City Nature Challenge 2021: Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area's Boletim

Hello everyone -

Wow, it's always so exciting to see all the observations start to come in for City Nature Challenge! Over 1,000 observations were added over the first day!! We hope you've had fun exploring and will continue to do so over the weekend.

Now that observations are rolling in, you can view the Observations in the Map view and see where you might be able to add observations in parts of the Seattle-Tacoma metro area that aren't filled in yet!

Have fun!

Cheers,
Katie

Hello everyone -

Thanks for all of your great observations thus far! Did you find a species you've never seen before?

We are well on our way to topping our 2020 total number of observations and possibly of species as well!

While you have to take your last photos today, you have all next week to upload everything (last observations must be uploaded by the end of Sunday, May 9th (before the morning of May 10th).

Cheers,
Katie, Woodland Park Zoo

It's been a great City Nature Challenge! Thanks to everyone, whether you submitted one observation or hundreds, whether this was your first time participating in Seattle-Tacoma's CNC or your 5th! There are some fantastic observations - make sure you take some time to peruse them (thanks to the divers this year for adding some fantastic observations from underwater!) You can "fave" an observation by clicking on the little star under the map on the right side of the page of the observation.

We have until early morning tomorrow (May 10th) to help identify observations. This helps with our overall species count and to increase our percentage of Research Grade (verified) observations. Here's iNat info on how to help with identifications - you can go to the "Identifying Observations" tab on this page: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started

Global and local CNC results will be pulled at 9 am on Monday, May 10th. Later that day, we'll post some highlights of the results here!

Cheers,
Katie, Woodland Park Zoo

Hello everyone!

Results are in!!

Seattle-Tacoma metro area official final numbers are:
Observations: 7,067
Species: 1,226
Observers (Participants): 566

For more details on global results, see here: https://citynaturechallenge.org/collective-results-2021/

Here is a press release about the results from our Seattle-Tacoma 2021 City Nature Challenge!

Hundreds of local community scientists join forces to conquer City Nature Challenge
More than 1,200 species identified in Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area

SEATTLE — Seattle-Tacoma represent! More than 550 observers took part in this year’s City Nature Challenge spanning King and Pierce counties, including Everett, Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Snohomish and any place in between! Between April 30 and May 3, community scientists submitted more than 7,000 nature observations and identified more than 1,200 species showing the world the incredible biodiversity in the region’s home turf. That’s the region’s all-time record!

“This year we had more observers participate, more observations made and more species identified in the Seattle-Tacoma area than we have since our region joined City Nature Challenge in 2017! We’ve also heard from participants that they learned about species they weren’t familiar with before and loved learning how to use the iNaturalist app to make nature observations!” said Katie Remine, Living Northwest Conservation Coordinator at Woodland Park Zoo.

Some of the sightings reported in this area were pretty rare — Gregory C. Jensen spotted a species of paddle worm that has only ever been observed by one other person on the entire iNaturalist platform! This is also the first year the Seattle-Tacoma project had divers searching for wildlife below the waves, leading to new species documented on the platform like a trojan star, a grunt sculpin, and painted greenling.

“We are incredibly excited and energized by so many community scientists participating in the 2021 City Nature Challenge,” said Craig Standridge, Conservation Engagement Coordinator at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. “The effort of over 500 dedicated volunteers yielded data that is incredibly important, helps inform habitat management and contributes to research projects. The City Nature Challenge is a magnificent example of how community members can advance conservation, and we are so proud to be part of this effort in engaging our community and connecting people to their natural neighborhood.”

To view all of the observations from the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area this year, visit www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2021-seattle-tacoma-metropolitan-area.

What is the City Nature Challenge?
City Nature Challenge is a global community science challenge which encourages people to find, identify and record living things within an area in a set amount of time. City Nature Challenge is organized on a global scale by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Academy of Sciences. Woodland Park Zoo, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, and Northwest Trek Wildlife Park partner to promote the challenge in the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area, supporting and coaching the community in how to participate in the challenge, advance science, and discover nature and wildlife for themselves.

You can be a community scientist any day of the week! For more information on how you can help, visit www.zoo.org/communityscience or www.pdza.org/discover/citizen-science/.    

Thanks for your participation, everyone!
Katie, Woodland Park Zoo