City Nature Challenge 2020
Friday, April 24 through Monday, April 27, 2020
Who will participate?
There are over 250 cities across the world signed up to participate in the City Nature Challenge (CNC) 2020, ready to go head-to-head to see who can find the most species of plants, animals and fungi in our urban regions over the course of one weekend!
Our region is the Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma-Everett metropolitan area, which includes all of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. Any observation made anywhere within those counties (or out in adjacent areas of Puget Sound!) will count towards our total in the City Nature Challenge.
Why should our audiences participate?
Not only will these observations help build up the baseline of Puget Sound area biodiversity, but it also provides data for our local scientists, land managers, and governments about the areas they study and care for. By helping our audiences participate in CNC, we also help them connect to and take pride in the biodiversity in our local area.
In 2019, 159 cities motivated more than 35,000 people to upload 963,773 observations of nature to iNaturalist in the four days of the City Nature Challenge. In 2019, the Seattle-Tacoma area logged 2,946 observations of 853 species, with 235 observers participating. In 2020, even more cities are taking part, asking residents of and visitors to these urban areas to explore nature all around them and document the species they find! What will we find this year in the Seattle-Tacoma area??
When?
OBSERVE! Friday, April 24 – Monday, April 27, 2020
IDENTIFY! Friday, April 24 – Sunday, May 3, 2020
How do I participate?
OBSERVE:
- FIND WILDLIFE (wild animals, plants or other living things!)
- TAKE A PICTURE OF WHAT YOU FIND
- SHARE YOUR OBSERVATIONS
Download the free iNaturalist app to your Android or iPhone. join the 2020 City Nature Challenge: Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area iNaturalist project and upload your observations! Results will be announced Monday, May 4, so be sure to upload your observations before then!
IDENTIFY:
- DOWNLOAD the free iNaturalist app to your Android or iPhone
- JOIN the 2020 City Nature Challenge: Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area iNaturalist project
- IDENTIFY observations to species level. Try filtering iNaturalist for observations without identifications or for observations that still need to get down to species.
How can I help motivate other people to participate?
There are a few ways you can help us highlight the amazing biodiversity we have in our region and position the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area to be a leader in the City Nature Challenge:
- Just spread the word! Let me know if you need flyers, email templates, social media posts, etc. to let people know this is happening.
- If you’re already holding an event during April 24-27, is there a way you can incorporate participants making iNaturalist observations? Hikes, restoration events, festivals – all of those could provide great opportunities for making observations.
- Help make IDs during the event! If you’re familiar with our local flora and fauna, you can also help by adding identifications to other people’s observations on iNaturalist for the Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area CNC. The more observations we get down to species level, the more species we get in our tally!
Seattle-Tacoma CNC 2020 project page: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2020-seattle-tacoma-metropolitan-area
Woodland Park Zoo’s City Nature Challenge page: https://www.zoo.org/conservation/naturechallenge
City Nature Challenge global page: www.citynaturechallenge.org