Join the City Nature Challenge! Open to people throughout the world and particularly in Baltimore City, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard and Queen Anne's counties. 

Ideas and resources to help you look for, find, attract, and document nature in your house or yard!
Make observations: Friday, April 26th - Monday, April 29th Get Started with iNaturalist

Important Resources and Links

• For more information, check out the City Nature Challenge Baltimore Area Landing Page: Official Baltimore Area City Nature Challenge Landing Page
• Is your organization hosting an observation event open to the public? Post details about your event here: Partner events and opportunities sheet
  • All events added to this sheet are added to the interactive event map on the CNC website
• City Nature Challenge International Website: https://www.citynaturechallenge.org/
• Download iNaturalist
• 2023 Baltimore Metro Area City Nature Challenge Participant Toolkit
• Google Drive link with additional resources

CNC Basics

Observation Period Friday, April 26^th – Monday, April 29^th

• This is the time to go out and make observations! Explore your backyard, park, city, or anywhere else in the Baltimore Metro Area and take as many pictures as you can of different wildlife.
• If you are planning on hosting a public or private observation event, it must fall within this time frame.
• Photos taken after May 1^st will not count toward the City Nature Challenge.

Upload and Identification Period Friday, April 26^th – Sunday, May 5^th

• Between these dates you can upload any photos you took before May 1^st to iNaturalist. This will make them official iNaturalist observations.
• We need help identifying every species that was observed. If you want to help, you can suggest species IDs on iNaturalist.

Results Announced Monday, May 6^th

• The City Nature Challenge international organizers will release the results and announce the winner!

Using iNaturalist

iNaturalist is a free app available for iOS and Android. We will be using iNaturalist to record all observations during the City Nature Challenge. Luckily, iNaturalist is simple to use. Attached to this email are basic instructions on how to make an observation through iNaturalist as well as a half-page handout describing the challenge. Be sure to check out the recording of the CNC informational webinar that also reviews how to use iNaturalist (located on our Baltimore CNC landing page).

Participant Toolkit

This year, we put together a participant toolkit that includes iNaturalist instructions, a list of locations to make observations or host observation events, a CNC scavenger hunt, and a Species ID cheat sheet. This resource can be accessed HERE.

Thank you for participating! If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me at [email protected].  

OR Join Stillmeadow Community Fellowship, a One Water Partnership congregation,

for their in-person event on Saturday, April 27th, 2024, from 4:00pm-8:00pm

Register HERE