City Nature Challenge – Any time, anywhere
April 26, 2024
The City Nature Challenge is a world-wide opportunity to study the world around us, and it starts TODAY! The last weekend of April is an ideal time to explore the lands we love and take observations of the many species we share our region with. As previously mentioned, Inland Northwest Land Conservancy will be hosting various outings for folks to participate in the City Nature Challenge. Don’t have time to come to one of our events? Prefer to explore the outdoors alone? We got you covered.
You are able to add your observations on your own!
We’re using iNaturalist, a free species identification app, to collect observations. If you have iNaturalist downloaded to your phone already – great! – you’re already a step ahead! If you haven’t downloaded iNaturalist, you can do so by clicking on the appropriate link below:
Follow the link above or go to your App Store, search for “iNaturalist” and download.
Once iNaturalist is downloaded to your phone, either login with your account or create a new account.
To join our project, go to the menu icon in the upper left corner of the screen and give it a tap. In the menu that appears, click on “Projects”. Use the search icon in the upper right corner of the screen to search for “City Nature Challenge 2024: Spokane County”. Our project will appear – click on it and tap “Join” under our logo to join the group!
To collect observations using iNaturalist for Android, follow these simple steps:
1. Click the green “+” icon and select “Take Photo”. Take a high-quality photo of a plant or animal (ideally those you find out in nature, not in a landscaped area).
2. Use the “What did you see?” tool to help you identify what you found. Don’t worry if you’re not sure – a group of us will be going through the observations and correcting them!
3. At the bottom of the observation page, you’ll see the option to “Add to Project”. Click that and add your observation to the City Nature Challenge project you joined earlier!
4. To save your observation, click on the green check mark!
Follow the link above or go to your App Store, search for “iNaturalist” and download.
Once iNaturalist is downloaded to your phone, either login with your account or create a new account.
To join our project, go to the projects tab in the bottom right corner of the screen. Here you will see which projects you are actively involved in. Once you’re here, use the search icon in the upper right corner of the screen to search for “City Nature Challenge 2024: Spokane County”. Our project will appear (you’ll see our logo next to the name)– click on it and tap “Join” under our logo to join the group!
To collect observations using iNaturalist for Apple products, follow these simple steps:
1. Click the grey camera icon marked “observed” and select “camera” to take a photo right then and there or photo library if you already have a photo of the species you are identifying. Take a high-quality photo of a plant or animal (ideally those you find out in nature, not in a landscaped area).
2. Use the “What did you see?” tool to help you identify what you found. Don’t worry if you’re not sure – a group of us will be going through the observations and correcting them!
3. At the bottom of the observation page, you’ll see the menu option “Projects”. Click that to make sure our City Nature Challenge project is listed so your observation is recorded.
4. To save your observation, click on the green “share” button!
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We’ll be collecting data from Friday, April 26th through Monday, April 29th. During that time, you can add observations to our group project by taking a photo with the app and adding it to our project.
You can view our project page here!
Our observations will be collected, corrected, and submitted by May 4th. We’ll be ranked against other participating cities across the globe! When the results are in, we’ll share them!
Thanks for your help collecting data for this project! We, our local plants and wildlife, and our local researchers greatly appreciate your help!