City Nature Challenge 2023: San Antonio Metro Area's Journal

Monday is the last day for City Nature Challenge Observations!

Enquiring minds want to know " HOW we (SA Metro Area) is doing comparison to the 14 other TEXAS CITIES in the City Nature Challenge ?

To see the Texas 15 Cities Umbrella Project.=> CLICK HERE

SO LETS KEEP IT GOING - GO SAN ANTONIO METRO AREA GO !!
We can do it !!

============================================

FYI... 

Upload or Sync your observations before May 7th. The sooner is better! To have time to ID your observation.

Having trouble uploading and/or do not see your observations on the CNC2023 project. Please use the comment section below to post issues.

Remember for your observations to count: Your observations must be verifiably. Which means observation :

Must have a date observed between (April 28-May 1st).

Must have a location (inside SA Metro Area or the 12 counties around Bexar). 

Naturally have a picture/recording that brings out the charactericis of the species you are observing . Helps your observations get to "Research Grade"

THANKS! Be SAFE and have FUN!

San Antonio Metro Area is running a very tight friendly race for 3^rd place in the Texas City Nature Challenge! The observation period for City Nature Challenge and the intra-Nature Challenges in the umbrella projects has wrapped up as of May 1st and it is exciting to see we (San Antonio Metro Area) have collectively contributed over 18.2K observations so far! Out doing our previous years in observations and species counts.

🌿 Some quick reminders about the next steps for CNC this week: 

• 🌺We are now in the uploading and identification period. Technically you all have until 9 am on Monday, May 8th to get all your observations uploaded. You can upload any photos/recording you took from April 28th - May 1st. The sooner the better- to help identify before then and get them to “Research Grade”, if possible.
• 🌵 A reminder to everyone that we’re really hoping to document wild plants and animals, and if they did make observations of organisms they know are not wild, to please mark them as captive/cultivated (and as people work to identify observations, they can also mark anyone’s observation as not wild in the Data Quality Assessment section)
• 🌳 Global CNC admin organizers will record our city’s results as of 9am on Monday, May 8, and will send out the full results and infographic around 4-5 pm. Will share as soon as we receive them via Journal Notes.

=======================================================

Open – Q&A Zoom Calls:

Being that we are in a tight race, and we have some new iNaturalist users and enquiring minds that may have questions! Zoom Meeting Calls have been created for Q&A for participants that may need some help with CNC – iNaturalist.

Agenda –

• Quick status of City Nature Challenge and the Umbrella project.
• Now what – I made my observations; how do I agree or disagree?
  (hint: Best to go to your iNaturalist dashboard and review)
• What is the identification period?
• What questions you may have about CNC-iNaturalist. Observations / Identification.

San Antonio Metro Area – Zoom Calls Open to the public. If you have CNC or iNaturalist questions hopefully you can make one of these calls .

• May 4^th – 11:30am – 12:30pm è Zoom Q&A Call#1 - Register Here
• May 4^th – 06:00pm – 07:00pm è Zoom Q&A Call#2 - Register Here
• May 5^th --11:30am –12:30pm è Zoom Q&A Call#3 - Register Here

=====================================================

NEW- This Year - "After Party"

In partnership with the San Antonio River Authoring and the SARA – River Warriors, plans are in motion for a “iNaturalist – City Nature Challenge 2023 After Party" in late June. Covering CNC Results and your contributions. Details -TBD. Stay Tune! 

Hoping you all had incredible events both public and private, time outdoors walking the trails or just in your backyard, and some exciting moments documenting nature. Thank you for all your amazing contributions and continued support to make the City Nature Challenge – San Antonio Metro Area successful. 

Quote from Star Wars on this day:

“Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.” —Yoda

QUICK SUMMARY - WE- SAN ANTONIO METRO AREA - DID GREAT!

In Texas rankings - we are move up in observations standings to 3rd Place out of 15 cities. (Texas VIEW)

• Outstanding number of observations at 19,967! 64.1% when to Research Grade - Tied for 3rd in Texas.
• Outstanding number of Species at 2564 whereby per iNat 30 species are on the Treaded list. (TBD - TNT to provide final SGCN list for TEXAS)
• Number of participant Observers dropped by 94 from 2022 BUT our average observation per observer when up from 17.75observations / person 2022 to 23.27 observations per person in 2023.

 MAKING up a 3000+ gain over all and MOVING San Antonio Metro Area 3^rd place standings – passing Great Austin Area for the first time in CNC history!

More stats:

In Global ranking - we also moved up also in observations stands to 18th out of 482 cities (iNat Global VIEW)

Comparing our CNC-San Antonio Metro Area - History - great Gains. (iNat History VIEW)

New this year:
Intra - Nature Challenges Rankings (Summary- Below) 

Campus Nature Challenges (1, 2, 3 order):
Observation : STMU, UTSA, UIW
Species : STMU, UTSA,UIW
Observers: UTSA, Trinity, UIW

Chapter Nature Challenges (1, 2, 3 order):
Observation : TMN-Alamo, NPSOT, TMN-Guadalupe County
Species : TMN-Alamo, NPSOT, Audubon
Observers: TMN-Alamo, NPSOT, Audubon

Community Nature Challenge: SARA- River Warriors (by default)

Corporate Nature Challenge:
1) Toyota Manufacturing 
2) Chase - San Antonio

Intra - Nature Challenge Details : 

1) CNC2023 San Antonio Metro and “Intra” details in PDF file format (Link Here )
or Google Sheets with sub iNaturalist links with detail results (Link Here).
 

Stay tuned for our CNC2023 “After Party” in June.
Plans are - thank you to our power users, partners, and organizers.

Thank you for all your amazing contributions and continued support to make the City Nature Challenge – San Antonio Metro Area successful!

@PeterJoseph