City Nature Challenge 2021 (Community Hike)

The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is happening, with observations being made and shared April 30 – May 3. We’ll make our scientific contribution on May 2nd; we have a special permit and access to Little Uvas Creek Open Space Preserve. A beautiful biome with various habitats, you’ll be led by SBN Board Vice-President Teri Rogoway! A special treat, she’ll teach us how to use our iPhones to take photos of various plant and animal species to be uploaded for identification into the iNaturalist app. From the tiniest little butterfly to the largest raptor everything is game and counts towards learning more about nature.

Please bring a lunch, water, hat and/or sunscreen and a charged cell phone or iPad. 

Note: Santa Clara County Health protocols will be in effect. 

Join the 2021 City Nature Challenge project before you arrive:

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2021-san-francisco-bay-area

*Observations will be uploaded and identified May 4 – 9. Results will be announced May 10.

This is a free program provided by Saved By Nature a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Become a member or make a donation to support our cause and efforts.

How the City Nature Challenge got Started 

Started in 2016 for the first-ever Citizen Science Day, the citizen science teams at Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and California Academy of Sciences dreamed up the City Nature Challenge as a fun way to capitalize on their home cities’ friendly rivalry and hold a citizen science event around urban biodiversity. The first City Nature Challenge was an eight-day competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco, engaging residents and visitors in documenting nature to better understand urban biodiversity. Over 20,000 observations were made by more than 1000 people in a one-week period, cataloging approximately 1600 species in each location, including new records for both areas. During the 2016 CNC, we heard so much excitement and interest from people in other cities that we decided we couldn’t keep to the fun just to ourselves. In 2017 the City Nature Challenge went national, and in 2018, the CNC became an international event!