Note: This event is weather dependent. If you are sick or exhibiting symptoms associated with COVID-19 (such as fever, chills, cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing, loss of taste or smell, etc.), please do not come to the event and consider joining us another time.

Date: Saturday, September 13, 2025
Time: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Location: Lake Artemesia, 8200 55th Avenue, College Park, MD 20740. 

• Meeting Location: We will meet in the middle of the lake south of the main parking lot (55th Avenue and Berwyn Rd.). From the parking lot, start walking on the foot/bike trail, past the main entrance, make a right and keep walking on the trail for 0.3 miles --you can get to the destination if you make a left but it will be much farther.  You will walk past the Outdoor Gym and then you will turn left in the intersection by the Butterfly Garden. From the walk 500 feet and you will reach the park's facility and the Lake's Boardwalk. The bioblitz exhibits will be by the boardwalk. Here's a link: (map) 

• Parking:

  • Park in the main lot at 8200 55th Avenue College Park, MD (map)
  • Along designated areas on the west side of 55th avenue (see temporary yellow arrows on the road)
  • Along both sides of Berwyn Road (see parking signs)
  • If all of these options are filled, you can park at our overflow lot at College Park Airport where a shuttle will pick you up and drop you off at the location. The approximate address will be1909 Corporal Frank Scott Drive in College Park, MD 20740 (map). You can click on this link to get a pin to the location. 
• 

Description: This is our 9th AWS-run bioblitz and this year we are happy to co-lead this event with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC). Last year, we were able to identify 957 species with observations by 254 people! The 2025 Anacostia River Bioblitz (September 11th - 14th, 2025) is an opportunity to explore the natural treasures of your Anacostia River, but more importantly, it will be your opportunity to do community science to help us document the biodiversity of the Anacostia River Watershed. This Saturday event is the only public event of the weekend where you can explore nature with other naturalists and experts. This is a great opportunity to be a nature geek and learn about the identification and ecology of some of the river's most fascinating species from the experts.

Bioblitz Schedule at Lake Artemesia:

9:00 am - 10:00 am      PRE-Event Bird Walk meeting at north entrance gazebo with Prince George's Audubon Society

10:30 am - 11:30 am    Fungi Walk with Serenella Linares

11:30 am - 12:30 pm    Plant Walk with Bradley Simpson

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm       Insect Hike with Adrienne van der Beemt

2:30 pm - 3:30 pm       Herp Walk with Rachel Gauza

Stay tuned to our social media channels and this page for further updates and details.

Our main tool is the crowd-sourced (and free!) iNaturalist app (https://www.inaturalist.org/home). We will track observations on our iNaturalist collection project page.

What to bring:

• We will be using the iNaturalist app for our documentation and identification. Create an iNaturalist account (click here to sign up), and download the app to your smartphone before you get there.
• Reusable water bottle filled with water
• Sunscreen
• Hat and sunglasses
• Insect repellent
• Sealable bag, or dry bag if you have one, for your other personal items
• Closed-toed shoes that can get damp
• A notebook and pencil to record any other interesting information by the experts.
• Camera if you are into photography and would like to take higher quality pictures to download later on iNaturalist from your laptop computer.

We recommend you follow our main project, Biodiversity of the Anacostia River on iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/biodiversity-of-the-anacostia-river

If you have any questions prior to the event, please contact Jorge Bogantes Montero at jmontero@anacostiaws.org or 301-699-6204 ext. 118.