City Nature Challenge participants! Thanks so much for your energy and enthusiasm for the City Nature Challenge this year – it was incredible to see so many people excited to document their local nature.

Please help us make the City Nature Challenge even better next year!

If you took part in the City Nature Challenge – whether you made 1 observation or 1000 – we’re hoping you’ll fill out this short (only 5 questions!) survey to let us know about your experience. All input is important and appreciated!

Link to survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CNC2017

Thanks in advance!
Alison Young & Lila Higgins, City Nature Challenge coordinators
(California Academy of Sciences & Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County)

Thank you to everyone who participated in the City Nature ChallengeL Chicago!

The national organizers (LA and SF) have asked us to select a few rare or interesting finds from Chicago to highlight in a national press release. So I'm hoping to crowd source from all of the Chicago observers and identifiers. Please share your thoughts by replying to this post.

Also, they will be tabulating the results tomorrow, Saturday April 22 at 11am CST. So we have until that time to continue to ID and upload observations made between April 14 and 18.

I'll be sending out another journal post in a few days with the final results and links to any national press.

Thanks again!

Dave

@amendez @nicole117 @bouteloua @andrewstpaul @cpdlauren @maxclifford @saucerful @bmorrisett @danders4 @evan8 @kennedy9094 @joelle @ekrimmel @sanguinaria33 @jeanfrancoisroch @borisb @dougtaron @psweet @skrentnyjeff @xyz @rgraveolens @timidlittleturtle @scoobbi @jilldoub @d_coulter @jvreeland @rlevine @reptilianreprobate @kathleensoler @aleksandra3 @kjack125 @kiara4 @eriko @brendan20 @shannon63 @kumar2 @elfaulkner @randyshonkwiler @isaac_krone @hikebikerun13 @dsuarez @lifeondakinstreet @scottmohan @missgreen @charles18 @flexfolks @nfurlan @citymouse @randyshonkwiler @dougtaron @reptilianreprobate @missgreen @xyz @john8

Thanks to everyone for coming out to Wooded Island within Jackson Park on April 15th, 2017 to document some local urban biota. Thank you especially to Lauren Umek, Jerry Levy, and David Bild for showing us around Jackson Park and helping to teach the group how to use iNaturalist. Also many thanks to those helping identify some of the unknowns.

So far we've documented 190 observations of 81 species at Jackson Park on April 15th...but the numbers will continue to rise as more observations get identified. I was pleasantly surprised to find native flora such as Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica), blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), wild ginger (Asarum canadense), Jacob's ladder (Polemonium reptans), and spring beauties (Claytonia virginica).

Chicago's City Nature Challenge 2017 covers the whole of Cook County and is up to 1268 observations of 343 species so far. The contest period runs til the end of the day tomorrow, April 18th, so plenty of time to find a local park and document more flora and fauna.

Some links:
Help identify iNaturalist observations in Cook County
Volunteer at Jackson Park or other Chicago Park District Natural Areas
Learn more about the big habitat restoration project at Jackson Park

cassi saari (@bouteloua)
Co-Director, Habitat 2030
Ecologist, ecology + vision, llc

@amendez @nicole117 @dbild @andrewstpaul @cpdlauren @maxclifford @saucerful @bmorrisett @danders4 @evan8 @kennedy9094 @joelle @ekrimmel @sanguinaria33 @jeanfrancoisroch @borisb @dougtaron @psweet @skrentnyjeff @xyz @rgraveolens @timidlittleturtle @scoobbi @jilldoub @d_coulter @jvreeland @rlevine @reptilianreprobate @kathleensoler @aleksandra3 @kjack125 @kiara4 @eriko @brendan20 @shannon63 @kumar2 @elfaulkner @randyshonkwiler @isaac_krone @hikebikerun13 @dsuarez @lifeondakinstreet @scottmohan @missgreen @charles18 @flexfolks @nfurlan