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)

Thanks to everyone who participated in the City Nature Challenge! We blew past 2,000 observations and are on our way to identifying 400 different species living with us along the Wasatch Front.

As of this morning, the nationwide City Nature Challenge are impressive: 108,020 observations, 7844 species, 3890 people. We have until 9:00 am on Saturday (4/22) to upload and identify observations for the "final" national tally. So go ahead and upload any observations you haven't gotten around to posting yet and help us make identifications. The more observations we get ID'd, the higher our species count.

If you want to help ID but you're new to making identifications, please head to the Getting Started page and click on the "Identifying Observations" tab to learn about how to make the most helpful IDs. http://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started

We'll be notifying our local prize winners via iNaturalist's message function in the coming days. Remember, if you made ten or more distinct observations, you're eligible for a free admission to the Natural History Museum of Utah. Check back here for the announcement of our grand prize winners as well.

What an amazing five days of exploring the natural world! Thank you!

April 17, 2017

Another amazing day for City Nature Challenge along the Wasatch Front! Thanks to all the students at the Salt Lake Center for Science Education who contributed their observations to the challenge today. And an extra special thanks to all of you working hard to identify the observations we are making.

Rain is in the forecast tomorrow, but we're less than 150 observations from breaking the 2,000 mark. With your help we'll get there!

A few more cool observations to check out:

• a majestic great horned-owl (http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5690706)
• an tiny chorus frog (http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5701614)

• and an American bison (http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5764700)
  I'm pretty sure no other city will observe a bison!

Keep the observations coming!

WE'RE GETTING CLOSE TO 1,00O OBSERVATIONS!

April 15, 2017

Thanks for a great Saturday of recording urban nature. With your help we're getting close to 1,000 observations with over 200 species identified. Keep the observations coming!

Be sure to check out the observations that have come in so far. There were several sightings of muskrat at the Natural History Museum of Utah's bioblitz at the Fife Wetland Preserve on the Jordan River. (http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5735507) A beautiful great blue heron also made an appearance. (http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5730820) And kudos to the sharp-eyed observer who spotted a killdeer and her egg in her neighborhood (http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5734121).

Can't wait to see what you find tomorrow!

LET THE CHALLENGE BEGIN
April 13, 2017

We're excited to see your observations come rolling in!

The CNC starts at 12:01 am on Friday, April 14, and goes until 11:59 pm on Tuesday, April 18. All observations of any species in Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah counties will count for the City Nature Challenge 2017: The Wasatch Front.

You don't have to join this project, though you can if you want. It will will automatically aggregate all observations made in the four Wasatch Front counties during April 14-18. Observations might not show up in the project immediately after you upload them, but will definitely get picked up by the aggregator soon.

The "final" numbers will be our total observations and species at 9:00 am on Saturday, April 22. So all observations must be made in the April 14 - April 18 time frame, but you can upload them later if needed. The more observations we have in and identified by 9:00 am on April 22, the higher our total numbers will be!

Keep the observations coming! Remember anyone who makes observations of 10 different animals or plants cab receive one free admission to the Natural History Museum of Utah (limit of one admission per person).