BioBlitz leaves hard-to-find spider exposed Volunteer Oscar Morales looks over the species of fish caught in the Baird Creek Parkway including a white sucker (larger fish on bottom) (photo by Tina Gohr). Public identifies 571 species near creek By Anna Krejci News-Chronicle This isn't meant to scare arachnophobes from beautiful Baird Creek Parkway, but a search of the area Saturday turned up 34 species of spiders. Approximately 70 people explored the wooded area surrounding Baird Creek Parkway in search of as many species of plants, insects and animals as they could find Saturday. The public, university students and faculty, and the coordinators of Biodiversity Project, an environmental education group, participated in the BioBlitz. The search resulted in the documentation of 571 species found in the park's 375 acres. About 350 of the species were plants, 49 were birds and 60 were insects. Michael L. Draney, assistant professor of arachnology at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, said the search uncovered a specimen of the Scotinella minnetonka, a brown spider about 3 millimeters long. "It's so small it can't bite humans," he said. According to one source, the spider has been found in nine Wisconsin counties, but little is known about it, Draney said. It is well camouflaged with its environment, he said of the tiny creature with V-shaped markings on its body. It was found among the leaves on the ground. "It's sort of interesting to realize if you took the time to study that animal you could find out stuff that nobody else has ever known," he said. Draney said John Dobyns, a biology teacher at Freedom High School, was among those who identified and collected the spider. There were 34 species of spiders identified on Saturday. Draney said there are more than 100 spider species living in Baird Creek Parkway. Charlie Frisk, president of the Baird Creek Preservation Foundation, led groups on fish hunts and found a yellow perch. "This far upstream we've never found a yellow perch before and I've been doing fish studies here now for four years," he said. Saturday's work will be useful in the future. "The nice thing about an index like this is 20 years from now we can do it again, and we can see if the biological health of Baird Creek 20 years from today is better or about the same or has gotten worse," he said. The event raises awareness about the area's biodiversity and makes people more interested in protecting the area's water quality, preventing invasive species from interfering with the area's biodiversity and trail preservation, Frisk said. Most of the species that were collected were released. A list of the species documented during Saturday's daylong event will be posted on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Cofrin Arboretum Center for Biodiversity Web site, www.uwgb.edu/biodiversity.