Let's enter New Zealand cities in the 2019 City Nature Challenge

Important: the deadline for city registration for the 2019 City Nature Challenge is 21 September 2018

Some of you might be aware of the annual City Nature Challenge on iNaturalist. The event began as an LA versus San Francisco event, sponsored by the California Academy of Science and the LA Natural History Museum. Last year it went properly global and 2019 promises to be an even more fully global event.

Here's the 2018 City Nature Challenge:

Cities compete to see which one can log the most nature observations on iNaturalist over one long weekend. It's a great excuse to get everyone outside looking at nature. To help boost public engagement and observations, it's a good idea (optional) to run public events and other promotions during the event.

iNaturalist NZ is keen to get New Zealand cities entered into the 2019 event. We can see which is the top city in NZ, and hopefully give iNaturalist.org's home town of San Francisco a run for their money. San Francisco won the 2019 event with 42,804 observations.

For New Zealand cities to be an official part of the 2019 City Nature Challenge, we have to register each participating city by 21 September 2018. There's no cost and no big commitment in time. The organisers just want to know that there is a person, or institution, within a city that can help to push the event. In return, that city gets added to the official competition.

It would be great if we can get the bigger cities in NZ participating in this, and even better if we can inspire our big iNat NZ community to beat all of those pesky American cities.

For more details, see this post on iNaturalist.org and especially note the comment by @carrieseltzer including links to background information for event organisers and to the Google Docs spreadsheet where you can sign up your city.

Feel free to use the comments below, or message each other, to talk about the potential for running an event in your city.

To start the conversation, I include below the most active iNaturalist NZ observers/identifiers from each NZ city:

Whangarei @clinton @shaun-lee @predomalpha @tangatawhenua

Auckland @jacqui-nz @stephen_thorpe @kaipatiki_naturewatch @pjd1 @jack4 @bcal003 @aunty @fairyeagle @nicholasmaynenz @dwilson @mikey_crikey @marleyii

Hamilton @marystg @davidwhyte @onethousandthousandwheelingeyes @nathaniel2002 @angelasimpson @neil_fitzgerald

Tauranga @bbi2 @cappinkiwi @jacqui-nz @jefffryett

Rotorua @kaitao @chrismoody @angelasimpson @witherst @arpugh @stevepawson

New Plymouth @simonnicholas @emily_r @oakura @warrensmart @kelvinperrie @enzedfred @arnim

Napier-Hastings @mike68lusk @tim_hopley

Gisborne @ kiwifergus @lisa_bennett @mrutherford

Palmerston North @grey @zoology @johnflower

Whanganui @xplore @bug_me

Wellington @tony_wills @leonperrie @savvy @naturewatchwidow @ johnvandenhoeven @lisa_bennett @parkecology @zealandia @andymckay @d_kluza @ caqalai @jeremy_rolfe @siobhanleachman @philg-j

Nelson @johnb-nz @memopob @duncanmc42 @rembrandt @absoluteandy @rogerfrost

Christchurch @jon_sullivan @joepb @meurkc @grahame @reinderw @katemccombs @melissa_hutchison @alice_shanks @steveattwood @cooperj @shona_t @nessmander @gregs @edwilson @laura-nz

Dunedin @john_barkla @steve_kerr @david_lyttle @katiew @johnsteel @possumsend @nikbaines

Invercargill @esler @thurst @bethanyhb @environmentsouthland

iNaturalist NZ and the NZ Bio-recording Network Trust are keen to help to promote your city's involvement in the event. Please let us know how we can support you in your city.

Posted on September 13, 2018 04:55 AM by jon_sullivan