Join the City Nature Challenge

Pima County Master Naturalists is hosting the 2022 City Nature Challenge in Pima County, Arizona. Be a part of this community science project by participating in this worldwide effort to document the amazing biodiversity of our region.

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 their cities. Run by the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the CNC is an annual four-day global bioblitz to work toward a common goal, and to engage in friendly competition to see which city can gather the most observations, find the most species, and engage the most people.

Goals of the City Nature Challenge

  • Connect people in urban/metro areas to their local nature
  • Connect people to each other: build community in person & online around local nature
  • Collect urban biodiversity data available to use for science, management, and conservation
  • Grow volunteer biodiversity documentation globally
  • Have fun through some friendly competition!

How to participate

  1. Create an account on iNaturalist
    • You can download the free iNaturalist app to your mobile device. iNaturalist is 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.
  2. Join the Pima County CNC project for updates
  3. Part 1, April 29 - May 2: Find WILD plants, animals, fungi, lichen, etc.; take photos, and add your observations to iNaturalist
  4. Part 2, May 3 - 8: Finish uploads and identify observations

Learn more

Read more about the City Nature Challenge at Pima Master Naturalists.

Looking for other community science projects?

Visit our Community Science page to learn how you can check out free kits to help you explore biodiversity, measure light in the night sky, and observe pollinators.