard on your course during a one-week period between March 20 and June 21, 2017. Photos Not Required Though it is a good idea to encourage your participants to take photos during the event, photos are not required to prove the sighting of a species. However, photos may be very useful in your own identification of species using inaturalist. 12
Awards Golf courses that submit their documents to Audubon International by June 30th are eligible for the following awards: Biodiversity Award The golf course with the greatest number of species counted during a one-week period between March 20 and June 21 will receive the Biodiversity Award. Community Engagement Award The golf course that involved the greatest number of participants during a one-week period between March 20 and June 21 will receive the Community Engagement Award. A scanned copy of your sign-in sheet must be submitted to be eligible for this award. Can I use this program to help me achieve certification? Yes! Your participation in Audubon International s BioBlitz can help you advance your certification in both Wildlife and Habitat Management and Outreach and Education within the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf. Please contact Audubon International for more information. Best Photo Award The best photo submitted, as judged by the staff of Audubon International, will win the Best Photo Award. 2016 s Winner for Best Photo Florida Softshell Turtle: Shadow Wood Country Club, FL, USA 13