Follow along to learn how you can get involved in the 2025 St. Louis City Nature Challenge!
05/07/2025
Together, with 668 other cities across 6 continents, we broke the record for most observations for the City Nature Challenge, with over 3.3 million observations! 🏆
Thanks to everyone who participated in the St. Louis Region, we were able to make over 10,000 observations and get 37% of those observations to research-grade status! 😃
04/30/2025
Thanks to everyone who participated in last weekend's 🦆🐢🌿
Numbers are still rolling in, but together we made over 9,000 observations of plant, animal, and fungi species in the St. Louis Region!
04/28/2025
Today is the LAST DAY to make observations in iNaturalist for the 2025 City Nature Challenge! Get outside and contribute to biodiversity research today! 🐢💚
The City Nature Challenge is in full swing, and lots of observations have already been made - have you participated yet? 😁
Download iNaturalist and take a photo of an animal or plant species today to join this worldwide bioblitz and contribute to scientific research!
04/25/2025
The City Nature Challenge begins TODAY! 🎉🎉🎉
Join your neighbors in documenting the biodiversity in the St. Louis region. Grab your phone, download the iNaturalist app, and upload photos of nature between now and Monday, April 28th! This challenge is a great opportunity for people of all ages to get outside and explore the environment around you - what are you waiting for! 🦋🐟🍄
EarthWays Center Forest Park Forever Saint Louis Zoo City of St. Louis Government Missouri Dept. of Conservation California Academy of Sciences
04/22/2025
Happy (although at EarthWays Center we like to celebrate every day!!!) 🌎🌍🌏
The City Nature Challenge is just a few days away - make a plan to get outside this weekend and join the challenge! To participate, download the app and make observations of plants, animals, and fungi between Friday, April 25th and Monday, April 28th in the St. Louis region to contribute to our project.
04/18/2025
Post-Event Species ID and Happy Hour
Join us on Wednesday, April 30th from 4:30-6:30 PM at Urban Chestnut Brewing Company in The Grove to identify species to research-grade! 🍕🥂📱
After a weekend full of observations, it’s time to help identify the species St. Louisians found and uploaded. A “research-grade” identification has to have three people agree about what species it is.
Join together with plant and animal experts to help us increase our number of research-grade observations in this year’s
Please bring a laptop if you are able. First round of drinks and light appetizers are provided!
The City Nature Challenge is next weekend! Make a plan to participate in this year’s event, running April 25-28, whether you explore your own backyard or check out one of St. Louis’ many public green spaces, you are bound to discover and document unique species!
🐛🐥🐢🌻
03/24/2025
As part of this year’s City Nature Challenge, the St. Louis Region event partners are hosting a bioblitz in Forest Park! 🌳
Join us from 9-11 AM near Kennedy Woods in Forest Park for a guided bioblitz led by local experts from Saint Louis Zoo, Forest Park Forever, and Missouri Botanical Garden
After the bioblitz, please join us at the St. Louis Earth Day Festival, hosted by earthday365, in Forest Park! 🌎
03/20/2025
The St. Louis region is gearing up to compete in the worldwide City Nature Challenge for the eighth year, and we need your help! 🌱
The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is a four-day bioblitz-style competition between 700+ cities across the globe to gather observations of nature. The CNC offers a platform for people to engage in community science by finding and documenting local wildlife. Cities compete to collect the most observations of nature, document the most species, and engage the most people throughout the weekend.
Run by the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, the CNC offers a platform for people to engage in community science by finding and documenting local wildlife. The St. Louis region CNC is managed by Missouri Botanical Garden, with support from Missouri Dept. of Conservation and City of St. Louis Government.
Let’s do this, St. Louis! 🎉
05/13/2024
THE RESULTS ARE IN! Thank you to the many partners and participants that helped make 2024 a success!
Total observations - 10,742 (17% up from 2023)
Total observers - 464 (11% up from 2023)
Total species observed - 1,618 (19% up from 2023)
We’ll see you next year for the 2025 St. Louis City Nature Challenge!
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Contact The Organization
Send a message to St. Louis City Nature Challenge:
Calling all citizen scientists, nature enthusiasts, and ecologists!
All ages, backgrounds, and abilities needed!
The greater St. Louis region will be participating in the 2020 City Nature Challenge - a global competition taking place in more than 250 cities and metropolitan regions around the world! What's the Challenge? To see which city can document the most species in 4 days. Let's do this, St. Louis!
IMPORTANT UPDATE: COVID-19
We know that COVID-19 will significantly impact our 2020 City Nature Challenge project. After much thinking, we have decided to keep the City Nature Challenge event scheduled for April 24-27 (observations) and April 28-May 3 (identifications). However, we will be making some significant modifications:
This year’s City Nature Challenge is no longer a competition.
We want to embrace the collaborative aspect of sharing observations online with a digital community, and celebrate the healing power of nature as people document their local biodiversity to the best of their ability. We want people around the world to have the opportunity to participate, while still following all federal and local recommendations to keep communities safe.
As a participant, it is up to you how much or how little you take part! Do only what feels safe for you & your family. It is imperative that you follow all government regulations, though.
Here in the St. Louis Area, we realize that in-person events are likely not going to happen.But since we're still allowed to go outside, let's try to enjoy & document nature in whatever ways we feel we can. Being outside can also help to lower stress levels and increase overall feelings of well-being, so take care of yourselves by being in nature if you're able to.
Here are two ways to participate:
1.) Get outside and explore nature! Whether in your backyard, local park, or favorite nature spot anywhere in the St. Louis metropolitan region (following local and CDC guidelines), take photos or sounds of animals, plants, and other life-forms using the free iNaturalist app. In addition to helping St. Louis participate in this global event, your observations will become data that could benefit local lands and waters.
2.) If you consider yourself skilled at species ID, we need you! During this window of time, help turn casual observations into research-grade data from the comfort of your own computer.
Help spread the word! Let's get out there and show the world how much we love biodiversity across our bi-state! You can also visit our project page to see the latest observations as they come in.
For information on the City Nature Challenge, tips on participating and to see the other cities competing on 2020 check out the City Nature Challenge page.
