CITY NATURE CHALLENGE
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Join us for City Nature Challenge!
We are thrilled to help mobilize people across the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area (all of Snohomish, King and Pierce counties) to join the City Nature Challenge 2025 – a nature observation event using the iNaturalist app. Not familiar with the app? Not to worry, it’s super user-friendly.
City Nature Challenge
Runs from Friday, April 25 – Monday, April 28, 2025
Help the Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area (including Everett, Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma and any place within Snohomish, King and Pierce counties!) show the world how biodiverse our region is by making observations of local species during City Nature Challenge!
City Nature Challenge will take place in two parts
You can support this effort by being an observer, helping others identify their observations, or better yet – both!
Observe!
April 25 – April 28, 2025
Take and upload pictures of wild plants and animals.
Identify!
April 29 – May 4, 2025
Help identify what was found.
We encourage everyone to find and document what lives in our own homes, out our windows, on our windowsills and in our backyards, if not in our broader neighborhoods and cities. This can be done by yourself or with your family. You can also participate “online only” by looking through and helping to identify other people’s observations!
Be an Observer
- Download the free iNaturalist app to your Android or iPhone (lots of helpful how-to videos on the iNaturalist website)
- Download the iNaturalist app from the Google Play store
- Download the iNaturalist app from the App Store
- Need help? Read our handout on how to make an iNaturalist account on your mobile device.
- Join the 2025 City Nature Challenge: Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area iNaturalist project
- Take photos of wild plants, animals and fungi in the Seattle Metro Area
- This can be inside your house, in your backyard, out your window or in your neighborhood. Please no photos of pets or cultivated plants, but see what “wild” species you can find nearby!
- Upload your photos to iNaturalist – from your mobile device or via your computer
Help Identify Observations
- Download the free iNaturalist app to your Android or iPhone
- Join the 2025 City Nature Challenge: Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area iNaturalist project
- Identify observations to species level. Add identifications to observations from this year’s City Nature Challenge, especially those that still need to get down to species. If you’re new to identifying or want to learn some ways to speed up the process, watch this short video on How to use iNaturalists’s Identify Page.
Education Toolkit
Are you a teacher or an educator? Here’s a toolkit just for you!
How To Participate
The City Nature Challenge offers supporting resources in Chinese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese. This “How To Participate Handout” can be distributed digitally and or printed and displayed on signboards or at community events.
Additional Languages:
How to Participate Handout in Chinese
How to Participate Handout in Russian
How to Participate Handout in Somali
How to Participate Handout in Spanish
How to Participate Handout in Vietnamese
ORIENTATIONS
Orientation for Individuals & Families
Learn how you (or better yet, you and your friends & family!) can get involved in community science in the Seattle-Tacoma area! Watch our video to learn how to use the iNaturalist app to participate in City Nature Challenge, a fun long-weekend where people all over the world document the wildlife they encounter.
Orientation for Educators & Other Group Leaders
Curious about citizen science and ways to support your community? Then watch our informative virtual session to learn how you can help observe and identify local ecology right in your area!
Who is This For?
Educators (classroom, informal, nature, outdoor, etc.) and other group and community leaders in King, Pierce or Snohomish Counties who want to help get people engaged in City Nature Challenge.
What We Cover
We cover the background and goals of this global and local event, how to use the iNaturalist app both to upload and to explore observations, and creative ideas for how best to motivate and lead others to successfully participate in this event. We include tips on maintaining respectful relationships with nature and how to find wild plants and animals in unexpected places!
Watch
Enjoy the recording of our virtual session. If you have any follow up questions after watching, email us at monitoring@zoo.org!
EVENTS
Curious about ways to participate and help others to participate in City Nature Challenge?
Find out about City Nature Challenge meet ups and join us for virtual and in-person sessions to learn how you can observe nearby nature and share your observations during the annual City Nature Challenge!
RESULTS
2025 Results (PDF)
2024 Results (PDF)
2023 Results (PDF)
2022 Results (PDF)
2021 Results (PDF)
2020 Results (PDF)
2019 Results (PDF)
2018 Results (PDF)
Your local planning team for the Seattle-Tacoma City Nature Challenge includes:
Woodland Park Zoo, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, Seattle Parks and Recreation, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Habitat at Home Program, Green Tukwila / City of Tukwila, The Nature Conservancy in Washington, Washington State Department of Agriculture Pest Program and a graduate student with the Advanced Inquiry Program of Miami University of Ohio/Woodland Park Zoo.
