City Nature Challenge/Forest Floor Walk

Have you ever wanted to be a scientist but didn’t want to go through years and years of schooling? Well, now you can by participating in the upcoming City Nature Challenge April 24-27th! No experience is necessary and you can even stay in the comfort of your own backyard or neighborhood. 

The City Nature Challenge is part of a global initiative to encourage people like you and me to identify plants, animals, and fungi living in the area. Fernbank Museum is hosting the Atlanta challenge and needs your help! Starting April 24th and ending April 27th, we invite you to download the iNaturalist app on your phone, and take pictures of the animals and plants you naturally find on your daily walk. (So no pictures of pets or potted plants, but everything else is free game!) That’s it! Sounds too good to be true right? But, these images provide valuable research to identify which animals and plants are found in our city. 

South Fork Conservancy has its very own iNaturalist project for the challenge that you can add your pictures to. Have no clue how to use iNaturalist?  Don’t worry, SFC is here to help! We’re hosting a virtual lunch and learn on Thursday, April 23rd from 12-12:30pm where we’ll be going through a short demo tutorial on how to use the app and how to access the South Fork Conservancy project. Register here.We hope to see you there! 

Don’t want to take pictures by yourself or just don’t know where to start? Then come join South Fork Conservancy on Sunday, April 26th at 3pm in Montreal Park! We’ll be taking a forest floor walk, identifying species for the City Nature Challenge, and helping with any questions you may have about iNaturalist or the challenge itself. 

We can’t wait to be scientists with you! Download our infographic here.

Register for the Forest Walk at Montreal Park here. Join our iNaturalist project for South Fork of Peachtree Creek Watershed.