11th Annual City Nature Challenge Kicks Off April 24
April 14, 2026
Media Contact: TPWD News, Business Hours, 512-389-8030
AUSTIN —The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), through the Texas Nature Trackers program, invites all Texans to participate in a four-day outdoor focused community event involving 16 Texas metropolitan areas for the 11th year of the City Nature Challenge, from April 24-27.
The event utilizes the free mobile app, iNaturalist, for identification and documentation of many types of critters while encouraging participants to explore nature in their immediate surroundings: outside their front doors, in their yard or anywhere nature is found and can be safely and responsibly explored.
Whether joining a group event, exploring nature with your family or venturing out on your own, participants are encouraged to embrace the collaborative aspect of sharing observations online with a digital community as they document their local biodiversity.
If you do not live in one of these areas, you can still participate by joining the City Nature Challenge 2026 Global Project and entering your observations of plants, animals and fungi on iNaturalist. You are also invited to join the effort to help identify observations of those plants and animals found during the challenge on the app the following two weeks.
This global, community-based, scientific effort is co-organized by San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Texas Nature Trackers encourages use of the hashtag #CityNatureChallenge on social media or as a tag in iNaturalist.
In 2025, 14 Texas metropolitan areas joined more than 660 other cities in this worldwide celebration of the resilience of urban nature that logged over 3 million observations of some 73,000 species by nearly 103,000 people. In Texas, 93 counties logged over 345,000 observations, with 9,709 species recorded by more than 9,200 observers.
Visit the City Nature Challenge online to find links to Texas projects and learn more about the global project on the website. TNT biologists are offering a free iNaturalist 101 training at 2 p.m. CST on April 20 and an advanced iNaturalist training at 6 p.m. CST on Aprill 22. Participants can also contact Biologists with the Texas Nature Trackers program at tracker@tpwd.texas.gov.