Which city on Earth has the most nature and the most engaged residents? City Nature Challenge 2018 aims to find out. Join The Nature Conservancy and partners as they explore metro Richmond, discovering and documenting the biodiversity of our urban spaces.

It’s easy to participate in this friendly competition. Kicking off April 27 at 12:01 am in each time zone, the Challenge runs through April 30, 11:59 pm. Join an event or make observations on your own using the iNaturalist app. Just download the app, then take a picture of a plant or animal in the app, and the iNaturalist community will help you identify them. Any observation made in the metro Richmond area — including the Cities of Richmond and Petersburg and Charles City, Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, and New Kent Counties — during the preset time period (April 27-30) will count during the four day challenge.

Building on the success of the first City Nature Challenge in 2016 between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the 2017 City Nature Challenge across 16 US cities, the event is going global in 2018. More than 60 cities on five continents are taking part in the City Nature Challenge – and Richmond is one of them! Click here for the full list of cities. Results will be announced Friday, May 4, so be sure to upload your observations by then!

Last year over 126,000 observations were logged in 5 days by over 4,000 citizen scientists, representing more than 8,500 species in the United States. The City Nature Challenge is organized by Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and California Academy of Sciences.