San Francisco Bay Area City Nature Challenge, April 29 - May 2, 2022
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City Nature Challenge 2022, April 29 - May 2

Started in 2016 as a competition between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the City Nature Challenge (CNC) has grown into an international event, motivating people around the world to find and document wildlife in and around their cities, using biodiversity recording apps and platforms like iNaturalist. Run by the Community Science teams at the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the CNC is an annual four-day global urban bioblitz at the end of April, where cities are in a collaboration-meets-friendly-competition to see not only what can be accomplished when we all work toward a common goal, but also which city can gather the most observations of nature, find the most species, and engage the most people in the event. The 2022 City Nature Challenge is gearing up to be the biggest one yet!

Participating is easy: just use iNaturalist to make and share observations of wild plants and animals in any of the nine Bay Area counties between April 29 and May 2, 2022. Be sure to check back here as well for information about City Nature Challenge events happening throughout the Bay Area.

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Bay Area CNC Events

Join an event for the City Nature Challenge to learn more our local species, get hands-on help using iNaturalist, and meet other people interested in nature! Be sure to click on the links to learn more and to register if needed. All events are in-person unless noted and will be hosted in English unless noted.

Pre-CNC Events

Friday, April 29

Saturday, April 30

Sunday, May 1

Monday, May 2

 

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City Nature Challenge 2021 Results

For the first time, the annual City Nature Challenge—one of the world’s largest community science events—recorded over 1 million wildlife observations! Over 400 cities participated, with more than 52,000 people making more than 1.2 million observations of nature in the four days of the challenge.  Every observation made during the 4-day event, co-founded by the Academy, contributes important data to monitor and protect our planet’s biodiversity. Read the press release for more highlights.

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Long-nosed snake photo by Tony Iwane

More than 2,200 Bay Area residents racked up 32,100+ observations in 2021. The most-observed species? You guessed it: the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). Other highlights include:

Long-nosed snake photo © Tony Iwane

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Special thanks to our partners

From getting the word out to hosting events, the Academy's Bay Area partners make City Nature Challenge the inspiring, empowering, and fun 4-day nature bioblitz that it is—and we are incredibly grateful. Click the links below to learn more about each group.

California Native Plant Society | California Lichen Society | Latino Outdoors | California State Parks: Candlestick Point SRA | Bay Nature | San Francisco Department of the Environment | Nature in the City | Presidio Trust | Golden Gate Audubon Society | California Native Plant Society Yerba Buena Chapter | Sutro Stewards | Golden Gate National Recreation Area | San Mateo County Parks | Sequoia Audubon Society | Bioblitz.club | East Bay Regional Parks | California Center for Natural History | Community for Lake Merritt | Oakland Zoo | Oakland Museum of California | Wholly H2o | One Tam | Marin Municipal Water District | Marin County Parks | Sonoma Ecology Center | Sonoma County Parks | Pepperwood Preserve | Napa County RCD | Saved by Nature | Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful | Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society | Grassroots Ecology

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Additional resources

Explore, observe, and document the plants and animals around you—even inside your house!

Woman taking photo of ivy for iNaturalist

Explore Nature In and Around Your Home

You don't need to venture too far from home to find exciting and surprising creatures! Download this PDF to get started.

Bingo card with Bay Area plants and animals

Bay Area Backyard Bingo

Download this PDF and see if you can find all 25 of these commonly observed Bay Area (plant and animal) neighbors.

iNaturalist logo

Download iNaturalist

Don't have iNat yet? Download the app today and discover how fun (and easy) it is to document biodiversity in your neighborhood.

Join iNaturalist

The work we do utilizes iNaturalist to make biodiversity observations while building community around nature. It's a community-powered website and app that makes it easy to upload and share your observations in the field and to get help from other users with flora and fauna IDs.