Texas City Nature Challenge
April 29 to May 2, 2022

For the third year in a row, due to COVID 19, this year’s City Nature Challenge will continue as a collaborative global effort to continue celebrating the natural world while documenting our local plants and animals in a safe manner. The TNT team encourages everyone to get out and enjoy the natural world while documenting plants and animals, whether from your back yard, local neighborhood or parks and other natural areas.

Please note: Did you know you can participate in Part 2 of the CNC? Help identify what was found anytime between May 3rd and 8th, building upon Research Grade findings across the state while helping others confirm their discoveries.

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 a new metropolitan area, Tyler/East Texas, 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 2022 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.