Penn’s semi-annual BioBlitz brings faculty, students, staff, and community members to the BioPond in James G. Kaskey Memorial Park to closely examine, document, and appreciate the urban-ecosystem-turned-living-lab.
By Jasmine Simpson
As rays of sunlight filter through the lush trees in Penn’s James G. Kaskey Memorial Park, clusters of students, faculty, and staff flank the shores of the feature that gives the space its nickname – the BioPond. One group is huddled by a table featuring infographics about the ecological roles of plants, bats, and other wildlife, while another is listening to a wildlife expert discuss minnows swimming in a glass case. A scientist wearing waders emerges from the pond, a turtle in their hands, inviting brave participants to interact with wildlife.
This flurry of activity is what is known as a BioBlitz, or a time-specific effort to document as much biodiversity in a given area as possible. Since 2022, Penn has held a BioBlitz each semester, aligning with Climate Week in the fall and Earth Week in the spring. “It started with the effort to bridge Penn Vet with the greater Penn campus and offer a chance [for the community] to get to know the wildlife on campus,” explained Karen Verderame, Assistant Director of Outreach Education at the School of Veterinary Medicine, who coordinates the event’s partnerships, outreach, and on-the-ground flow together with colleagues from the School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Biology and Penn Vet’s Wildlife Futures Program. Biology Department staff manage the BioPond, a long-standing campus park where horticulturalists, wildlife experts, and students alike have come for over 100 years to enjoy the natural landscape.
“Now we can have a better idea of what we have out here and how we can be better stewards of the land,” says Kathryn Butler, Greenhouse and Garden Manager for Kaskey Park.
The beauty of the BioBlitz is that it achieves two ends: collecting data and forging a connection to a natural space for those who participate. Through close and thoughtful examination and reflection, such an experience can transform a place encountered daily into something new, highlighting the inseparable connection between humans and the nature around us.
BioBlitz in a nutshell
BioBlitzes aim to turn ordinary landscapes into field sites and classrooms, and passersby into scientists and learners. At Penn, the BioBlitz is a special form of experiential learning open to anyone who swings through the campus park, even young children who may be tagging along with their parents as part of Penn’s Take Your Child to Work Day. Within a short window, a snapshot of biodiversity can be created for an area, with people’s own observations and questions serving as the film. That snapshot serves as both an informal education opportunity as well as formal data. Participants walk away knowing how to identify bird species, value natural resources, or describe pollination processes. Researchers leave with pictures, observations, and measurements of species that can be tracked, analyzed, and used in other projects.
A passion for biodiversity cemented a relationship between Verderame and Butler, that later grew to include Dr. Julie Ellis, Penn Vet wildlife ecologist and Associate Director of Penn Vet’s One Health in Action, as well as Brooke Ezzo, Communications Coordinator for Penn Vet’s Wildlife Futures Program. Together, they have spearheaded the bi-annual BioBlitzes and are currently coordinating their eighth, to coincide with Penn’s Earth Week. “We don’t ever go out with a specific target,” says Verderame. “Whatever nature presents us with, we run with it.” Some days are turtle days, while some days are bird days – you never know what you might see!
“Last year, I went in [the pond], caught stuff, and brought it out to talk to people about. I would use the iNaturalist app with them and say: ‘Hey, this crayfish looks like this [picture]. Let’s think about how it might have gotten here,’” Ellis recalls.
This nature-centered philosophy allows BioBlitz to be flexible and adaptable to the ever-changing natural landscape, as well as the curiosity and interests of participants. In fact, despite each BioBlitz expanding to include more educational tables, more informational posters, and more recurring offerings like wildlife identification and water sampling, the goal remains to center organic conversations. “[Since] people have their different perspectives and interests, they are going to pull in other people with different interests too. We are like our own little biome,” says Verderame.
Building on this analogy, Ellis notes we are part of the greater biome, too. “We are animals from nature. We just don’t think of ourselves like that,” she says. “Getting outside is immensely important for human wellbeing. If there were no birds singing or no butterflies, how might you feel?” The BioBlitz reminds participants of these sometimes-overlooked elements of nature and encourages them to appreciate and think about the value of their urban backyard.
The quantitative side of BioBlitz
While collecting data might not be the primary goal of BioBlitz, it has real value that can drive meaningful changes. “Data has become really important when you’re trying to persuade someone to take action,” Sravanthi Mundluru, junior Eco-Rep explains. “It’s not enough to just convince someone that an issue exists. You need to able to convince them with logic, which is the data.”
The Penn BioBlitz aligns with a broader effort to understand and communicate wildlife presence across Philadelphia through the Accessing Urban Nature Initiative (AUNI), a Penn Vet research project, which Ellis leads. AUNI uses trail cameras and citizen science platforms like iNaturalist to collect wildlife data. These motion-activated trail cameras have been strategically placed throughout the Philadelphia area, in collaboration with over 13 partnering sites and organizations, to capture photographs of the wildlife in the area that are then tagged in a software called Wildtrax. Combined with the photographs taken and uploaded by iNaturalist participants, these photographs create a repository full of wildlife data. The project is part of the larger Urban Wildlife Information Network, which has wildlife camera data from around the world. But how accessible is this data?
That is where Eco-Reps – a Penn Sustainability program for undergraduate students interested in advancing on-campus sustainability through year-long projects – come in. Working alongside Verderame, Norah Findley (ENVS’28), Sarah Leonard (EESC + ENGL’27), and Mundluru (FNCE + MGMT’27) began collecting iNaturalist data in September to convert into a usable spreadsheet format and GIS map for different research groups, graduate students, and others to use. “That information is used to create and design education campaigns and identify patterns in [species’] appearances,” Mundluru explains. For instance, Verderame uses the data to create materials to teach K-12 audiences in Philadelphia schools, while Butler creates self-guided biodiversity tours for Penn students.
“Our goal is to make people more aware of the wildlife they coexist with because Philly is a super urban area,” Findley says. “Data is important for communicating sustainability and it’s important to have the graphs and data to back up your claims.”
“We’re trying to figure out ways to make [the data] interactive and interesting while thinking about our different audiences. That’s kind of one of our main goals for this semester,” says Leonard. The group will be furthering their goal of education at the spring 2026 BioBlitz, where they will be holding educational campaigns and setting up stations around the BioPond.
In addition to the partnership between Penn Vet and the Kaskey Park staff at the Department of Biology, the success of the BioBlitz depends on a growing number of partners and participants including interested staff and committed student groups. Anyone can be a contributor, though, by coming to a BioBlitz in person or setting up an account on iNaturalist: “Record what you see because it contributes to this collective database about biodiversity and we don’t have a lot of that in cities,” Ellis calls for.
With plans to expand participation, pull in additional labs and environmental groups, broaden to other campus sites, and continue to build the “afterlife” of BioBlitz data through new programming and education, the future of BioBlitz is bright.
Join Penn Vet and SAS Biology at their 8th semi-annual BioBlitz this spring on Thursday, April 23rd from 12:00-3:00pm at the James G. Kaskey Memorial Park (the BioPond) at 433 S. University Ave. See you there!