Nature Quest Weekend
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 17:31:04 -0400
From: Keith_Langdon@ccmail.itd.nps.gov (Keith Langdon)
Subject: Nature Quest Weekend
To: pick@pick.uga.edu, lowe@opie.bgsu.edu, mjwillia@tricon.net,
msharkey@byron.ca.uky.edu, pswhite@unc.edu, tkiernan@npca.org,
wfharris@utk.edu, Chris_Stein@nps.gov (Chris Stein),
Karen_Ballentine@nps.gov (Karen Ballentine), ken@smokiesnha.org
Cc: Chuck_Parker@ccmail.itd.nps.gov (Chuck Parker),
Becky_Nichols@ccmail.itd.nps.gov (Becky Nichols),
jody@discoverlife.org, Don_DeFoe@nps.gov (Don DeFoe),
Larry_Hartmann@nps.gov (Larry Hartmann),
Phil_Francis@nps.gov (Phil Francis)
To all, just a few notes and observations re: last weekend and the
science activiites that went on.
WHO WAS HERE: About 20 scientists and grad students from the North
American Dipterists Soc.(flies) They arrived in small groups Thursday
p.m. and most departed Sunday a.m. Also, about 20 members of the
Asheville mycological club worked a transect in the Cataloochee area,
their leader (Rod Tulloss) came over to Sugarlands VC to set up an
exhibit for visitors. Jan and Willis Reid are here for 2 weeks to
sample more areas in the Park. Mick Harvey from TN Tech Un. netted
bats for 6 nites at various locales in the Park. This is part of a
Friends funded project.
WHAT THEY FOUND: The "fly folks" found alot of species, but they need
to look over their catch more thoroughly before they report. Brian
Weigman at NCSU is coordinating this and hoped to have a report within
a month. He did say that they believed that they had collected
several fly species not previously seen anywhere else. There were
also some rarities seen.
The fungi folks definitely found a species record for the Park (an
Amanita) and when Rod came over to the VC on Sunday, he thought that
he found another couple park records nearby.
The Reids haven't had a chance to look over most of their collections,
yet.
We sent Tom Rogers (a capable biologist ATBI volunteer) to work with
the bat folks. He was to collect external parasites on the bats. We
haven't heard back yet.
GOOD POINTS: We made some good friends for the ATBI amoung the fly
people. Several authorities appreciated the hospitality and interest
shown them, and let it be known that they intend to continue to come
down and collect. Others want to continue to see specimens from here.
We had some good advice from them re: techniques and methodologies to
try in order to get greater efficientcy. This was exactly what we
needed.
OF PARTICULAR INTEREST was a discussion I had with Mike Irvin of
Illinois. He had just come back from the 3rd meeting on NSF's
Biodiversity Observatory Network (BON) in CA. (Frank H. attended
meeting #2 ) Mike said that they were led to believe that NSF is
transfering a large chunk of funding ($100 million !!) from its
capitalized accounts to fund BON. BON is to be restricted to about 50
sites in the US for the present, and he thought that as a result of
his meeting "it would be more driven by PI's than by sites". Mike
wants to discuss trying to work with ATBI folks to get something going
here. I told him that Frank H. was our contact, and that I would pass
this along to Frank and facilitate contacts. Mike thought that this
fall we might see a call for proposals......
THE PILOT YEAR : This year is devoted to flushing out as many
problems as possible...here are a few that stand out curently, while
they are fresh in our minds.
- Bar codes/data entry, we need to order "code 49" ASAP and especially
get going on BIOTA as intial software into which to enter our data.
These types of Nature Quests are extremely prone to loss of data since
folks took specimens home to ID. They really only had 2 days to work,
and most processed specimens till late at nite. TRheir was
considerable discussion about the best way to achieve this with the
least adversity to the taxonomists.
- HOUSING, we actually didn't use all our housing due to the
generosity of Ev Schlinger's foundation which paid for meals of grad
students, and (when he found out how far Cosby is,) rooms at the
Glenstone. It is obvious that socializing is important to these types
of groups, and scattering them around the Park is not a good idea.
Coversely, it IS important to have it scattered around for actually
doing sustained field work in different areas.
- TRAFFIC/LOGISTICS. Having alot of people who do not know the Park
come here during a national holiday is NOT recommended for the future.
Some ATBI invitees were trapped for up to 2 hours in Cades Cove
during this Memorial Day weekend. Getting back in to Gatlinburg was
also a problem due to back-ups of about 2 miles. When people are only
here for very short times, they cannot time travel for optimal
periods, and do not have time to learn short-cuts. Traffic delays
also cut into their precious time, unduly.
- LOGO !! Lots of comments about our lack of an official logo. This
is more than symbolic, Law Enforcement Rangers stopped many of our
folks to check permits. Some of our ATBI'ers said they had never been
checked in over 30 years, but we had folks checked in all sections of
the Park. This impressed our partners, but it would save our rangers
time if they could see a "uniform" instead of having to turn around in
traffic and try to make contact. And hey, we could USE some unifying
symbolism for peole as diverse as the organisms they study. They WANT
to be identified with a larger purpose. We must push the logo effort,
wherever it stands right now.
- Equipment, we need more freezer space (I'm working on that), a way
to take high quality photos through the compound and dissecting scopes
-we need photos of species new to science!-, and we need to get our
new (old) van fixed up so it can be used to transport ATBI folks on
adminisrtative roads where private vehicles are verboten.
- THE PRESS, TV 10 (Knoxville) shot many sequences with Brian Weigman
and fly people for an upcoming telethon. Local newspaper has decided
to do a 10-12 page "pull-out" section in August on the ATBI and is
doing interviews now, including 1 with me and another yesterday with
Rod Tulloss. National Public Radio is planning a piece in mid-June.
An AP wire service reporter from Charlotte,NC interviewed Brian
Weigman and others as well, and I missed another appointment because
I was just too busy, traffic etc. Not having key park people here
(Chuck Parker and Becky Nichols were in MN until Saturday giving an
ATBI paper, our office mgr Nancy Keohane was on leave in ND and Dana
Soehn has transferred to another unit) made things much more
difficult. Thursday and Friday it was me, Don DeFoe and Jody. It
wasn't enough, but we did OK.
I will let you know what we find out from the various scientists as
they check in with results. Altogether, it was a productive weekend
for the ATBI !
Keith
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