The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is an annual citizen science event that gets people outside to enjoy nature.

You might ask what is the City Nature Challenge?  Think of it as the world’s largest bio blitz. The competition started as a friendly challenge between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2016. The competition has grown explosively around the world, with 419 cities involved and over 1.2 million observations in 2022. 

For four days, beginning April 26th and ending onApril 29th we are challenging the people in our district to identify as many living things as they can using the app iNaturalist. The images you take with your camera or cellphone will be reviewed by scientists and naturalists from the Thunder Bay Field Naturalists, and by nature lovers from around the world. Simply by snapping a picture with your phone, tablet or camera you can use the ai (artificial intelligence) built into iNaturalist to create an observation. It is that easy!

Please keep it wild! Your observations should be of native species. If you happen to take a picture of a garden plant just activate the “captive / cultivated” button on iNaturalist. You can use iNaturalist anywhere you happen to be out in nature.