A FOREST FULL OF THANKS …

A FOREST FULL OF THANKS…
… to the great community turnout for BioBlitz 2018!!!

bioblitz 2018 group shot

Close to 100 enthusiastic participants walked into Carrington Bay Park basecamp and explored the Children’s Forest with us over the first weekend in May.  Guest researcher and forest ecologist, Andy MacKinnon, turned all our heads towards a new way of thinking about and seeing our forests. Did you know that 94% of the vascular plants in our forests have mycorrhizae (microscopic fungal filaments) associated with their roots? These mycorrhizal networks can cover acres of land, changing the old ideology of forest competition to one of forest cooperation!!! We have trees on Cortes Island because fungi wrap their roots; this is an obligate relationship!

Youth learned a new word to dazzle their parents with… circinate vernation; right up there with supercalafragalistic; it describes the way a fern fiddlehead uncurls.

We learned about indicator plants, the tallest trees in the world, the beautiful fern-leaved goldthread, the oxymoron of the word saprophyte and how it takes 1000 years to accumulate coarse woody debris.

Most importantly, we learned that we know virtually nothing about the majority of organisms living in our sensitive ecosystems; less than 1% are described. By protecting our sensitive ecosystems, we protect the 99%.

BioBlitz! 2018 moves us ever closer to our goal of purchasing the Children’s Forest and gifting it in perpetuity to all children.
We invite all of you to join us, in – Imagining… a forest in trust to the children!!!

BioBlitz! 2018 was sponsored by the Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island Society (FTCCIS).

Checkout this two minute teaser for the upcoming BioBlitz! 2018 documentary short:

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