On Friday, April 14, the Natural History Museum will kick off its 2017 City Nature Challenge, a national event in which cities across the country vie to observe the greatest number of plant and animal species in our yards, parks, schoolyards and other places, and then submit the information and photos to the iNaturalist website/phone app. All wildlife counts, including bugs, birds, plants, trees, butterflies and more.
Last year, in the very first City Nature Challenge, L.A. barely edged out San Francisco for the top spot, with more than 10,353 observations by our local citizen scientists.  The event was so successful, however, that this year, 15 cities across the country are joining the effort…so we will definitely need the help of all possible participants to come out on top again.
There will be a special kickoff event at 9 a.m. on Friday, at the Museum, where you can explore the nature gardens with museum scientists, learn about urban biodiversity and begin your documentation.  To learn more, see http://www.NHM.org/citynaturechallenge.