Posts

2025 NC Biodiversity Project Annual Meeting Minutes

In Attendance: Blanka Aguero, Parker Backstrom, Brian Bockhahn, Ed Corey, Tracy Feldman, Cecil Frost, David George, Steve Hall, Tom Howard, Harry LeGrand, Jeff Niznik, Gary Perlmutter, Jim Petranka (online), John Petranka, Jeff Pippen, Mark Shields, Bruce Sorrie, Carol Tingley, Donald Zepp

Guests: Nick Adams, Jeff Beane, Lydie Costes, David Bradley, Merry Conlin, Stephanie Horton, Scott Pohlman, Julie Tuttle, Andy Walker, Alan Weakley

Business Report (Carol Tingley, Cecil Frost)

• Carol gave the NCBP’s annual financial report, including funding sources and expenditures.
• The NCBP received over $3,000 in donations in memory of Bo Sullivan.
• We have a small surplus which can be used to cover our annual expenditures as well as fund small grant projects by NCBP members.
• March 1 was the deadline for submitting small grant applications, which will be reviewed by the science committee.
• Cecil gave an update on the NC Fund for Biodiversity, which will provide the NCBP with an annual source of funding which will increase in coming years. To contribute: nccommunityfoundation.org/NorthCarolinaBiodiversity   
• Prior to the meeting, Carol sent out the revised articles of association for a vote by the membership.

Education/Outreach Committee Update (David George)

• David gave an update on the education and outreach events from the past year, including 5 moth night events and BugFest.
• Tracy Feldman organized a moth night at Durant Nature Preserve, hosted by David George and assisted by Jeff Niznik and Rich Teper. We had decent attendance and recorded a number of interesting moth species. We are planning another moth night at the preserve for this summer.
• A moth night event organized by David Bradley and hosted by David George (assisted by Jeff Niznik and Kenneth Geisert) was held at Hollow Rock Nature Park, serving as a followup to the NCBP New Hope survey and our ongoing collaboration with the Durham County Open Space Program. The event was well attended, including a large number of children (rare for late night events) and we saw a lot of interesting insects.
• The biggest moth night of the year was the Moth Madness event at the Chapel Hill Public Library, organized by Dale Morgan and hosted by David George. We had over 100 participants and a variety of activities and prizes. Dale has already asked for us to come back again this year.
• One of the things we have been doing with our moth nights is to set up an iNaturalist project for the event. Participants are encouraged to photograph insects and submit them to iNat. We then have an easy way to compile records and enter them in our databases.
• The NCBP had a table at BugFest at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. The theme of the event was Lepidoptera, and David and Jeff collected more than 50 species of moth caterpillars, which proved highly engaging for children and adults. We had well over 1,000 people stop by our table (we lost count). Tom Howard, Carol Tingley, Steve Hall, Jeff Niznik, and Becky Watkins all helped out with the event.
• Tracy also had a separate table at BugFest for leaf-mining insects, and reported that for many people it was their first introduction to these creatures.
• David encouraged NCBP members to participate in the May 9 bioblitz at Carvers Creek State Park and asked for volunteers to staff the NCBP booth.
• David walked people through the posts and publications sections of the NCBP website and encouraged members to submit material. He also asked for dates to populate the NCBP calendar for 2025.
• We already have a few events planned, including moth nights at Durant, the CH Public Library (July), and Hollow Rock, as well as the bioblitz in May and BugFest in September.

Science Committee Update (Steve Hall)

• One of the primary functions of the science committee will be the selection and planning of surveys.
• The committee will also review proposals (and grant applications) for special projects by NCBP members.
• It will oversee review and publication of NCBP reports.
• Steve said the science committee will meet within the next month, and put out a signup sheet for members interested in joining the committee.
• One of our planned projects for 2025 is a survey of fire-maintained, small-patch habitats in the Uwharries and Sandhills. Unfortunately the federal money allocated for the project has been frozen, so the project is on indefinite hold.
• The plan is to focus on smaller communities within Longleaf habitat - pitcher plant bogs, bean dips (pea swales), xerophytic oaks, etc.
• We will be monitoring the impact of burning on rare populations of moths and other taxa.
• Since the funding has been frozen, we have the option of either waiting until some undetermined time in the future or proceeding with a smaller-scale, self-funded project. This will be discussed at the upcoming committee meeting.
• Steve discussed a number of special projects from 2024, including:
  • A breeding bird survey at New Hope Creek, with territory mapping of singing males. Compared with data from Mason Farm, the survey found much less diversity and fewer territories than expected, particularly for neotropical migrants.
  • Habitat mapping at Hollow Rock Nature Park in cooperation with the Durham County Open Space Program. The substrate at the Hollow Rock study area only had a small area of diabase and the site as a whole appears to be underlain by a non-mafic but possibly mineral-rich sedimentary formation. A deep clay layer is the most important feature of the site. Habitats were determined by the presence/absence of certain species.
• Steve is continuing to work on the Habitats of NC website, a culmination of decades of work studying the natural communities and species relationships across the state. The website will draw on data from the taxonomic group sites to define habitats by the presence of indicator species of plants, animals, and other organisms, rather than simply geographical features or dominant plant communities. While Steve has made a great deal of progress on the site, there is still a great deal of work to be done.
• A key element of the habitat site is to estimate the viability of populations of particular species, assigning them occurrence viability scores and probability of survival/extirpation.

Incorporating NCBP New Hope Survey into Conservation Goals of Durham Open Space Program (David Bradley)

• Following the NCBP’s survey of the New Hope Bottomlands, it has continued to collaborate with David Bradley of the Durham County Open Space Program. David gave an overview of the mission and work of the program.
• David reported that the NCBP survey has informed conservation efforts and management decisions. It revealed a highly diverse and still relatively intact habitat, and shed light on a number of rare and poorly understood taxa.
• Unfortunately, the survey also revealed relatively low abundance and diversity for many taxa (particularly moths), a troubling finding that needs further study.
• Though the New Hope bottomlands include unique habitats of high conservation priority, they are faced with all of the usual problems associated with natural areas in urban settings, including artificial light, runoff, invasive species, and the use of herbicides.
• David stressed the need for continued research and monitoring of the bottomlands with the assistance of the NCBP.
• A new management plan currently being written for Hollow Rock Nature Park will be updated based on NCBP recommendations, which has greatly strengthened the case for establishing legal protection for these valuable habitats.
• David reported success in involving the public in conservation efforts in the bottomlands, including invasive plant removal and outreach events.

White Pines Survey Update (Gary Perlmutter, Bruce Sorrie, David George)

• Gary discussed the goals of the NCBP survey at White Pines Nature Preserve, which began in April 2024 and will extend through April of 2025.
• He described the multi-taxa approach involving experts across a wide range of taxonomic groups, including many that have not traditionally been considered for conservation purposes.
• White Pines is of particular conservation concern due to its diversity of habitats, including montane-like mesic slopes and rich floodplain forest.
• At the time of the meeting, we had recorded 2,314 species across 35 taxonomic groups.
• Gary gave an update on the lichen survey at the preserve:
  • The survey has been completed after 4 visits.
  • A total of 118 taxa were recorded, including 50 county records.
  • The totals are similar to what was found during the New Hope survey.
• Bryophytes - 1 visit so far; more planned for 2025
• Bruce gave the update on the vascular plants survey:
  • So far, 365 native species have been recorded.
  • There are 170 historical records which have not been confirmed, but many of them are still probably present.
  • Total flora = 617 species
  • The alien species seem to be fairly low in number, though a number of invasives are present, including privet and Autumn Olive.
  • Compared to similar areas, White Pines has very high plant diversity.
  • A number of rare plant species have been documented.
• David gave an update on the moth survey:
  • In 2024, David and Jeff Niznik made 19 survey trips, sampling both with sheets and bucket traps.
  • So far, they have recorded 755 moth species (roughly a quarter of the species known in NC), with an additional 75 unknown species.
  • This includes 241 Chatham County records and 2 state records.
  • David showed a map of the locations surveyed, which covered most of the preserve, with a focus on the slopes above the Rocky River and the Rocky River floodplain.
  • The 755 species recorded (so far) far exceed the 342 species recorded during the official 1-year period of the New Hope survey.
  • This does seem to reflect a much greater diversity at White Pines, which David and Jeff agreed was exceptional for a location in the Piedmont.
  • Many species recorded at the preserve are usually only found in the mountains in NC, including a species that hadn’t been recorded in the Piedmont in nearly 100 years.
  • Conversely, numerous species were found that are primarily coastal in distribution.
  • The moth group plans to continue their survey efforts in 2025 (and possibly beyond).
• The butterfly survey did not turn up a large number of species, possibly due to the shortage of open habitats. Further efforts will be carried out in the spring in order to get a full calendar year’s worth of surveys.
• Not many reptile species have been recorded, but more work is needed in the spring.
• More work is also needed with amphibians, though some interesting species have already been documented.
• The bird survey has shown much greater diversity and abundance than seen during the New Hope Survey.
• Some of the taxonomic groups (including lichens and vascular plants) have already completed their work, but other groups plan to continue into the spring.
• The final survey report is planned for completion in September 2025.

Update on NHP Chatham County Inventory (Merry Conlin)

• Merry gave an update on the NC Natural Heritage Program’s county-wide inventory.
• Their effort is a follow up of a 1992 survey by Hall and Boyer.
• So far, they have identified 54 sites of conservation interest.
• This is the first time the NHP has done a comprehensive update of a previous county inventory.
• They have focused particularly on riparian corridors and natural area buffers.
• Merry has been working with local landowners to identify sites and give feedback. So far, 413 landowners have been contacted, and they have generally expressed willingness to participate in the inventory.
• So far, 110 parcels have been surveyed.
  • One new natural area has been described
  • 7 rare species EOs have been created or updated
  • 30+ newly mapped natural communities
• The NHP inventory will incorporate data from the NCBP survey at White Pines.
• Merry highlighted the importance of an accurate inventory at a time of rapid development in Chatham County. The county has a long history of agricultural land use, and the county had largely been cut-over by 1914, with heavy timber harvesting in the 1950s.

NFWF Grant for Uwharries to Sandhills Restoration Project (Lydie Costes)

• The aim of the project is to map landscape resilience in a unique and vulnerable part of the state, with particular focus on the ability of species to move in response to climate change.
• Focus on connectivity and wildlife corridors.
• The Uwharries seem to be the best hope for species moving northward.
• One of the most vulnerable habitat types are the piedmont bog communities, and they are a target for restoration efforts.
• The study has also explored the impact of fire (and fire suppression) and the possibility of restoring natural fire regimes to public and private lands.
• Unfortunately, there will probably not be sufficient resources to do all of the burning that is needed.
• Historically, there has been significant habitat degradation due to fire suppression. This has also resulted in declining stream flows and water quality.
• The vision of the project is to create a 25,000 acre patch of connected, fire-managed pine habitat in the Uwharries, with stepping stones of habitat connectivity to conservation lands in the Sandhills.
• The NCBP was to receive a grant of $11,800 from the NWF for survey work in the Sandhills and Uwharries. Unfortunately these funds have been frozen by the federal government.
• If the NCBP survey goes forward, it will look for rare species associated with small-patch communities (seepage bogs, boggy streamheads, bean dips, xerophytic oak woodlands, etc.). The results will inform conservation and management efforts. While rare species will be one of the targets of the Sandhills-Uwharries survey, habitat viability will be assessed by all of the species we record in the inventory, common as well as rare.

Habitats of NC (Steve Hall)

• Steve is still working on the methodology for status rankings.
  • Habitats will be defined by species present
  • Measuring the expected number of extirpations in a habitat based on the probabilities for individual species
  • Can be used to set conservation priorities
  • How do you come up with probabilities for individual species? Ranking occurrences (equivalent to individual populations of the species).
  • Unlike NatureServe, looks at all species
  • Common species can also tell you about the security of a habitat
  • The viability of occurrences is expressed as EO ranks
  • The term EO refers to Element Occurrences as identified by NHP. For our analysis of habitats, the occurrences of all species are included in our evaluations..
  • Traditional systems have used generic, ordinal estimates of viability - A (excellent) to F (failed to find)
• The estimates for the habitats site will be based on direct field assessments made by experienced field biologists.
• Viability estimates have traditionally been assumed to be good for 20 to 30 years.
• Viability estimates can be expressed as probabilities
  • Viability is basically an estimate of the probability of survival/extirpation
  • System uses probabilities rather than ordinal ranks (A would be equivalent to about 0.9)
  • Probability of extirpation = 1 - probability of survival
  • More sophisticated data analysis is possible with numerical rankings
  • Estimates are assumed to be good for 10 years (rather than 20 to 30)
• If the PE values for occurrences are considered to be independent, the probability of all being extirpated within a given period is: PE (species) = Π PE (occurrences)
• Steve gave a walkthrough of the habitats site, which is still in development.
• Fields have already been added to the moth site for occurrence viability and the calculations have been automated by Tom.
• A copy of the paper explaining the approach is available on request.

Orthoptera (Steve Hall)

• Steve gave a brief update on the Orthoptera website.
• The website includes spectrograms (and audio recordings) of singing insects.
• There were some interesting findings from White Pines, including a species of camel cricket which would be a major disjunct population from the north (if confirmed).

Arachnids (Brian Bockhahn, Donald Zepp)

• The Arachnids site has continued to add new species, and there are likely many more still to be discovered in NC.
• There have been some interesting new discoveries, including a spider that inhabits Spanish Moss and a new jumping spider species from White Pines.
• Brian also gave an update on the state symbols project (of the NC state parks system), which will work to nominate and select candidates for various state organism categories.
• Donald reported that he has been working to fill out the range maps by adding new county records. There is now at least one species listed for every county.
• One of the sources of new records has been Donald’s work going through the NC State Insect Museum’s collection. Donald has also been sending them new voucher specimens.

Birds, Mammals, Freshwater Fishes (Harry LeGrand)

• Harry gave brief updates on the birds, mammals, and freshwater fishes websites.
• The birds site includes both traditional range maps and breeding range maps, which feature estimates of how common the species is in each county.
• The bird site has a public submission form, but this has not been a major source of new records, and is primarily of interest for new county records.

Vascular Plants (Bruce Sorrie)

• Bruce gave a brief update on the vascular plants site.
• The site includes over 4,000 species, all of which have species accounts.

Butterflies (Jeff Pippen, Harry LeGrand)

• Jeff shared some new features that have been added to the butterfly site, including:
  • A new county records tab
  • Color-coded maps that are now updated live showing the recency of records in each county
  • New flight charts
• Harry and Jeff’s butterfly field guide was recently published.
• The latest butterfly approximation is now online.

Odonates (John Petranka, Mark Shields)

• One of the most exciting finds of the year was the discovery of a Phantom Darner in Carteret County, a species that hadn’t been recorded in NC in over 50 years.
• They have also observed some interesting range expansions which may be tied to climate change, including the Duckweed Firetail which was found at White Pines.
• Changes have been made to the homepage of the site, including color-coded county heat maps.
• Two papers have been submitted to the Bulletin of American Odonatology, for dragonflies and damselflies.
• The group plans to continue their work at White Pines in the spring.

Bryophytes (Blanka Aguero)

• The bryophyte website is still being fleshed out, and work has begun on the species accounts and distribution maps.
• The authors have so far made one trip to White Pines, recording 80 species (including historical records).
• Two new species were added to the state checklist in 2024, and another this year.

Moths (David George, Jeff Niznik)

• David began the moth group update with a brief tribute to Bo Sullivan, a founding member of the NCBP who passed away in 2024.
• Bo’s contributions to our knowledge of moths in NC are immense, and we relied on him as the ultimate taxonomic authority and to dissect and identify unknown specimens.
• Bo’s enormous collection is now in possession of the Smithsonian.
• A newsletter giving a more detailed look at Bo’s life and work is available on the NCBP website.
• One of Bo’s major contributions was a library of more than 10,000 photographs of the internal structural features of moths, which are of vital importance for distinguishing between species.
• Jim Petranka has been working to incorporate these images into the website, which makes it a unique resource for scientific research.
• David introduced Jeff Niznik, the newest co-author of the moth website. Jeff has many years of experience rearing larvae, and has made many valuable contributions to our understanding of the life histories of NC moth species. He has also been involved in much of our survey work at White Pines and around the state over the last couple years.
• David gave an update on his work on the moth host plant database, which now includes host records for over 800 moth species (and more than 2,000 moth/plant species relationships).
• He also finished writing or updating the larval hosts section for all 3000+ moth species.
• There are a number of new features on the moths website, including:
  • A function to carry over data from the previous record submission, which will save us countless hours of work
  • New conservation ranks (as previously described by Steve Hall)
• There were two major milestones attained in 2024: 3,000 moth species and 200,000 records.
• In the last 30 years, our state checklist has grown from less than 1,200 species to more than 3,100.
  • Most of the growth in recent years has been with micromoths, which now outnumber macros.
  • In 2024, we added 116 species and more than 23,000 records.
• The moth group plans to continue work at White Pines in the Spring.

Leaf-mining Insects (Tracy Feldman)

• Tracy announced plans for a new leaf-miner website focusing initially on one family of leaf-mining flies.
  • We currently do not have any websites for Diptera.
• He told us about work on developing a protocol for quantitative surveys of leaf-miners.
  • There are really no baseline data for these insects
  • “Permanent” sampling plots have been established at White Pines, the New Hope floodplain, and Durant Nature Preserve
  • Plots over a 10 meter radius are surveyed for diversity and abundance of leaf mines

Lichens (Gary Perlmutter)

• The lichens website has continued to add new species and records.
• Two papers were published from Gary’s Rocky River survey.
• Specimen work has been completed at White Pines and a Carolina Bays survey.

Myriapods (Carol Tingley)

• Carol continues to work on the website, which was launched last year.
• Myriapods aren’t well-documented and are difficult to ID, making public submissions impractical.
• At this point, the status and ranges of species are still poorly known.

At the end of the meeting, Carol proposed that we standardize the NCBP annual meeting date as the first Saturday in March, and there was general agreement that this would be a good idea.