City Nature Challenge 2021
The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is an international competition conducted through iNaturalist to see which city can make the most observations, identify the most species, or have the most participants! It started in 2016 as a friendly competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Last year a total of 244 cities from 40 countries made over 815,000 observations. Over 32,600 species were identified, 1,300 of which were endangered, threatened, or rare!
WHERE? There are two areas in Colorado that will be participating in this year's CNC: the Denver-Boulder Metro Area (Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson Counties) and the Colorado Springs Area (El Paso County and Pikes Peak). Within those areas, you can make iNaturalist observations anywhere wild nature exists, but we strongly encourage you to visit a State Park to participate! For the Denver-Boulder Metro CNC Area, those state parks are: Eldorado Canyon, Barr Lake, Chatfield, Cherry Creek, Roxborough, and Castlewood Canyon, plus the eastern halves of Staunton and Golden Gate Canyon. Cheyenne Mountain State Park is in the Colorado Springs CNC area.
WHEN? The 2021 CNC takes place April 30-May 9. The first four days, April 30-May 3, are when all the observations will be made. The last six days, May 4-9, are when the observations will be identified. Every observation that has been identified down to the species level will count towards the city’s total! The winners will then be announced on May 10. There will be a winner for the categories of most observations, most species, and most participants.
HOW? To participate, simply take photos of wild plants, animals, or fungi (no pets or potted plants, please!) between April 30 and May 3, and upload your observations to iNaturalist by May 9. At any point from April 30 to May 9, you can help identify all the observations from your city by visiting your city's iNaturalist project below.
Whether you contribute observations or help with identifications, you can earn CPW volunteer hours by participating in CNC! Click the volunteer button below to log in or sign up to be a volunteer.