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

Amazing job to everyone who participated in the City Nature Challenge 2018: Boston Area! Together, 568 people have collected 1432 squirrel observations in our region. Thanks to your hard work, Eastern gray squirrels were the second most observed species in this project and chipmunks, red squirrels, woodchuck followed close behind. See more of the Challenge results at:
www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2018-boston-area

Even though the City Nature Challenge has concluded for 2018, The Great Squirrel Hunt is still going. This is a continuous data collection project, meaning your observations will contribute to an important research throughout the year. Let's keep up the momentum and observe even more occurrences of our local squirrel friends!

On the last day of competition, Boston remains amongst the top 10 cities with 13,611 observations and identifying 1,213 species!

Congratulations to @ams6thgrade for remaining in first place with 460 observations and @markchandler for remaining in first place identifying 123 species!

The Eastern Gray squirrel remains amongst the top 5 most observed species at 140, adding great numbers to the Great Squirrel Hunt! There had been 63 total observations to the hunt yesterday, 45 of which were eastern Gray Squirrels, 14 of which were Eastern Chipmunks and 4 of which were American Red Squirrels. Shout out to @grakk for spotting an American Red in Tewksbury and @csingler for spotting an American Red in Bolton to add to the count!

There have yet to be any observations of woodchucks, southern flying squirrels and northern flying squirrels. @jonathan_glover made an awesome observation of a southern flying squirrel back on April 4th, will he be able to make another one for this years City Nature Challenge?

Congratulation to @maractwin for being on the top of the leaderboard with 138 observations and identifying 5 species for The Great Squirrel Hunt. He leads by 79 observations!

As the last day of the City Nature Challenge comes to a close, will Boston remain amongst the top 10 cities?
-MD

Boston, in 9th place, now has 12,920 observations and 1,176 species in the 2018 City Nature Challenge!

Yesterday we added 63 total new observations to The Great Squirrel Hunt during the 3rd day of the Boston city nature challenge. That included 45 Eastern Grey Squirrels, 14 Eastern Chipmunks, and 4 American Red Squirrels. There are still no observations of Woodchucks, Southern Flying Squirrels, or Northern Flying Squirrels during the CNC. Will you be the first to spot one?

Shout out to iNaturalist users @grakk , @csingler , and @ellenloftis for adding the only three photographed observations of an American Red Squirrel! Also a shout out to akilee for this amazing Eastern Chipmunk picture: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11774541

Observations stretched all the way from Swampscott, Tewksbury, Roxbury, Bolton, and everywhere in between! Waltham and Somerville continue to be hot spots, but we could use more observations from the Newton, Wellesley, and the Framingham areas!

Thank you to @hitchco and @markchandler for adding 3 observations each yesterday to the project! @maractwin continues to hold his place at the top of the observer list with 138 observations, 2 during the 2018 City Nature Challenge!

Keep up the good work Boston!

With the wonderful weather, the Boston area CNC gained over 5,000 total observations yesterday!

How did The Great Squirrel Hunt do? 38 observers added 54 observations, making our total count across the 2018 City Nature Challenge 101 observations so far! Our most observed species is, unsurprisingly, the Eastern Gray Squirrel. Shoutout to user @lvfree for this fun shot: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11664417 and to @dalien for this beauty: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11700199

Yesterday was also exciting for another reason: American Red Squirrel sightings! Congrats to @bmvig, who just edged out @marthaslone for the first observation. In total, six observers in the Boston area made six research grade observations of red squirrels. Keep up the the great work! Will you be the first to find an American Red Squirrel in your town?

Or, will you be the very first to find a Northern Flying Squirrel, Southern Flying Squirrel, or Woodchuck this Boston CNC? There are only 2 observations of Northern Flying Squirrels in the GSH ever, so any observations you can make are incredibly important.

We could also use more helping hands down through Wellesley, Dedham, and Braintree, as well as up in the Salem and Essex areas, so keep your eyes open if you'll be over those ways!

Don't let the gray weather keep you blue! There's still plenty of time for observations before the end of this City Nature Challenge! For identification tips and information on the other five data quests run by the Boston CNC, go to: http://www.zoonewengland.org/protect/here-in-new-england/boston-area-city-nature-challenge/data-quests

The #CityNatureChallenge got off to a wonderful sprinting start yesterday!

The Great Squirrel Hunt has had 47 observations made featuring two species, and all that included a picture are at research grade! Representatives all the way from Stow, to Lexington, Byfield, Waltham, and the franklin park zoo are contributing to our hunt!

Eastern gray squirrels are making up the majority of our observations, so show some love to Northern and Southern flying squirrels, woodchucks, and American Red Squirrels if you can!

There are still plenty of hotspots needing coverage- Boston Common would be a great place to find some quick observations that haven't been made yet!

Our project hotspots are in Braintree, Brookline and Waltham- keep up the good work!

The first eastern chipmunk was found by user MarkChandler, and the first Eastern Gray squirrel by Willvd. We are still waiting for our first observations of our other four species- some location tips can be found here: http://www.zoonewengland.org/protect/here-in-new-england/boston-area-city-nature-challenge/data-quests

Are you having trouble making observations? Would you like to meet fellow nature enthusiasts? You should attend a guided observation event. Several researchers and organizations are hosting City Nature Challenge (CNC) walks and we want you to attend! You will work with other naturalists and citizen scientists to take quality observations and learn how to identify local species.

A Walk through Central Woodland

• When: Saturday, April 28, 1:00pm-3:00pm
• Where: Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, 125 Arborway, Boston, MA
• Description: Join us for a walk through Central Woodland, one of the Arboretum’s minimally maintained natural areas, and learn about the history and ecology of these often-overlooked “urban wilds”. We’ll see traces of New England history and glimpses of the future among remnant native plants and encroaching invaders.

Learn more about this and other CNC events at:
www.zoonewengland.org/protect/here-in-new-england/boston-area-city-nature-challenge/calendar-of-events

If you take a look at the species distribution of this project so far, you might notice the abundance of gray squirrels in the center of Boston and Cambridge, but the lack of other squirrel species. The same can be seen when walking through an urban green area such as Boston Commons are Harvard Yard. Only gray squirrels are visibly inhabiting these city centers. Do you know why this data gap is occurring?

While Eastern gray squirrels are habitat generalists, meaning they can survive in a wide variety of location, the five other squirrel species in this quest have more specific habitat needs; they need denser tree cover, undergrowth, and other natural features that are not available in cities.

If you are up for a challenge, try to observe a non-gray squirrel in an urban center. Take note of the plant life in the area compared to the human developments. This will provide important information about what habitat qualities are necessary for our cities to support natural life. Based on your observations, do you think Boston is taking non-human species into consideration when planning these developments?

We love our squirrels here in the Boston area! The more observations collected, the more data available to inform researchers and urban planners on how to sustainably develop the city and surrounding towns to accommodate the habitat needs of our small woodland neighbors.

Check out these materials to learn how squirrels influence their ecosystems, how your data will be used in important research, where to find squirrels, how to properly photograph them, and how to identify the six species found in this region.

Quest introduction: www.drive.google.com/file/d/1puZ1ZqJR8Pvv2w-UHki4AyeLgUf4QQC6/view?usp=sharing
Field species guide: www.drive.google.com/file/d/1E282_tf9kLyArwrJ5KNl1MaLOpTQwGg4/view?usp=sharing
EOL biodiversity cards: www.drive.google.com/file/d/1pff3i34ejhERba9IbOtOmpYysNVKVL0F/view?usp=sharing