Counting nature's blessings.

Byline: MIKE STAHLBERG The Register-Guard

A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE huddled around a muddy puddle in a two-track dirt road at the base of Mount Pisgah. Several of them held open books in their hands, comparing printed pictures and drawings with what they saw as they poked, prodded and pointed at plants growing around the edges of the pond. Occasionally, someone would mutter a Latin word or two.

Meanwhile, across a meadow, another group of people peered into the trees with binoculars, looking for the birds that were the source of the songs they heard. And among a rocky outcropping on the shoulders of Mount Pisgah, youngsters overturned rocks in search of bugs or lizards.

All these people were participating in a "biothon," one of the more intriguing and intellectual forms of outdoor recreation ever devised. It's certainly the only in which a working knowledge of Latin gives you a leg up on the competition.

A "biothon" is essentially a scavenger hunt for life forms - with the addition of that familiar pledge-based fund-raising element borrowed from jogathons, walkathons and the like.

The object is to find and identify as many different species as possible, then to collect from donors who had pledged to give anything from a nickel on up per species.

The Friends of Buford Park and Mount Pisgah held their second annual biothon Saturday, and the tally sheets were still being tabulated Wednesday. But the inaugural biothon last year saw 447 separate species listed by the two dozen professional biologists and botanists, plus some enthusiastic amateur nature lovers, who participated.

The species count included 220 different plants, 75 species of birds, 65 different insects, 51 cryptogams (mosses and lichens), assorted mollusks, herptiles and arachnids, plus three mammals and three fish.

The data represent more than just the results of an interesting intellectual exercise, however.

"We're trying to build a scientific inventory of what is located in different habitat areas of the park," said Chris Orsinger, executive director of the Friends of Buford Park and Mount Pisgah, a nonprofit organization formed in 1989 to preserve the ecological integrity of Howard Buford Recreation Area (commonly known as Mount Pisgah). The group augments the work of the Lane County Parks Department, which owns the land and manages the park, but is not directly connected with the county.

"We're trying to understand what species are living where, so we can help make good decisions about how to manage the park," Orsinger said. "Getting a handle on what's out here on 2,300 acres is a huge task."

Last year, for example, biothon participants found one rare plant (timwort) new to Lane County and two others that weren't previously known to exist in the park.

The main purpose of the biothon, however, is to raise money for various habitat improvement projects at the park. Donors ponied up more than $2,000 in pledges last year, making the biothon the Friends' largest fund-raising event.

And the Friends have many uses for the money. Recent projects include replanting 35 acres of flood-plain forest in an area that had been cleared for agriculture 100 years ago and reclaiming nesting habitat for western pond turtles.

"The biggest known viable population of western pond turtles in the Willamette Basin is at Mount Pisgah," Orsinger said. "So it is extremely important to preserve their nesting habitat."

The turtles need open, south-facing meadows so they can incubate their eggs, he said. But non-native species, primarily Scotch broom, have been taking over that habitat and turning meadow in shrubland. So the Friends recently treated about 35 acres of "turtle habitat" in preparation for the turtle nesting season that begins in June.

The Friends also need money to expand a nursery used to propagate native plants.

"Once we clear an area of exotics, we need something to put back," Orsinger said. "So in the summer we have botanists and others out collecting the seeds of about 20 varieties of native plants."

Maintenance of the 16-mile trail system used by thousands of visitors to the park is another of the Friends' responsibilities.

In fact, work parties are scheduled the next two Saturdays to repair winter damage to Bridge Bowl Trail No. 7 and to work on a new trail that will connect Trails 1 and 7. Volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. both days at the North trailhead (turn left after you cross the bridge into the park).

Finally, the biothon helps raise public awareness of the amazing diversity of life at Buford Recreation Area.

"It's a storehouse of botany and wildlife," Orsinger said. "It really is the largest representative example of the natural Willamette Valley ecosystem."

Located between the Coast and Middle forks of the Willamette River, the Buford Recreation Area includes Mount Pisgah, which rises 1,000 feet above the valley floor, and a mosaic of the wetland, prairie and oak savanna habitats that covered the southern Willamette Basin when the Europeans first arrived.

But many of the species that dominated the landscape at that time have disappeared as a result of agricultural practices and the invasion of non-native plant species, such as Himalayan blackberries, Scotch broom and various thistles.

Indeed, the plants that Orsinger and others were studying so intently with their field guides in hand at the beginning of this article included some remnants of flood plain prairies, surviving now in mud puddles alongside the road.

"Most people don't realize that we've got great native grasses and wildflowers that are really hard to find elsewhere," said Bart Johnson, a professor of landscape architecture who searched with Orsinger's group.

While focusing on plant life, Orsinger and Johnson didn't overlook the critters found swimming in the little mud puddle, identifying tree frog tadpoles and mosquito larvae in the brown water. They also found tiny "spittle bugs" in a large patch of native barestem lomatium, which smelled of parsley when they walked through it.

Meanwhile, the birders were having a banner day, tallying 91 different species Saturday, compared to the 75 species found during last year's biothon.

"Birds I've seen today for the first time this year are the Luzuli bunting, which are these spectacular blue and red birds, and the pine siskin," said biothon birder Davey Wendt. "We've seen large numbers of warblers already, but there hasn't been anything that was unexpected."

Wendt paused to point out another bird to the group accompanying him.

"There's a brown creeper right at that `Keep Oregon Green' sign,' ' he said, motioning toward a nearby tree. "He's actually fly-catching. I don't think I've ever seen a brown creeper fly-catching."

Other counters came back with reports of everything from a coyote and a fox to tiny lichens.

Up on the slopes of Mount Pisgah, Liam Sherlock caught a creepy-looking lizard and showed it to his young daughter, Carmen, who displayed a sharp eye for "pokey red" poison oak plants. And Friends board member Trevor Taylor and his son tallied tadpoles and flipped over rocks looking for lizards and insects.

Nothing too glamorous, perhaps, but in a biothon - as in nature - every living thing counts.

For additional information about Friends of Buford Park and Mount Pisgah programs and activities, see the Web site: www.bufordpark.org or telephone [phone].

CAPTION(S):

Liam Sherlock carries his 3-year-old daughter, Carmen, as they walk along a Mount Pisgah path with Trevor Taylor during the biothon. Adding a reptile to his biothon list of species, Liam Sherlock holds a western fence lizard that he snared with a blade of grass. Caption goes here caption goes here. The cutline goes in this very spot. PAUL CARTER / The Register-Guard Trevor Taylor is surrounded by flowers to add to his list during the biothon held by the Friends of Buford Park and Mount Pisgah MIKE STAHLBERG / The Register-Guard Bart Johnson (foreground) and Chris Orsinger (center) are among those checking field guides. The cutline goes in this very spot. The cutline goes in this very spot. Caption goes here caption goes here. The cutline goes in this very spot. PAUL CARTER / The Register-Guard Caption goes here caption goes here. MIKE STAHLBERG / The Register-Guard Caption goes here caption goes here. PAUL CARTER / The Register-Guard Liam Sherlock, left, his daughter, Carmen, and friend Trevor Taylor notch another species for their list during the fund-raiser. MIKE STAHLBERG / The Register-Guard Bart Johnson uses a hand lens to examine a fungus called lungwort Saturday.