North Fork due for 'BioBlitz'

British Columbia’s North Fork Flathead drainage will soon be swarming with scientists looking to document as many forms of life possible in a first-ever “BioBlitz” for the area.

The search will involve about a dozen scientists and support personnel combing the drainage for birds, bees, bats, fish, fungi, flowers, lichens, trees, reptiles and mammals of all types.

“We’re trying to go to as many different habitat types as possible. We’re specifically targeting where we know different habitats exists,” said Ric Hauer, a veteran scientist at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station.  

Over a five-day period in early August, participants will be working their way through alpine wetlands, forests, grasslands and waters of all types.

The scientists will be working in an area of southeastern British Columbia that is proposed as an expansion area for Waterton Lakes National Park. Hauer describes the area as a confluence for a wide variety of species.

“One of the things about the North Fork and this corner of B.C. is it is really pretty much a mixing zone of northern species coming south and southern species going north,” he said.

“We’re interested in what is the best possible long-term landscape and waterscape management plan for the North Fork just because this is one of the most pristine and biologically important watersheds worldwide.”

Hauer said all of the participants are accomplished in taxonomy, able to classify and document the presence of specialty species. The event was mostly planned by Canadian researchers who are participating, Hauer said.

Those involved include Robb Bennett and Claudia Copley of the Royal B.C. Museum and Darren Copley of the Victoria Natural History Association for spiders and insects; Gavin Hanke, for fisheries, reptiles and amphibians, from the Royal B.C. Museum; Kevin Van Tighem, former superintendent of Banff National Park, for small mammals; Melissa Frey, for invertebrates, from the Royal B.C. Museum; David Robichaud, fisheries ecology, the Royal B.C. Museum; Dan Casey, ornithologist, the American Bird Conservancy; Dwayne Lepitzki, aquatic mollusks, Wildlife Systems Research; Robert Forsyth, terrestrial gastropods, Royal B.C. Museum and Peter Achuff, a botanist with Parks Canada.

 Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.