Wow! As we write this message, Los Angeles is at 1,333 observations! That is over 10% of our total from last year! This is a strong start! Let's keep it up by adding more observations this weekend!

Also, if you have friends that aren't on iNaturalist (and are hesitant to create an account), then let them know they may share their observations with NHMLA in 3 other ways*

1. E-mail photos to nature@nhm.org OR
2. Text photos to 213.663.6632 OR

3. Post to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook using #natureinla
   *Tell them to to include their name, date the photo was taken, and where the photo was taken.

Follow the City Nature Challenge 2017 Leaderboard using the link below!
https://nhm.org/nature/citizen-science/city-nature-challenge-2017-leaderboard

Thanks everyone!

NHMLA Citizen Science Program

Thank you, Los Angeles! Your are representing L.A. very well with well over 7,000 observations in only 3 days! We are going to shatter last year's total of 10,751 observations. This is really awesome!

While we are in 5th place, the competition isn't over. Last year we can from behind to take 1st place, and we believe we can still do it. So, keep making observations and encouraging your friends and family to do the same. And thank you to everyone who is making identifications to help us increase our species total. Citizen Science is a team effort, and there is no better team than the one in Los Angeles!

Follow the City Nature Challenge 2017 Leaderboard using the link below!
https://nhm.org/nature/citizen-science/city-nature-challenge-2017-leaderboard

Sincerely,

NHMLA Citizen Science Program.

We just hit 10,000 observations! Fantastic!

We are also in a battle for 3rd place with Austin and Houston. San Francisco and Dallas/Fort Worth may have pulled a bit too far for us to catch them for 1st or 2nd (although never say never), but Los Angeles can still stand on the podium if we finish strong and take 3rd place.

Let's do it Los Angeles!

Sincerely,

NHMLA Citizen Science Program

We are about to have 15,000 observations in this year's City Nature Challenge! That is a big accomplishment so thank you to everyone for participating! We are truly grateful that so many of you have embraced this year's competition.

https://nhm.org/nature/citizen-science/city-nature-challenge-2017-leaderboard

NHMLA Citizen Science Program

People are still allowed to upload observations taken between April 14-18 for this year's City Nature Challenge. So, official results will not be announced until Earth Day, Saturday, April 22.

Final tabulation will be done at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, so people must get their observations posted before then. We recommend you plan to have everything posted by 5pm on Friday so you aren't scrambling Saturday morning, and so people can make identifications.

Speaking of identifications, while we wait for the remaining observations to be uploaded, everyone may still make identifications on observations that are already in the challenge. Doing so will hopefully help us get our species total up.

https://nhm.org/nature/citizen-science/city-nature-challenge-2017-leaderboard

Thanks everyone!

NHMLA Citizen Science Program

Hi, Everyone! Let see if we can get our species total above 2,000 by making identifications on what has been posted.

Below are some steps you can take to ID the organisms you are familiar with.

1. Go to: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify
2. Go to “Filters”
3. At the bottom of that window, go to “More Filters”
4. Under “Project” type or paste: "City Nature Challenge: Los Angeles” then choose that project when it pops up
5. If you have a specialty, say Fungi, you can click the mushroom icon on that page under “Categories”

6. Click “Update Search”
   Then you can ID the organisms you are familiar with.

Thanks for your help!

NHMLA Citizen Science Program

This year's City Nature Challenge was AMAZING! 16 cities across the country, all mobilizing their residents and visitors to go out and find and document their local nature. The energy and enthusiasm for the City Nature Challenge was truly inspiring - watching observations flow in from across the US was great to see. Our collective impact was obvious and incredible - we also gave iNaturalist its biggest 5 days in a row EVER!

Here are the results of the City Nature Challenge (as of 9 am Pacific / 12 pm Eastern on April 22):
All 16 cities together: 124,092 observations / 8557 species / 4051 participants
We also added 3077 new species that had not previously been recorded on iNaturalist in these 16 cities, and 5689 new iNaturalist observers who had not previously made observations in these 16 cities!

Congratulations to our top observers and top species-finders across ALL the City Nature Challenge cities - you can see the top 5 above in the event stats. We'd also like to recognize the top 5 people who added unique taxa to the whole City Nature Challenge - taxa that were not found by anyone else in all 16 cities!:
@anewman with 141 unique taxon contributions
@eelprogramderm with 90 unique taxon contributions
@gcwarbler with 84 unique taxon contributions
@dlbowls with 69 unique taxon contributions
@neontetraploid with 66 unique taxon contributions

City with the most observations: Dallas/Fort Worth with 23,957
City with the most species found: Houston with 2419
City with the most participants: Los Angeles with 1034 (also includes people who submitted via social media)

Here's the full breakdown of those three metrics:

City with highest percentage of verifiable observations: Dallas/Fort Worth with 96.3%
City with highest percentage of verifiable observations making it to Research Grade: Chicago with 64.4%

City that added the most new species to their region through the City Nature Challenge: Houston with 594 new species
City that added the most new iNaturalist participants to their region through the City Nature Challenge: Los Angeles with 436 new observers

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the City Nature Challenge this year! And stay tuned for next year, when the City Nature Challenge goes INTERNATIONAL!!!

City Nature Challenge participants! Thanks so much for your energy and enthusiasm for the City Nature Challenge this year – it was incredible to see so many people excited to document their local nature.

Please help us make the City Nature Challenge even better next year!

If you took part in the City Nature Challenge – whether you made 1 observation or 1000 – we’re hoping you’ll fill out this short (only 5 questions!) survey to let us know about your experience. All input is important and appreciated!

Link to survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CNC2017

Thanks in advance!
Alison Young & Lila Higgins, City Nature Challenge coordinators
(California Academy of Sciences & Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County)