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City Nature Challenge

What is the City Nature Challenge?

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 2024 City Nature Challenge will be April 26 – 29. This year there are 691 cities across 51 countries taking part! Participating is easy: just use iNaturalist to make and share observations of wild plants and animals in any of the nine Bay Area counties. Be sure to check back here as well for information about City Nature Challenge events happening throughout the Bay Area.

City Nature Challenge website

How to Participate

Participating in the City Nature Challenge is easy!

  1. Download the free iNaturalist app and make an account.
  2. April 26 - April 29, take photos of WILD plants and animals anywhere in the nine Bay Area Counties (San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Marin).
  3. Upload your observations to share with the iNaturalist community. They will automatically be added to our San Francisco Bay Area City Nature Challenge project!
  4. Learn more as your finds get identified!

Bay Area CNC Events 2024

Join upcoming events for the City Nature Challenge 2024 to learn more about our local species, get hands-on help using iNaturalist, and meet other people interested in nature! 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. Be sure to check back as we'll be adding more events!

Pre-CNC events:

Friday, April 26:

Saturday, April 27:

Sunday, April 28th:

Monday, April 29:

Tuesday, April 30:

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.

Bay Nature Magazine | BioBlitz Club | California Native Plant Society | California Native Plant Society Yerba Buena Chapter | California Lichen Society | California State Parks: Candlestick Point SRA | California State Parks: Sugarloaf Ridge SP | East Bay Regional Park District | El Cerrito Trail Trekkers | Enterprise for Youth | Friends of the Urban Forest | Foodwise | Golden Gate Bird Alliance | Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy | Grassroots Ecology | John Muir Land Trust | Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful | Latino Outdoors SF Bay Area | Marin County Parks | Nature in the City | Pepperwood | Presidio Trust | Rotary Nature Center Friends | San Francisco Botanical Garden | San Francisco Environment Department | San Francisco Public Library | San Francisco Unified School District | San Mateo County Parks | Sisterhood Gardens | Solano County Office of Education | Solano Land Trust | Sonoma Ecology Center | Treasure Island Development Authority | Wild Oyster Project

Additional resources

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