What types of plants, animals, and fungal life might you find at a newly restored prairie site? Let's find out! 

Join researchers in collecting, observing, and recording biodiversity at the Ashton Prairie site in our 1st Annual BioBlitz. Your findings will inform a major research project and will contribute to the first data point in a multi-year documentation of how diversity changes at this site over time. Collections will be housed with the UI Museum of Natural History collections, accessible for comparative data analysis for generations to come. 

Participants will have the opportunity to examine insects under professional microscopes, will learn how to identify a variety of species (with the iNaturalist app and the naked eye), and will learn how these collections and observations contribute to greater research and ecological health. Guests will also learn from leaders of the prairie restoration project about the vision for the prairie. Facilitators include University of Iowa Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Office of Sustainability and the Environment, The Iowa Raptor Project, UI Museum of Natural History, the Iowa City Science Booster Club, and 10 visiting Interdisciplinary Evolutionary Sciences research students with additional support from the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research.

This is an all ages event, no experience required, families welcome. As this is the 1st Annual event, we hope to see some young scientists who can grow along with the biodiversity at the prairie over the years.

Registration is required + free. Sign up HERE. We'll tell you all you need to know about the day of once you register. 

Let's do science!

So, where is this prairie?

• Prairie Reconstruction Project Site at the UI Ashton Cross Country Course
• Follow directions on any virtual map to the “Hawkeye Commuter Lot” (Lot 85)
• Park in Hawkeye Commuter Lot and walk, following signage and volunteer directions to the event site