Selby Gardens invites citizens to participate in the City Nature Challenge, April 30 to May 3, 2021
Friendly competition throughout the State of Florida
SARASOTA, Fla., April 26, 2021 – Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ (Selby Gardens) Sarasota-Manatee EcoFlora project is seeking partners and participants for the City Nature Challenge (CNC), an international effort to document urban biodiversity. Selby Gardens is partnering with The Nature Conservancy in Orlando, Florida to host a friendly competition among several Florida communities, including Alachua County, Boca Raton, the Orlando metro area, Manatee and Sarasota Counties, South Florida (Miami-Dade, Monroe and Broward Counties) and St. John County. The CNC observation period will take place April 30 through May 3, 2021. The results will be announced on May 10, 2021.
The CNC is an international effort to get people into nature and to document their local biodiversity—nature and animals found in their community. During the course of four days, community members acting as citizen scientists around the world will log as many observations of the natural world as they can into a program called iNaturalist, a free downloadable smartphone app. Next, experts will help to identify the observations to see how many different species were documented. Partners in more than 40 countries around the world will participate. These observations will help to connect people with nature and provide valuable data for researchers, while promoting education and conservation of natural resources.
Selby Gardens and partners will host opportunities for community members to come together and document nature. These bioblitzes are as follows:
- Phillippi Estate Park Bioblitz: Friday, April 30, 9 a.m. to 12 noon, hosted by Sarasota Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources
- South Lido Beach Bioblitz: Friday, April 30, 9 a.m. to 12 noon, hosted by Sarasota Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources
- Potter Park Bioblitz: Saturday, May 1, 9 a.m. to 12 noon, hosted by Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
- Johnson Preserve Bioblitz: Saturday, May 1, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., hosted by Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources AND Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast
- Rye Preserve Bioblitz: Monday, May 3, 9 a.m. to 12 noon, hosted by Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
The CNC builds on Selby Gardens’ work as part of the EcoFlora project. For the past year, Selby Gardens has collaborated with the New York Botanical Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden, Denver Botanic Gardens, and Desert Botanical Garden to expand New York Botanical Garden’s pioneering EcoFlora Project. A grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services provides a portion of the funding necessary for Selby Gardens to participate in the multi-year project. The goal of the EcoFlora Project is to enlist the help of citizens in documenting the diversity and distribution of plants in their respective geographic areas. The Sarasota- Manatee EcoFlora Project is dedicated to the flora of Sarasota and Manatee Counties, Florida, USA.
The City Nature Challenge is organized on a global scale by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Academy of Sciences.
To participate, sign up for the bioblitzes, and learn more, visit selby.org/take-the-city-nature-challenge-2021/. For additional information, please contact Lynn H. Bates at lbates@selby.org