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)

RESULTS
Overall (all 16 cities together):
Observations: 124,092
Species: 8557
People participating: 4051

The "big three" stats:
Most observations: Dallas/Fort Worth
Most species: Houston
Most people participating: Los Angeles

Observation ratios:
Lowest observation to species ratio (so most observations that resulted in new species for that area's CNC): Duluth/Twin Ports
Highest average number of observations per participant: Dallas/Fort Worth

Verifiable & Research Grade stats:
Highest percentage of verifiable observations (aka, eligible for research grade - evidence of the organism, not captive or cultivated): Dallas/Fort Worth
Highest percentage of verifiable observations that made it to research grade: Chicago

Increase in engagement compared to the same 5 days last year (4/15-19/16):
Greatest xfold increase in observations: Salt Lake City (Wasatch Front)
Greatest xfold increase in species: Duluth/Twin Ports
Greatest xfold increase in people making observations: Salt Lake City (Wasatch Front)

What did the City Nature Challenge add to each city? (aka, comparison of totals for each city up to 4/13/17, and then at the end of the CNC):
Greatest xfold increase in observations: Duluth/Twin Ports
City that added the most new species: Houston
City that added the most new iNat users: Los Angeles

And overall we added 3077 new species to all 16 cities combined and 5689 new iNaturalist users!

Amazing results.
Thank you all for participating and I look forward to next year's challenge.

Texas sure had a great showing for our first year participating in the City Nature Challenge. All three Texas cities are still holding strong in the top 5 spots. The top observer in the Austin challenge is gcwarbler with 622 observations and 463 species - very impressive!

It is not over yet. The days to collect observations ended at midnight yesterday, but you still have until late Friday, April 21st, to upload and identify as many of your observations as possible. The results will be called on April 22nd, Earth Day!

We all win in this contest. I hope you had fun and will continue to collect observations even after this challenge. Texas Parks and Wildlife in the Texas Nature Tracker program has many projects in iNaturalist where your contributions are greatly appreciated. Go to http://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/texas_nature_trackers/projects/ to find out more.

Hi Naturalists!
Wow, what a contest. I can't believe how many observations and species are being recorded in iNat.
In Austin as of this minute, ncowey has the lead with 388 observations and 237 species. Go ncowey!
The top of the leader board as of this minute overall is the following:
First - San Francisco with 10,097 and 1,508 species
Second - Dallas/Ft Worth with 9,113 observations and 1390 species
Third - Austin with 7,222 observations and 1522 species
Fourth - Houston with 6958 observations and 1448 species

GO TEXAS!
Austin does have the most species so far.
Exciting!

Hi iNaturalists:

Tonight begins the City Nature Challenge. It looks like the weather might bring some showers during the challenge, but it's not looking like a complete washout. Let's see how many species you can find and I will be keeping a close eye on your findings. The most important thing is to have fun and let's beat California!