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.

Neighbourhood Nature Nosey 2018 is an umbrella project on iNaturalist NZ for Conservation Week 2018, Sep 15–Sep 23, 2018. We've set it up so that NZ regions can compete to see which is the nosiest for nature. Help get your region to the top of the leaderboard!

Find as many species as you can during New Zealand's Conservation Week 2018!

How many wild species can you find? Which species are native? Can you find something rare or unusual? Make observations with the free iNaturalist app and find out!

Join in and make your region the top region for 2018!

For the duration of Conservation Week 2018 we, at iNaturalist NZ, are running a kind of neighbourhood Bioblitz. This runs from midnight on Saturday, 15th through to midnight on Sunday 23rd September. Find and record as many plants, animals and fungi in and around your yard and street or block as you can and iNaturalist NZ will identify them.

We are aggregating this information regionally so we can build a picture of the diversity around the country in the places people live, work and play. Each day we'll prompt you to look in particular habitats around your home and neighbourhood, and to leave no log or stone unturned in search for creatures large and small. We are especially interested in learning what is wild, and what is not, and what is native and what is not. Please make sure you tick the captive/cultivated box if your observation is planted or domesticated.

Join this project to get the prompts we'll send out over the next 9 days to remind you to view the natural world through various lenses to build an amazing inventory of all the species that live around you. You don’t need to do these observations on the days of the prompts, but it is just to remind you to cover off all the habitats during the course of the week.

Please note down the habitat of your species (e.g, lawn, vegetable garden, house wall, under log) in your observations’ Descriptions. Check each day for birds (you can still record them even if you can’t get a picture), and don’t forget the creepy crawlies and moulds.

If you are concerned about revealing your exact locations then you can choose to iNaturalist's “obscured” geoprivacy option to publicly obscure your location to 10 km.