Diario del proyecto City Nature Challenge 2020: INLAND EMPIRE

Calling all Inland Empire ‘power users’! You have submitted more than 1,000 observations (or nearly so) in Riverside and/or San Bernardino Counties. As the City Nature Challenge 2020 swiftly approaches, we are looking to YOU for contributions toward this global collaborative effort to document urban biodiversity. More than 200 cities around the world are working together to explore nature from the comfort and safety of their homes. To contribute, make as many observations as you can from April 24th – April 27th! Mobilize other iNat users you know to help us out! Help Identify and suggest Annotations for observations from April 28th – May 3rd! This will be important for us to improve the quality of observations in our region. Results will be announced on May 4th.

This is the first year that the Inland Empire is participating in the City Nature Challenge and although we won’t be holding any public in-person events this year, we can still make significant contributions with YOUR help! Please don’t hesitate to contact me for further information. Good luck and stay well 😊

~Bree Putman, lead organizer for Inland Empire region
breanna.putman@csusb.edu, @breeput

@glmory, @beetle_mch, @dgrimmphd, @mgruen, @rynaturalist, @cwbarrows, @cedric_lee, @hoboannie, @shaunmichael, @aaron_echols, @silversea_starsong, @susanmf, @finatic, @carolblaney, @ck2az, @diego4nature, @nofrakes, @lonnyholmes, @sheriff_woody_pct, @sea-kangaroo, @komalt1, @xranger2013, @buzzworm, @rbelshee, @bewickwren, @bartlebybone, @guyincognito, @natureali, @micrathene, @bamm321, @cae1, @larry-heronema, @eogren, @lagoondon, @tiegel, @draycole, @flower_prof, @jprado, @acorncap, @matthew_salkiewicz, @sshigenaga, @arthropod, @thomasabenson, @microm, @liddlebopeep, @cwwood, @yetikat, @tbartlett19, @david99, @awburck, @donbrown, @ekoberle

Tomorrow is the big day! It's gonna be a hot one, but try to make as many nature observations as you can from Friday to Monday! Compare our progress with that of the five other California regions/cities on the CNC California Project Page: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2020-california

The Cal Academy has made some great backyard bingo boards to use while stuck at home. Please share broadly.:
1) California Backyard/Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt Bingo Board - this is meant to be easy, kid/family friendly, and includes things that people should be able to find throughout California (link here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lmwfJIoP_x2xU2XOY4f9rdIFWHnz2Dmj/view)

2) A California Native Species Bingo Board - this will be much harder! Only native species, but ones that are found throughout CA and should be generally findable in backyards and neighborhoods. (link here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jivSbbcqC2kQhk4S_YmHiFyJ_UysMxZd/view). There is a corresponding iNat project for the native species bingo if people want to see how many they've found compared to others. (link here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/ca-backyard-neighborhood-native-species-bingo)

If possible, tag us on Twitter so we can share your finds: @citynaturechal3

Thanks and best of luck this weekend :)
~Bree Putman

@glmory, @beetle_mch, @dgrimmphd, @mgruen, @rynaturalist, @cwbarrows, @cedric_lee, @hoboannie, @shaunmichael, @aaron_echols, @silversea_starsong, @susanmf, @finatic, @carolblaney, @ck2az, @diego4nature, @nofrakes, @lonnyholmes, @sheriff_woody_pct, @sea-kangaroo, @komalt1, @xranger2013, @buzzworm, @rbelshee, @bewickwren, @bartlebybone, @guyincognito, @natureali, @micrathene, @bamm321, @cae1, @larry-heronema, @eogren, @lagoondon, @tiegel, @draycole, @flower_prof, @jprado, @acorncap, @matthew_salkiewicz, @sshigenaga, @arthropod, @thomasabenson, @microm, @liddlebopeep, @cwwood, @yetikat, @tbartlett19, @david99, @awburck, @donbrown, @ekoberle, @dvanoverbeke , @aaron_echols, @ianbernstein, @ehyatt, @cvalenzuela, @michaelmax, @seanrichards, @emilyyrae, @jmdc, @ashleyloth, @zacktippie, @chemartin, @sarahv3, @thatbean, @slothasarousrex, @jj1417, @jmdc2, @gabynunez, @andrewgoodman, @zachsmith2, @thomasabenson

Wow! For our first year, we had such an amazing turn out thanks to you! We have now made over 10,000 observations in the Inland Empire! In all, more than 39,000 people have contributed to the global City Nature Challenge with over 750,000 observations! It's awesome to see such engagement during a challenging pandemic. This event would not be successful without you!

Just some reminders:
You can still upload observations until May 3rd and they will count toward the CNC as long as you made them during Apr 24-27.

Please help with taxonomic identifications! We are now in the identifying phase of the CNC, which lasts until May 3rd. You don't have to be an expert to help ID. Anyone can go through the "unknown"s and get them even to a coarse ID like "plants" or "beetles" or "fungi". This helps those folks who do know how to ID down to species find these observations. If you need a quick identification tutorial, you can watch this short video on how to use the Identify Page: https://vimeo.com/246153496

As you're going through our region's observations, PLEASE mark anything that looks captive/cultivated as such.

Final results of the 2020 City Nature Challenge will be posted on May 4!