Get ready for Central Oregon's first ever City Nature Challenge from April 26-29, hosted by Think Wild and other community partners. For three days, the Central Oregon community is encouraged to record wildlife and native plant observations through the free smart phone app, iNaturalist. This worldwide "bioblitz" will provide a baseline of data highlighting the interconnection between nature and urban life.
"The City Nature Challenge is an annual global collaborative citizen science effort to find and document wildlife observations in and around urban areas," said Sadie Pollock, Think Wild's education and volunteer manager. "We're bringing this event to Bend to connect community members with the natural world and empower them to contribute valuable data to local biodiversity research."
The City Nature Challenge is a world citizen science bioblitz organized by iNaturalist which started in 2016. "By 2023, there were blitzes in 482 cities across 46 countries. Portland, Eugene and Boise participate, and Think Wild is excited to add Bend to the map!" added Pollock.
The City Nature Challenge primarily uses iNaturalist to record observations and identifications. Easy to use, participants download the app to a phone or computer, create an account and then head outside to record images of plants, animals or fungi within the urban landscape with a phone or camera. A good suggestion is to add multiple images that show various features of the organism, such as leaves, flowers and bark, then follow the screen prompts.
The app uses Auto Identification Software to suggest a species ID, but participants can submit their own or include notes supporting the observation. Don't worry if you don't know the identification of the organism in the photo. Area experts will gather to review all the observations and confirm identifications in early May.
iNaturalist also provides a central repository for the data collected that can be used by scientists throughout the world to study range expansions or contractions of species, including invasives, and migration patterns. The event is a valuable form of civic engagement which supports conservation by collecting information that would be difficult for local scientists to do on their own.
"Think Wild is hosting several events during the CNC, including a birdwatching trip and a wetlands plant ID workshop, that all are welcome to attend," said Pollock. The birdwatching field trip to the Hatfield Ponds will be on April 26 and a wetlands walk on April 27 will be held at the Tetherow Crossing Park in Redmond with staff from Beaver Works.
"Additionally, folks can get out and record observations on their own," added Pollock. "One of the superpowers of citizen science is having many eyes in many places. The more people participate, the more likely we are to detect rare species, range extensions and new invasions, so contributing on your own can be an incredible contribution."
Bend's Dirty Freehub will host a Gravel Bike and Birding Event in support of the CNC, also on April 27.
"We will be stopping at some of the points on the Townie Ride Guide, specifically in spots that tend to attract a little more wildlife," said Kira Corbett, Dirty Freehub's director of podcasting. "With our bird and bike event, we at Dirty Freehub hope to contribute to these projects by breaking down barriers to people accessing nature (even within the city!) by getting outside while empowering people to contribute to citizen science in their own backyards." This ride will not only showcase some great commuter options to and around Bend, but will also highlight culture, history and nature within the city limits.
One example of how Think Wild will use the data is to collect information about native plant seed harvest sites and plant selection at their Beaver Works restoration sites. "Think Wild hopes to focus on less-visited public spaces and places where the land managers have questions that can be answered with citizen scientists," said Corbett.
The area boundaries for the CNC on the iNaturalist site stretches from La Pine to Terrebonne. Any observations that are made within the geographic boundaries during the observation period will automatically be included in Bend's City Nature Challenge project.
Portland Nature Conservancy staff are also providing support to Think Wild from lessons learned from other CNCs and will contribute data to the effort.
"City Nature Challenge provides space for people to directly engage in nature and to make connections between themselves and the natural world," said Max Light-Pacheco, The Nature Conservancy's volunteer and community engagement programs specialist. "All too often, we think of technology and nature being in competition. The City Nature Challenge shows that they can be used together to provide us with a deeper understanding of the world around us."
