Diario del proyecto City Nature Challenge 2023: Dallas/Fort Worth

What a great showing from the naturalist community in Dallas/Fort Worth AGAIN this year! Way to go!!! The exact numbers will fluctuate a bit as a few more folks continue to upload observations, but here’s how we did:

From April 28 – May 1, around 1309 observers in Dallas/Fort Worth made around 48,051 observations of around 3056 unique species!

Here are the results of past years:
2022 – 42,148 observations of 3329 species by 1378 observers
2021 – 37,700 observations of 2979 species by 1193 observers
2020 – 32,848 observations of 2718 species by 1345 observers
2019 – 36,539 observations of 2621 species by 1068 observers
2018 – 35,076 observations of 2419 species by 858 observers
2017 – 23,837 observations of 2370 species by 541 observers

How did we do in comparison with the rest of the world? Well, DFW was #3 in number of observations (excluding the ‘global project’), #8 in number of species, and then #8 in number of observers! There were 482 different ‘cities’ that were part of this year’s City Nature Challenge, and for DFW to make the top ten list again this year in all categories is just incredible.

Thanks to the identifiers, over 70% of these observations were verified, and less than 2% of the total observations were captive/cultivated or without evidence. When compared with other cities around the world, we totally dominated in this! Wow!

Dallas/Fort Worth has some tremendous biodiversity, and we have an active community of naturalists that appreciate it. That’s worthy of a lot of celebration!

As always, these are numbers that we can actively use. Not only does this data increase our understanding of what nature exists here in the metroplex, but we also have numerical evidence to show just how active the constituency of naturalists is. As we filter down the data by county or by specific park, we can get even finer details of the biodiversity and community. I encourage you to do this – search by your county or favorite local park, look for some of the things that you’ve not documented before, and engage with some of the other naturalists in your area.

They already have the dates for next year’s City Nature Challenge too – mark the calendars: April 27-30, 2024!

If you can’t wait until next year for another gathering/bioblitz, don’t fret! There will be some upcoming events in DFW. I’ll keep these posted in my journal entries: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/sambiology

Way to go, team DFW!!! Nature wins! :)

What an incredible showing for the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex once again!!! Wow!!! Numbers aren't final yet -- I've noticed quite a few folks still uploading stuff, and you have until Sunday to do so. The sooner the better, so things can get ID'ed!

Try your very best to get your observations ID'ed as much as you can -- be sure to either withdraw or agree with ID's that are put on your observations.

Here's the link for ID'ing observations that lack ID's from the DFW project:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?project_id=city-nature-challenge-2023-dallas-fort-worth
There are about 500 pages of stuff that needs ID's... about 16k observations.

Also, one of the things I like to do is put the ID page to 'random' - it switches things up a bit:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?order_by=random&project_id=city-nature-challenge-2023-dallas-fort-worth

Again, GREAT job to all that participated (in observing or ID'ing)! I'll toss out a result post on Monday as well!

Hey all,

Today (Monday) is the last day for the observing! Observations need to be uploaded as soon as you can, with as much of an identification as you can.

If you'd like to watch how the other cities in Texas are doing, here is that leaderboard:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/texas-city-nature-challenge-2023-cities

Here is the global leaderboard:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2023

These numbers will fluctuate as folks continue to upload observations, particularly from cameras, and the species numbers will change too.

MAJOR kudos to folks that are already tossing on ID's on observations!!! This is a tremendous act of service -- it welcomes folks to the naturalist community, and it makes the data better and better.
Here is the ID link for DFW:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?project_id=city-nature-challenge-2023-dallas-fort-worth

Again, hope you can get out some today, engage with nature, celebrate the biodiversity that exists here with us in the metroplex!!! :)

Hey all,

So, I've been watching the weather forecasts for the past few weeks -- looks like we may get a few showers during the city nature challenge! Hey, it's all good, but I do hope everyone can find some time to get out and engage with nature this weekend.

Observation period is from Friday through Monday (12:00 AM on Friday to 11:59 PM on Monday), and observations should be uploaded before Sunday... The quicker you can upload, the better!

As you upload stuff, try your best to get it identified to the best of your ability -- species count is something we're also hoping to get!

One of the greatest challenges is the identification during the city nature challenge. Once the challenge starts, I'll post the identify link. Here's the general one for ID'ing observations in the DFW metroplex:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?place_id=57484

Most of all, I hope you can find some time to really engage with nature. Celebrate all of the biodiversity that exists with us here in the urban ecosystem! We're lucky to share the planet with lots of really amazing organisms -- the city nature challenge is a great way to focus on this. :)

So far, here are the events that I know of -- if you know of others, PLEASE mention them (either in the comments or send me a message: @sambiology).

April 28 -CANCELLED - black-lighting at Mockingbird Nature Park in Midlothian CANCELLED

April 29 - 3 - 6 pm - bioblitz at Grand Park in Frisco

April 29 - 8 pm to late - black-lighting at Grand Park in Frisco

Friday, April 28 - Monday, May 1
Mark the calendars! Get ready to deeply engage with nature on these four days! Let's document EVERYTHING. :)

Each year, the citizen/community scientists in Dallas/Fort Worth remind the world just how much biodiversity exists here amongst us. The City Nature Challenge is an excellent way to highlight not just this biodiversity but also the active group of folks that engage with nature -- I love it!

So, mark it on your calendars -- April 28 - May 1 -- City Nature Challenge 2023!!! Any and all observations made on these four days from the 10 counties that make up DFW (Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, and Wise) and uploaded before May 6th will count towards the DFW City Nature Challenge. No extra steps, no projects that you have to join, nothing -- it's automatic!

I'll put up another journal post with some of the gatherings -- if you know of others, please let me know!

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to me @sambiology, sam.kieschnick@tpwd.texas.gov, sambiology@gmail.com, or my cell: 214 215 5605