Texas City Nature Challenge
April 30 to May 3, 2021

As COVID-19 virus continues to dominate our day-to-day lives in the new year, how this year’s City Nature Challenge will play out — a friendly competition or a collaborative global effort to continue celebrating the healing power of nature while documenting our local plants and animals — remains to be seen. The good news is that despite the pandemic, record numbers of Texans still participated, even if from the confines of their backyards or local neighborhoods.

Please note: Be sure to keep an eye on this page for updates on the status of the event as well as news about local events that may be scheduled during this global four-day event.

Take the City Nature Challenge!

Join Texas Parks & Wildlife, Texas Master Naturalists, the Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy and others in a fun challenge to see which city can document the most species. It is easy to participate by joining an event or making observations on your own using iNaturalist — sign up on iNaturalist.org and download the App for your device: iNaturalist for iOS and iNaturalist for Android.

This year, more people than ever will get to join the fun and learning. We are extremely excited to welcome new metropolitan areas including Waco/Heart of Texas, College Station/Brazos Valley, Lubbock, Abilene, Wichita Falls and Port Aransas (listed below) to this friendly competition. This year you can participate even if you don't live in one of the metro areas. iNaturalist is introducing a global challenge for everyone — City Nature Challenge 2021 Global Project. Simply click on the link, join the project and you are ready to join the fun.

With the iNaturalist App, you just take a picture of a plant or animal and the community will help identify what species it is.

Any observation made during the four days of the event in the greater metropolitan area of each city will count towards the challenge.

You can participate by exploring the life in your backyard, in your local park or on a field trip with your local naturalist group.

To find out if your metro area is participating, check the list below and get involved! Not only is this a competition between metropolitan areas across Texas, cities across the world are participating — let's show them what we've got! Be sure to check out the City Nature Challenge Website to see the list of global participants.

For answers to your questions or for more information, contact our Texas Nature Tracker biologists at tracker@tpwd.texas.gov.

If you’re new to iNaturalist, learn more with the iNaturalist Getting Started Guide.

Join the City Nature Challenge Facebook Event.