Caspers Park Botany Blitz
Sunday March 20

Join the UC Irvine Herbarium and OC CNPS for our first ever Botany Blitz!

Registrations are Now Closed

BACKGROUND: Over the past two years OC CNPS botanists and volunteers have been thoroughly surveying, documenting and cataloguing the flora of Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park. Dozens of trips have been completed and to date 546 unique plant taxa have been documented from the 8,000 acre park. Once complete, this project, led by the UC IRVINE HERBARIUM, will provide extensive information about the park’s natural resources, improving scientific knowledge and conservation efforts. 

THE BLITZ:  During this thorough one-day Botanical Blitz we will supplement the team’s understanding of the park’s botanical inventory, learn more of each species distribution and abundance, and hopefully add a few new species to the checklist. Volunteers will be organized into survey teams, each led by one of the project leaders, including Rebecca Crowe, Bob Allen, Fred Roberts, Michael Simpson and Ron Vanderhoff. Following an early morning organizing meeting each team will head out to survey different trails and areas of the park. In addition to collecting data, each participant will get a crash course in native plant identification!

TOOLS: For this event we will use the iNaturalist application (free on IOS or Android) and each team will independently photograph and record each species in their survey area. Each teams’ observations will then be consolidated into an iNat Project, for everyone to see. In addition to photographic documentation, each team leader will also bring a field press to collect any significant discoveries and to demonstrate the process.

MORE INFO: This Blitz is free and open to all. It is expected to be a full day in the field, so that we can fully document as much of the flora of the park as possible in one day. You do not need to be an identification expert to help, all skill levels are acceptable and all will have a roll In the late afternoon all participants are also invited to an optional  casual get-together at the park to share their day and participate in a species “countdown”.

To join the teams of the Casper Park Botany Blitz, follow these steps: 

Registrations are Now Closed

1

Click here to view the PARTICIPATION FORM. It includes details about the objective, process, and preparation. 

2

Download the PARTICIPATION FORM that you are viewing. Complete and email the downloaded form to by MARCH 13.  This information will help with organizing the teams.  

3

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED. All participants must also fill out the online CNPS EVENT LIABILITY WAIVER. Click here to get to the Liability Waiver application. 

4

All participants are requested to download the iNaturalist (free on IOS or Android) application. (Alternatively, photographs can be taken on a GPSenabled camera and downloaded to iNaturalist immediately following the count.). If you are not familiar with adding observations and identifications with iNaturalist, please practice on a few garden plants before the trip - it’s quite easy and fun.