Thirty miles from the ULM campus is a rediscovered treasure that may soon be open to the public and ULM students.
The BioBlitz was put on by graduate and undergraduate students for the biology department to showcase the Charles Allen Nature Preserve which was donated to ULM over a decade ago. It has not had much use until now.
Saturday, the biology students and faculty lead hikes through the Ouachita Hills near Columbia, La. It was open to all students and guests to register to attend the hikes.
“We wanted to bring the fact that we have this property to the attention of faculty and the greater student body,” biology graduate student Matthew Herron said.
“Essentially the event is an all-day biological survey where we look for as many different species as we can whether it’s plants, fungi or birds. We had a bird hike [at 8 a.m.] which was really great. We picked up about 30 species of birds while we were hiking. We have had other people hiking around all morning looking at plants, amphibians and reptiles,” Herron said.
By the end of the day, 229 species were found. Among them were 142 plants, 42 birds and 6 mammals.
“[The biology department] really gets to flex their skills,” Herron said. “We get a little competitive and see who can find the most species. It’s really fun.”
The Charles Allen Nature Reserve was donated to ULM in 2000, in honor of Charles Allen, former biology professor at ULM and accomplished botanist.
The 80 acres of land has marked trails, bridges and staircases named after biology professors and trees that have been tagged for almost a decade.
“Down the road I think we want to set up a proper biological station,” said associate biology professor Joydeep Bhattachariee. “There are some really neat plants out here that may be endangered and we think we might have found one.”
Bhattachariee said they are trying to make BioBlitz a biannual event. For now, the location is only open for BioBlitz events, student research and classes.
“I think the event was something to get the biology students really excited,” Bhattachariee said. “This event was pretty much run by the graduate students. We, the faculty members, really wanted to step back and let the students really run this like their show.”
