Dr Kate Grarock and Dr Bryan Lessard - 'Nanda Kalbarri Bush Blitz: connecting with people to uncover our diverse species'

Dr Kate Grarock and Dr Bryan Lessard - 'Nanda Kalbarri Bush Blitz: connecting with people to uncover our diverse species'

Kate and Bryan, from ANBG, will talk about a Bush Blitz near Kalbarri, WA on Nanda country to gather information about the biodiversity there with representative of Nanda people, Parks Rangers, Bush Heritage, teachers and scientists from all over Australia.

Abstract
Bush Blitz is Australia’s largest species discovery program. It is a unique multi-million dollar partnership between the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Parks Australia, BHP and Earthwatch Australia to document plants and animals across Australia.

There are an estimated 580,000-680,000 species in Australia, with three-quarters of this biodiversity yet to be identified.

Since the Program began in 2010 Bush Blitz has undertaken over 50 multidisciplinary expeditions supporting the discovery of almost 2,000 putative new species. Through this large body of work thousands of species records have also been added to public databases, increasing scientific knowledge to help protect Australia’s biodiversity for generations to come.

We recently ran a Bush Blitz near Kalbarri, WA on Nanda Country. We worked with a diverse group of people including Nanda representatives, Parks Rangers, Bush Heritage, teachers and scientists from all over Australia.

Biography
Dr Kate Grarock is an Environmental Scientist and Expedition Leader at Bush Blitz. Kate loves bushwalking and is passionate about getting people outdoors.

Dr Bryan Lessard is the Communications and Partnerships Officer at Bush Blitz and an experienced taxonomist. Also known as Bry the Fly Guy, he loves to share stories with the community to promote biodiversity and has described 50 species of flies new to science.

Bookings open on 6 June at https://www.trybooking.com/DAMFW