| Overall Rating | Silver |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 52.49 |
| Liaison | Angela Oberg |
| Submission Date | Feb. 27, 2023 |
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick Campus
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Katie
Parrish Program Coordinator Office of Climate Action |
Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at students and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Name of the campaign:
A brief description of the campaign:
Typical BioBlitzes are 24-hour intensive events to catalogue the species diversity at one site. In 2014, Lena Struwe and Siobain Duffy from the Rutgers Department in Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources founded the world’s first Personal BioBlitz. The Rutgers Personal BioBlitz is an educational campaign and collaborative project which takes place every year over the course of 76 days.
Unlike a one-off event, the Rutgers Personal BioBlitz is a long-term challenge to encourage people to explore and discover the species that are present in our everyday lives. Participants discover organisms, record observations (using the iNaturalist app), and identify species (with help from others in the app) that they encounter on a daily basis during an extended time period. Through the BioBlitz, they learn how to see and identify more species, overcoming their species blindness and collecting important biodiversity data.
All Rutgers students, faculty, staff, and other affiliates are invited to take place in the Personal BioBlitz. Each year, for the past 9 years since its founding, more and more people have been participating by recording observations in iNaturalist or by helping to identify the observed species logged in the app. Participants report highly increased ability to 'see' species in everyday environments and to identify and classify new groups.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
Notable results from the 2022 Rutgers Personal BioBlitz include:
- 69,988 total observations were recorded. This was a new record, beating the 2021 record of 68,914.
- 9,230 different species were recorded. This was a new record, beating the 2021 record of 9065.
- 112 participants recorded observations in 23 different countries. The first Personal BioBlitz had just 30 observers.
- 3,066 participants helped identify the observed species.
- The Top 5 most recorded species were: American Beech, 814 observations; Hairy Bittercress, 519 observations; American Robin, 435 observations; Red Maple, 433 observations; Eastern Hemlock, 374 observations- This is an IUCN near-threatened species, which for the first time made the top 5 list this year.
Following the 2022 Personal BioBlitz, the number of observations on iNaturalist for New Jersey, passed 1 million. When the Personal Bioblitz started on iNaturalist, there were just 1000 observations in all of New Jersey. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=51&subview=table&view=species
For a list of species observed from Rutgers University campuses, gardens, forests, field and research stations, farms, and other university-owned properties in the state of New Jersey, USA, look here- https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-and-fauna-of-rutgers-university-nj-usa
Personal BioBlitz Page- https://herbarium.rutgers.edu/personal-bioblitz/
Personal BioBlitz Mailing list- https://lists.rutgers.edu/mm3/mailman3/lists/personal_bioblitz.email.rutgers.edu/
Personal BioBlitz Facebook group- https://www.facebook.com/groups/407169086112609
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.