City Nature Challenge

Which city around the world has the most nature? The City Nature Challenge 2018, happening April 27-30, will help us find out!

The City Nature Challenge is international this year, and over 50 cities around the globe are asking residents of and visitors to these urban areas to explore nature all around them and document the species they find. Find out more information and see which cities are participating by visiting the official City Nature Challenge website.

The first City Nature Challenge happened in 2016 between Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area. Since then, the initiative’s co-founders, the citizen science teams from the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County have been growing the challenge! For the 2017 City Nature Challenge, more than 4000 people participated in the City Nature Challenge across 16 US cities. In just five days, together they made over 125,000 observations of nature and documented more than 8600 species, including 392 rare/endangered/threatened species.

Here in the Bay Area, participating is easy! If you live in or are visiting any of the nine counties that touch San Francisco Bay, all you have to do is:

1. Download the free iNaturalist app to your mobile device.

2. During April 27-30, take photos to make observations of wild plants and animals in your backyard, a park, your walk to school or work - anywhere you find nature. Also check our bioblitz page to see the many events happening around the Bay in support of the City Nature Challenge - feel free to join one or more!

3. Upload your photos to iNaturalist. They will be automatically added to the San Francisco Bay Area City Nature Challenge project!

4. Learn more as the iNaturalist community helps identify your observations, and feel free to help ID other people's observations, especially during the May 1-3 identification period.

5. Results will be announced on Friday, May 4!