A great time was had by all who participated in the first ever Bio Blitz at Grass Lake Wetland on Saturday, June 6, 2026. With coffee and donut holes to fuel these eager nature enthusiasts, Rachel Klimpton and Laura Baxley explained how to use the iNaturalist app to observe all sorts of living things at the site.
The goal of a Bio Blitz is to document as many observations at a given site as possible, closely examining the living world. This is a type of citizen-based science. All of these photo-based entries are collected together via the app, and scientists can look at them to learn more than they ever could alone.
There were more than 14 participants ranging from first-timers to long time veteran naturalists who helped others to use the app to document plants, trees, birds, bugs, and more. We saw a turtle nest! All the observations were automatically added to the “Kenny Neighborhood Biodiversity” project founded by Baxley.
The hour flew by and many said they would keep making observations at their home sites.
If you are interested, please join us in August for the second Bio Blitz of 2026. Sign up on the Grass Lake Restoration Team to receive more information and see all our upcoming events.
Next up … Planting for Erosion Control in June
Please join us for 3 native planting events at the southeast garden of Grass Lake Wetland, Minneapolis. We’ll be focused on filling in some of the shoreline with erosion blanket plantings.
- Saturday, June 13, 2026 at 4:30-5:30pm
- Saturday, June 20, 2026 at 10-11am
- Sunday, June 28, 2026 at 4-5pm
If you can, bring a spade, garden knife, or bulb auger to help dig/plant. If you have any watering cans (or water jugs) you can pre-fill and bring to the site, that would be super helpful. Those plants need a good drink as soon as they get in the ground. I recommend gloves, hat, sunscreen, kneeling pad/stool if you like, etc.
