The 2020 City Nature Challenge results speak for themselves. Within the four days of the challenge, 8,756 observations were recorded with over 1,658 species accounted for in our region. What we are most excited about is that we had 750 observers participate this year! Thank you for your involvement!
Given the nature of this year’s challenge — with the entire state of California sheltering in place due to COVID-19 — we had fewer observations recorded than last year. But even so, Sacramento exceeded last year’s total species count! As a whole, this year 815,258 observations were made globally by over 40,000 participants. With access to open space more limited in cities across the globe, the 5th event became a City Nature Celebration this year. Instead of a friendly competition, the event turned into a collaborative effort to collect observations that included thousands more people compared to last year, and more species were documented: a huge win for science, nature, and people.
Each year the City Nature Challenge is growing to new cities and gaining more observers all around the world. The Sacramento Region has proven two years in a row that we value nature in our lives and our surroundings and support the collective effort of citizen science. Your involvement with understanding our region’s biodiversity is crucial year after year to help understand the changing environment and its effects on the nature in our communities.
We are working to involve more people and organizations in the region and look forward to hosting engaging events for next year’s City Nature Challenge. Be sure to stay connected with us on social media throughout the year for further opportunities to interact with citizen science through monthly challenges and events. As always, if you or your organization would like to collaborate with us, please email us to get the conversation going.
Stay safe Sacramento and thank you again for another great year!
Want to dive into the Sacramento City Nature Challenge results?
One of the great things about the global City Nature Challenge, and the iNaturalist platform, is that the data are there for all to see. We can all participate in asking questions, and analyzing results. Here is a round-up of some different perspectives on this year’s City Nature Challenge results in Sacramento and beyond.
- Find the Sacramento City Nature Challenge results here.
- Infographic of the global City Nature Challenge results for 2020.