City Nature Challenge 2024 Recap

Another City Nature Challenge is in the books! We love to see the iNaturalist participation across the Sacramento Region and share in the excitement of discovery. This year’s official results are:

7,218 observations 
1,602 species
686 observers

What happens to all of this biodiversity data? For 2024, 89% of the observations on iNaturalist are verifiable. This means that these observations had evidence (photo or sound) and are wild species. Verifiable observations can become research grade when 2 users confirm the identifications. Once they become research grade, they are useable for scientific research! 

Research grade iNaturalist data from the City Nature Challenge and throughout the year are used by scientists. While this City Nature Challenge helps bring awareness to the field of citizen science, people can use iNaturalist anytime to document biodiversity. 

This year, we had a blast teaming up with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife at the California Natural Resources Agency for an Earth Day event! We were able to spread the word about the City Nature Challenge to people of all ages that stopped by. We got in some iNaturalist practice with visitors by showing them around the native plant garden. Such a fun way to build the excitement.

Friday we kicked things off for the official start of the event at the UC Davis Arboretum. We shared information about the Challenge to passerby and explored the garden ourselves! We were nice and warmed up for Saturday’s Duck Days event at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area. Our California Department of Fish and Wildlife colleagues joined us once again to collect some bugs for kids to observe and talk about how the City Nature Challenge helps to document biodiversity. Our amazing Citizen Science in Conservation Fellow, Grace Horne, wrapped things up with a nighttime bioblitz at the Arboretum! Using special lights to attract bugs and insects, Grace showed participants the biodiversity you don’t often see at night.  

Thank you so much for your support and participation. We’ll see you out there in 2025!