City Nature Challenge 2019: Boston Area's Boletim

Hello everyone,

We wanted to give an update on 2020's CNC situation. Given the current circumstances surrounding the outbreak of COVID-19, we are restructuring this year’s City Nature Challenge in the Boston area -- first, by renaming it the City Nature Celebration! Instead of competing, we seek to share appreciation of nature and its biodiversity. To keep everyone safe and comply with rules around social gatherings, we are cancelling in-person events. Our goal is to help everyone participate in the CNC, even while keeping our communities safe.

Many are now taking solace in their time away from work or school by spending more time in the great outdoors. We encourage all to shift focus to the local flora and fauna of your own neighborhood, and backyards. By taking a closer look at your natural surroundings, we can gain a greater appreciation of local wildlife while also adhering to social distancing guidelines. We also want to encourage everyone to take care to preserve and treat natural spaces and creatures with respect.

National Geographic has some excellent activities described on their website that can be done right in your own backyard. Some other fun activities that can be done to explore your local biodiversity include setting up camera traps, building your own insect catcher, and installing coverboards to find all sorts of critters. Even lights in front of your own house can be used to attract insects at night, something that Project PorchLight focuses on. We hope that you all stay safe in this time but continue to observe and appreciate your natural surroundings.

Best regards,
The CNC Steering Committee

Boston Area City Nature Challenge Steering Committee:
Aimee Bonanno, New England Aquarium and New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative
Colleen Hitchcock and Isaiah Freedman, Brandeis University
Claire O’Neill, Earthwise Aware
Eliza Forman and John Anderson, Zoo New England
Peter Burn, Suffolk University
Pam DiBona, MassBays National Estuary Partnership
Stan Rullman, Kim Arlen, and Mark Chandler, Earthwatch Institute
Rob Stevenson, University of Massachusetts Boston

Hello City Nature Challenge Community!

Have you let us know that you’re joining in the 2020 City Nature Challenge? Still have some questions? Interested but not sure if it is a right fit? Planning on participating but haven’t registered as a collaborating organization for 2020? Don’t worry, there is still time… and in the meantime, why don’t your join us next week to explore the possibilities?

Whether you’ve already signed up or are still considering your options, we hope you’ll join us -- the CNC Boston steering committee -- at our first-ever City Nature Challenge Meet-up on February 10 from 12 - 3 pm at the Franklin Park Zoo! It’s free, and there will be snacks, and it will be a great chance to get together with others interested in supporting the CNC to engage our community in citizen science and documenting biodiversity in our area.

Use this google form to let us know your coming! In the form, you’ll also be able to indicate if you are a returning organization, or joining for the first-time. We’re also asking a couple of questions to find out what type of training or collaborations you might be interested in.

During the CNC Meet-up you’ll have an opportunity to participate in ‘How to iNat workshops’ for both new and advanced users, share ideas for how to engage your community, learn about Data Quests, and have all of your questions about the CNC answered. We look forward to connecting!

This year the CNC will have about 200 cities participating in this global effort to document urban biodiversity. The 2020 CNC: Boston Area will now include within the I-495 corridor, out to Stellwagen Bank, and include Cape Cod and islands. You and your organization can help boost Boston to the top of the leaderboard by making observations from April 24 - 27 and/or helping to identify observations from April 28 - May 3, 2020. Check out our website to learn more! You can also view our ‘Welcome Webinar’ from Jan. 13 on the CNC YouTube Channel. You’ll see it is divided into three parts: part 1 covers an overview of the CNC (including how to get involved), part 2 covers iNaturalist essentials, and part 3 is an open Q & A.

Thanks, we look forward to seeing you soon!

The CNC Steering Committee

Boston Area City Nature Challenge Steering Committee:
Aimee Bonanno, New England Aquarium and New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative
Colleen Hitchcock, Brandeis University
Claire O’Neill, Earthwise Aware
Eliza Forman and John Anderson, Zoo New England
Peter Burn, Suffolk University
Pam DiBona, MassBays National Estuary Partnership
Stan Rullman, Kim Arlen, and Mark Chandler, Earthwatch Institute
Rob Stevenson, University of Massachusetts Boston

Hi Everyone,
The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is back! This year the CNC will have about 200 cities participating in this global effort to document urban biodiversity. The 2020 CNC: Boston Area will now include within the I-495 corridor, out to Stellwagen Bank, and include Cape Cod and islands. You can once again help boost Boston to the top of the leaderboard by making observations from April 24 - 27 and/or helping to identify observations from April 28 - May 3, 2020. Please join the 2020 project for more news and updates here.

Thanks to your efforts in 2019, we recorded 20,443 observations of 1,480 species by 1,133 observers in the Boston Area! For 2020, we aim to increase participation, improve the quality of observations, and promote exploration of diverse habitats.

If you or your organization is interested in joining the 2020 CNC please join us on Monday, January 13th for a Welcome Webinar (register here) to learn more. We will meet using Zoom from 10:30 - 11:30 am and a reminder will be sent to confirm participation to those who register. Our Welcome Webinar will provide an overview of the CNC and be an opportunity for new and returning organizations to ask questions, share feedback, and connect. We will also host a CNC Meet-up for participating organizations on the afternoon of Monday, February 10 at the Franklin Park Zoo - please save the date!

We look forward to another great City Nature Challenge!

On behalf of the Boston Area City Nature Challenge Steering Committee,

Aimee Bonanno, New England Aquarium and New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative
Colleen Hitchcock, Brandeis University
Eliza Forman and Cynthia Mead, Zoo New England
Peter Burn, Suffolk University
Pam DiBona, MassBays National Estuary Partnership
Stan Rullman and Mark Chandler, Earthwatch Institute
Rob Stevenson, University of Massachusetts Boston

The 2019 City Nature Challenge has concluded, and the Boston Area was a force to be reckoned with! As of today, May 9th, here are Boston's results and rankings out of the 159 competing cities worldwide:

• 20,380 observations; 15th place overall

Thank you so much to everyone who participated. Whether you led events, opened up your land to observers, recorded your own observations, or identified the observations of others, your outstanding efforts made this possible. The BioBlitz period of the CNC may be over, but we are not stopping there. Here are the next steps:

- If you took photos or sound recordings during the observation period but have not yet uploaded them, you can still record them here on iNaturalist and they will count towards the CNC.
- We also need help continuing to identify our observations. Boston's goal was to have 50% of our observations reach Research Grade; we are currently at 38%, so pick a taxon you are comfortable identifying and help us reach our goal!
- Consider joining the Boston Area Biodiversity Project or one of our six data quests (Dandelion Delights , Delectable Oysters, Early Flyers, Invasive Alert, Spring Marvels, The Great Squirrel Adventure) to continue contributing to research throughout the year.

Once again, thank you for participating, and we hope you will join us next year!

We'd love your help making some identifications of observations from the City Nature Challenge. It is OK to only add a kingdom, phylum, class, order, family or genus level ID. Anything helps - thank you!

We've created a handy, "How to" guide to help!

How to Identify Observations on iNaturalist Guide

Wow! Time flies when we are CNCing and iNatting!

The Boston Area is doing amazingly well and we are close to meeting our goals for this year --- thanks to everyone who participated.

This is the time to finish uploading any observations you took during April 26 - 29th (you can upload until May 5th) and we should be doing as much identification as possible to improve our species-level and research grade observations!

Keep going, everyone! We're just over half-way to the finish line!

Wow -- Day 1 has been fantastic in the Boston Area (and across the globe!)

We had an amazing day, with 2,281 observations posted, 533 species identified, 215 observers and 134 observers participating. We are also doing very well in terms of getting our observations verified and attaining Research Grade. Right now, 31% of the observations have achieved Research Grade status and our overall goal is to have at least 50% hit that mark. Hopefully, we can keep that up and attain that goal.

Rest-up, all -- we have 3 more days of observations ahead of us!

Here in Boston, we have about 7.5 hours before our adventure begins, but our friends and competitors in the eastern hemisphere have already started their CNCs! Check out the City Nature Challenge 2019 umbrella project to watch LIVE as the 148 participating cities around the world start to log observations.

One of our goals this year is to have 50% of this project's observations become research grade. There are two major ways you can help us achieve this ambitious goal:

1. Be an identifier
   If you are a professional scientist studying a specific taxon, a birder or member of another more niche group, an amateur naturalist, or just a regular person that knows a few local species, this is one of the most impactful ways to be involved. On the home page of this project, click "Observations" then the "Identify" button. In the "Species" search bar, type the name of the organism group (can be any taxon level) that you know how to identify, and get started!

2. Take identifiable observations
   Photos that are blurry or very far away from the organism cannot be identified. Make sure that the photos you post are clear, and the organism is visible. If it is far away in the picture, post a zoomed in photo, or add a comment to your observation post that tells identifiers where the organism is located in the frame. Sometimes photos from specific angles or of certain parts of the organism's body are needed for identification. Check out this photo guide to learn how to take easily-identifiable observations.

The Boston Area is ready for the 2019 CNC! A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who is participating -- whether by sharing information about the CNC, hosting and event, opening a location for observations during the CNC or making observations and identifications. The latest count shows we have 61 Partner Organizations, 119 Events and 82 Observation Locations. All of these are a big increase from last year!

Remember to check out the CNC: Boston Area website for all the latest information.

Are you ready to participate in the City Nature Challenge? As it approaches, practice using iNaturalist, connect with other environmental enthusiasts and learn about the ecosystems and research being conducted to protect them in the Boston Area.

There are also many BioBlitz events scheduled during CNC observation weekend. At these events, you will be guided by local experts through parks and conservation areas as you record wildlife observations on iNaturalist along with other community members. These events are hosted by CNC partner organizations across the region and range from casual daytime walks (great for families) to more involved specimen collection events (great for those looking to get more directly involved in the research).

Check out the calendar of events, and keep checking in as more activities are scheduled as the CNC approaches. We look forward to seeing you there!