This year's City Nature Challenge was AMAZING! 16 cities across the country, all mobilizing their residents and visitors to go out and find and document their local nature. The energy and enthusiasm for the City Nature Challenge was truly inspiring - watching observations flow in from across the US was great to see. Our collective impact was obvious and incredible - we also gave iNaturalist its biggest 5 days in a row EVER!

Here are the results of the City Nature Challenge (as of 9 am Pacific / 12 pm Eastern on April 22):
All 16 cities together: 124,092 observations / 8557 species / 4051 participants
We also added 3077 new species that had not previously been recorded on iNaturalist in these 16 cities, and 5689 new iNaturalist observers who had not previously made observations in these 16 cities!

Congratulations to our top observers and top species-finders across ALL the City Nature Challenge cities - you can see the top 5 above in the event stats. We'd also like to recognize the top 5 people who added unique taxa to the whole City Nature Challenge - taxa that were not found by anyone else in all 16 cities!:
@anewman with 141 unique taxon contributions
@eelprogramderm with 90 unique taxon contributions
@gcwarbler with 84 unique taxon contributions
@dlbowls with 69 unique taxon contributions
@neontetraploid with 66 unique taxon contributions

City with the most observations: Dallas/Fort Worth with 23,957
City with the most species found: Houston with 2419
City with the most participants: Los Angeles with 1034 (also includes people who submitted via social media)

Here's the full breakdown of those three metrics:

City with highest percentage of verifiable observations: Dallas/Fort Worth with 96.3%
City with highest percentage of verifiable observations making it to Research Grade: Chicago with 64.4%

City that added the most new species to their region through the City Nature Challenge: Houston with 594 new species
City that added the most new iNaturalist participants to their region through the City Nature Challenge: Los Angeles with 436 new observers

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the City Nature Challenge this year! And stay tuned for next year, when the City Nature Challenge goes INTERNATIONAL!!!

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)