by Louis Harrell

Citizen science activities are an important way for individuals to contribute to scientific knowledge and for members of the public to increase their knowledge of local natural resources. Currently, the largest citizen science project that ARMN supports is the City Nature Challenge. Read about the results of this year’s challenge and the role that ARMN played in the success of our local area.

Cities around the world compete in the City Nature Challenge to see who can make the most observations of plants and animals using the iNaturalist app to record photos and information, find the most species, and engage the most people. The 2019 City Nature Challenge was held from April 26–29, 2019, and included 159 cities. Like last year, ARMN-sponsored events contributed significantly to the success of the event. In total, ARMN lead 25 events that were attended by 173 people. In the Greater Washington, DC area (which includes close-in Virginia and Maryland communities), 1,268 people made 29,996 observations and identified 2,258 species. Worldwide, Cape Town, South Africa had the most observations and species. Washington, DC was in fifth place worldwide with the number of observers, and 10^th overall. See Capital Naturalist by Alonso Abugattas for more details about this year’s CNC, with the focus on activities in Arlington.

If you couldn’t participate in this year’s Challenge, there are still many opportunities to contribute!  To move an observation from a “casual” observation to “research grade” in iNaturalist, the observation needs to be validated by at least one other knowledgeable person. You can find these observations on iNaturalist and validate them yourself. For a few hints about how to identify observations efficiently, see https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/24425-keep-cranking-with-those-id-s and https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/24578-one-last-push-results-will-be-tallied-9am-monday.

The most observed species in our area were:  Mayapple, Virginia Creeper, Poison Ivy, Tulip Tree, Garlic Mustard, and Virginia Spring Beauty. Below are photos of these species taken by City Nature Challenge participants in our area.