Engaging Your Neighbors in CNC

Thanks to Carrie Seltzer, @carrieseltzer, for this great template anyone can tailor for use on their neighborhood listserv. Tips for tailoring the links to your neighborhood follow the text below:

"Happy Spring, neighbors!

The annual City Nature Challenge is this weekend, running until midnight on Monday, and it would be great to have strong participation from our neighborhood. Here's how to get started:

1. Download the iNaturalist app (free for iOS or Android) & create an account
2. Take photos of wild plants, animals, and fungi
3. Upload to share with the iNaturalist community
4. Learn more as your finds get identified!

For inspiration, you can check out the [species that have been recorded in our neighborhood] so far, and help fill in the [gaps on the map]. You can also join one of many group events throughout the DC Metro area. Find details on events here:
here!
Please help spread the word to anyone in the DC area! Join the project and watch the species count grow starting on Friday.

The results for the entire Washington Metropolitan Area and more than 700 other cities around the world will be announced on Monday, May 6. "

You can paste this text into a draft email for your neighborhood and then--

To provide links for your neighborhood:
--Open up iNaturalist on the desktop
--In the top bar, go to Explore
--On the map, zoom into your neighborhood. (If you can't see the streets for all the observation pins, click the grey "Filters" button at top right and click, for example, the snail button to show only mollusks. Now close the filter. )
--Click one of the orange buttons--the square or circle with dotted line--to draw an approximate boundary around your neighborhood.

--Go back into the Filter and UNCLICK the snail button. This will show all obs within your shape.
--Copy the resulting url from your browser and use it for the [gaps in the map] phrase.
--In the wide gray bar near the top, click "Species."
--Grab that new url and use it for the [species that have been recorded in our neighborhood] phrase in your email draft.
--check your draft to make sure that the links for [City Nature Challenge] and [here] copied. If they did not, here they are:
--[City Nature Challenge] https://citynaturechallengedc.org/

--[here] https://citynaturechallengedc.org/events/
--Hit Send!

Big thank-you to Carrie for making it easier for all of us to get our neighbors excited about the CNC! And maybe we'll get some new lifelong iNat users as well!

Posted on April 26, 2024 01:03 PM by dbarber