Let’s Get Counting! Volunteer Opportunity from your back yard!
Friday, April 24 – Monday, April 27
From the Texas Nature Trackers Team at TPWD—Texas Master Naturalist Volunteers can contribute to and assist with this year’s City Nature Challenge. The City Nature Challenge may be a little different this year but there’s still a support role you can fill!
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Dear Texas Master Naturalists
For the past three years, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) through the Texas Nature Trackers program, has promoted and participated in the annual global City Nature Challenge (CNC) event, a biodiversity survey framed as a friendly competition between cities to see who can document the most species of plants and animals in and around urban areas.
However, due to the rapidly changing COVID-19 situation and its global impact, this year the City Nature Challenge will not be a competition, but rather a collaborative global effort in which we celebrate the healing power of nature and document our local plants and animals however we safely can.
Most scheduled events in Texas have been, and likely will be, cancelled as shelter-in-place and other orders regarding crowd size and social distancing are implemented at the local, state, and national levels. The health and safety of our communities is our top priority and we ask that Texas Master Naturalists who wish to participate in the CNC comply with the latest local, state, and national rules to slow and reduce the spread of this deadly virus. We also ask that you adhere to the rules implemented by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service pertaining to Texas Master Naturalist activity during this time.
Texas Nature Trackers will still monitor iNaturalist observations made during the four-day challenge (observation period runs Friday, April 24 through Monday, April 27) and we invite you, if nothing else, to document the plants and animals of your yard, common area, or even along the sidewalks when you get out for exercise for yourself and/or your pets.
Secondly, one of the greatest challenges the TNT staff has following the CNC is adding identifications to observations made during the four-day event. We encourage TMNs to help us with identifying observations from participating metro areas starting Friday, April 24 through Sunday, May 3. If you need assistance getting set up to help with this important aspect of the CNC, please email either Tania at tania.homayoun@tpwd.texas.gov or Craig at craig.hensley@tpwd.texas.gov and they will get you on-board.
Finally, please consider using the hashtag #yardchallenge on social media or as a tag in iNaturalist observations to share how you are engaging in this year’s event. To learn more about the City Nature Challenge is, please visit: https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/texas_nature_trackers/naturechallenge/ for Texas-specific information and project links and https://citynaturechallenge.org/ for a global perspective.
These are challenging times on so many levels and we know that all of you are anxious to have this in the rearview mirror. Working together we will see a day in the not-so-distant future where once again when we can all gather, hug, shake hands, and celebrate all that we are together and continue to move conservation of Texas’ natural resources forward.
Take good care, stay healthy and enjoy the peace and wonder of the natural world as much as possible.
The Texas Nature Trackers Team
You count the time you are looking and taking pictures and reporting to iNaturalist.
Find Wildlife
It can be any plant, animal, or any other evidence of life found in your city.
Take a Picture
Take a picture of what you find. Be sure to note the location of the critter or plant.
