Greater Phoenix City Nature Challenge

If you would like to be involved with the Greater Phoenix City Nature Challenge please subscribe to our email list above to receive email updates!

Every year on the last weekend in April, the Greater Phoenix Area participates in the City Nature Challenge. This is a global effort to observe and document as much urban biodiversity as possible while engaging in community science. Using a free app called iNaturalist, anyone can get involved and share observations, anywhere from neighborhoods to local parks.

This is the fourth year the Greater Phoenix Area will participate in the challenge and is co-

organized by Educating Children Outdoors (ECO), Barrett Honors College, Central Arizona Conservation Alliance, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Scistarter,  and Maricopa County Master Naturalists.

What is the CNC?

The City Nature Challenge (CNC) was created by the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The event started as a friendly competition between two cities but quickly grew into an international event with over 200 countries participating in the most recent challenge. The CNC is a unique event that serves to connect people to their local nature in urban or metro areas worldwide. The hope of the event is to grow volunteer community science documentation while collecting urban biodiversity data that are available to managers and scientists but most importantly have fun while spending time outside! 

What is community science?

Community science is best described as a partnership between the public and professional scientists that can help answer questions at local and sometimes global scales that scientists couldn’t answer on their own. This can be done in person and online. 

Make an even bigger impact to community science by integrating iNaturalist with your SciStarter account.

Track your contributions and participation over time. This will inform your personalized recommendations on SciStarter.org as well.   

1. Login or create an iNaturalist account at iNaturalist.org, make a note of your username.

2. Login in or create a SciStarter account at SciStarter.org using the same email address as your iNaturalist account. 

3. Once you are logged into your SciStarter.org account, click on your name at the top right to access “my info and settings”

4. Scroll down the info and settings page to find “affiliation integration.” Here you will be able to type in your iNaturalist username to integrate your iNaturalist account to your SciStarter account. You are all set! Your dashboard will keep track of all your hard works so you can see your progress! More details can be found here. 

Why should you participate in the CNC?

It’s fun—and it’s a great way to spend some time out in nature de-stressing, while also learning about urban biodiversity and helping Greater Phoenix Area find as many species as possible over 4 days.  You’ll also be helping scientists collect valuable information on urban biodiversity. 

Who can participate?

Anyone in the Valley of the Sun who has access to a camera (cellphone or digital) and the internet can participate. Please share this flyer with your friends and family.

How do you participate?

STEP 1 - APRIL 25-APRIL 28

• OBSERVE - Observe wildlife in the Greater Phoenix Area, it can be a plant, animal, fungus, or any other evidence of life (including scat, fur, shells, tracks, feathers, carcass)!
• TAKE A PHOTO - Take a photo of the plant, animal or evidence of life you discover, be sure to geotag the photo or note the location (if you are not using a device that can geotag).
• SHARE YOUR OBSERVATIONS - Upload your observations to iNaturalist.

STEP 2: APRIL 29-May 

Even if you are unable to get out to make observations or if you are outside the Greater Phoenix Area, you can still help us by identifying the observations found by participants.  It’s fun to see what people are finding! See our resources page for information about online iNaturalist trainings. 

Check out this video for more info.