City Nature Challenge 2024: Western NC's Journal

Hello Everyone, and Congratulations on a successful City Nature Challenge!

We collectively surpassed our 2023 goals for another record year. This includes 10,069 observations (2023: 9,436) of 2,117 species (2023: 1,901).

Our top iNaturalist users for the project are as follows:

Most Observations or species:
1) @ladyjanaye with 782 observations
2) @lenrely 713 observations
3) @michaelwall with 614 observations
4) @ripley1 with 413 observations
5) @dgreenberger with 343 observations
6) @caseygirard with 241 observations

If I've tagged you above, you have won a prize donated by our community sponsors at Fjallraven (only one prize per person, so with 6 prizes to offer some 4th and 5th place finishers will receive a prize)! Please send me an email at llampley@ncarboretum.org with your address so I can mail you your prizes! Or, let me know if you'd like to pick them up at the Arboretum and I can arrange for free parking for the day.

PLUS: Anyone who submitted 20 observations OR submitted 10 observations and made 15 identifications has earned a NC BioBlitz Patch- sponsored by Science Across NC. To claim you patch please complete this form: https://forms.gle/9s8GASdZq1QuUG2E9

Results across NC's regions for the challenge:
Western NC: 10,069 observations, 2,117 species
Charlotte Metro Area: 2,338 observations, 902 species
Piedmont NC: 1,345 observations, 666 species
Triangle Area: 19,121 observations, 2,650 species
Coastal NC: 2,529 observations, 1,006 species

I hope you all are as excited as we are for this year's CNC! It is almost upon us so get ready. We have secured the prizes for this year's competition so make sure to get your observations in before the end of next week for it to count.

The image and observation must be made during April 26-29th but you can upload them until May 5th for the observations to count toward our city!

Good luck everyone and happy exploring!

Do you have questions about the City Nature Challenge or want to share your event idea with others?

We have scheduled a zoom call April 11th at 6 pm for anyone that might have questions or want to discuss their plans for any events they are hosting at their site. If you can't join but know someone that would like to join to learn more, feel free to forward this email to them. Hope to virtually see many of you there!

Topic: 2024 Western NC City Nature Challenge Discussion
Time: Apr 11, 2024 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81733171615?pwd=SKylYnlx6Tqwp4BFpClMJEGLXM9DKa.1

Meeting ID: 817 3317 1615
Passcode: 094410

Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kcQPsSPtX5

We need you to help represent Team Western NC during this year’s NC BioBlitz for the international City Nature Challenge!

The City Nature Challenge and NC BioBlitz occur in two stages:

Observation Window: April 26-April 29
Upload/ID Window: April 30-May 5
We are tagging you because you are an active top contributor when it comes to documenting the wildlife found in the North Carolina mountains. To hopefully add some inspiration, I wanted to share what your current ranking is by number of observations in the region since 2020.

Essentially, you can upload and provide identifications anytime between April 26 to May 5, but they must be observations that are made between April 26 and April 29. We'll have prizes to award for the iNaturalist users who have the most observations and the most species observed. You can also report your participation and earn a NC BioBlitz patch, follow the link for more details: https://scienceacrossnc.org/events/bioblitz/

Please consider joining this iNaturalist project and getting out and making observations during the 4-day observation period. We're hoping to show the world just how amazingly biodiverse WNC is! - Jonathan and Lauren

1 @allenratzlaff
2 @cporter
3 buncombe_nc
4 @lenrely
5 @annkatrinrose
6 @taroman
7 ecoexplore_wnc
8 @jackollis
9 @denisewill
10 @maxbird1
11 @mjpapay
12 @sommerbee
13 @larry14
14 @reallifeecology
15 @adriannanelson
16 @jmarchal
17 @mcaterino
18 @logpark
19 @cesarcastillo
20 @eraskin
21 @emlostanley
22 @woodbridge
23 @brookesbees
24 @dsmorris
25 @caseygirard
26 @ladyjanaye
27 @srmyers
28 @lakers21
29 @jjthomson
30 @sharonoutside
31 @kylezjones13
32 @joy5
33 @bbafaloukos
34 @whiteoak
35 @loriannkayaker
36 @gwoods1022
37 @tim122
38 @waterfallrich
39 @leighalobelia
40 @mdunlavey
41 @kenkneidel
42 henderson_nc
43 @ceherzog
44 @lmcconachie
45 @rivermont
46 @willkuhn
47 @cwjones89
48 transylvania_nc
49 @wncbotany
50 @gman122
51 @fggibbs
52 @gibbous
53 @sparrel
54 @joshuadoby
55 @laurenlyon20
56 @branwhee
57 @rbelshee
58 @bluewing
59 @izi_izi
60 @forest--dweller