Success Despite the Pandemic

by Carol Garrison

The 2020 City Nature Challenge took place in late April, and now we have a chance to look at the data and make some conclusions regarding the impact of this annual citizen science project.  Let’s look at the numbers!

• 244 cities participated during this 4 day event all over the world
• Dallas/Fort Worth ranked #2.  The event has previously been a contest, but the contest was eliminated due to the mandate of social distancing and the reduced access to natural areas
• Dallas/Fort Worth had 33,676 iNaturalist observations made by 1,258 observers
• Of the 33,676 DFW observations, there were 2,959 different species
• 3 species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) were observed in the DFW including a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, American Bumble Bee, and a Texas Blind Snake
• 168 species of birds, 49 species of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), 356 species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) were observed
• A new plant for DFW was observed:  Crepis zacintha “striped hawsbeard”

“The data collected has many benefits including evidence of a constituency, identification of high biodiversity in urban areas, the ability to generate local interest in certain species, land management guidance, and evidence, data, something printable/numerical to show that nature matters to a lot of folks…”    Sam Kieschnick