Houston City Nature Challenge
Hello, iNat Community in the Houston Area!
I've tagged you because you are a strong user of iNaturalist in our area. We’re really hoping you’ll participate in this year’s City Nature Challenge – while we know getting observations from as many people as we can is important, we also know that it’s top iNat observers like you that will really push us ahead in the number of observations made and especially the number of species found in the Houston area!
The easiest way to join in is to just make as many observations of as many species as possible in any of the nine counties of the project area during the event period (Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Ft. Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, Waller). Helping with IDs will also increase our species number, so that’s a great way to help out as well. And of course, spread the word! City Nature Challenge 2017 Houston iNaturalist project: http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2017-houston
The details: City Nature Challenge is a nationwide event, and three Texas cities are going head to head: Houston vs. Dallas vs. Austin. The event will be held April 14-18, and total observations, participants, and species within the project area will count. We anticipate a particularly active iNat effort during that time, with plenty of newcomers, so IDing help from more experienced folks like you is going to be very helpful to our species counts. [We actually have an extra day or two after the event to continue with the IDs before the final tallies.]
Texas Parks and Wildlife has a page with leaderboard and more details at www.tpwd.texas.gov/naturechallenge
Please feel free to brainstorm, ask questions, etc. in the comments – and definitely add others to this journal post via tagging them in the comments! This is Houston’s first year in the Challenge, and we hope to bring some game.
Sarah Flournoy @sflournoy
@krancmm @anewman @laurenjansensimpson @danjohnson77077 @scottbuckel @greglasley @japearce @langaha @jennformatics @japlaca_nrm @njohnson @artemis224 @glmory @gtguy @dpom @davidsarkozi @finatic @samuel_akin @ccrawford @greenamigo87 @grbfrog @joanle0828 @christadenning @legolaws @coeller @corvid81 @keithcbiologist @elliotgreiner @bschrock2 @eric_keith @kucycads @holly41 @johnwilliams @mewaters @andrewdavies9000 @cullen @lizzy3 @gibbons @cjohnsontsu @mcm @rjnjr @stevebrennan @mabernathy @tnewman @cassidyjohnson @swanson @connor22 @kkczachura @dcarrie @birdbug62
Comments
@johnschneider @susanconaty
@dwverser @cullen_geiselman
@sflournoy I think there's a typo in the TPWD URL above (one too many w's). The correct URL seems to be down at this time, but presumably that's temporary. Very glad to know about this project and looking forward to participating. Thanks for adding me, @krancmm
Muchas gracias @johnschneider I made the edit and hopefully the site will be up soon. I'll check tomorrow. Cannot wait to get going on all this!
I will be at Jesse Jones Park on the 14th (7-530), 15th (8 - 7), and 18th (7-330). If anyone wants to stop by the nature center, I can help direct you around the park for some sightings. I can also help those who are new to iNat.
Matt
I'm signed up and ready to go - looking forward to it!
I will be glad to help out with ID's but I fear that my weekend is consumed with ongoing research.
If anyone needs a park to visit, we have over 350! I will be at a few, but there is a lot to observe. Let me know
I'll participate and am really looking forward to it! I will make a lot of observations in my own gardens, but I will try also to hit the Arboretum, Memorial Park, and along the new Bayou Park, among other places.
I'll be IDing at Exploration Green in Clear Lake!
I'll be in Harris county around Bear Creek/Addicks Reservoir area, and the Energy Corridor! Thanks for the invite!!!! - Diana
Do you have to utilize the iNaturalist app, or can I submit my observations that I take with my camera like I normally do?
@artemis224 Submit as usual. Either way is fine. If you join the project and use the bulk uploader you can simply add this project to whatever others you belong to. Otherwise I assume the organizers will just grab images from a search.
Thanks Monica!
Hello iNat POWER USERS!
It has been such a great inaugural City Nature Challenge. We have at least a couple of days to upload observations (made within the 14-18 April time period) and to make IDs. If you check out the leaderboard, you will see it is a close race, so a last-minute push to ID and upload may really help. We will confirm details/specifics as we learn them. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS A WONDERFUL SUCCESS FOR HOUSTON and for TEXAS.
Whew! Good - I was frantically trying to upload all viable pics tonight, now I can breath and finish up tomorrow morning! :) Thank you!
I'm not complaining about the much-needed rain in southern Brazoria County, but, drats, my planned outing to the coast had to be cancelled so fewer species!!
@sflournoy What is the exact deadline? Is it April 20th?
Hello iNat Power Users,
We received confirmation that the final deadline for uploads and IDs is 11am (Central) on Sat, April 22. The race is tight, so please continue uploading observations from the event period and making IDs in an effort to educate/inspire new participants and to increase our counts. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Sarah (Houston Audubon)
@krancmm I think the rain may have gotten in the way of a few plans!!!
Thanks for the update!
@sflournoy Thanks for the deadline update, Sarah. That helps!
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