Front Range City Nature Challenge 2026 Results

The City Nature Challenge is a yearly community science event for folks all over the world to observe and document biodiversity in their own backyards. To participate, people make observations of any organism – plant, animal, insect and more – on iNaturalist for a few days in late April. This is followed by an identification phase in early May, where a community of naturalists identify the species observed. The biodiversity data crowd-sourced through iNaturalist contributes important information to scientists and land managers. 

In the Front Range, more than 7,800 observations were submitted by over 600 people. Out of these observations, 684 species have achieved Research Grade status. Once again, our most observed species was Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana). Exciting observations include western tiger salamander, black bear, evening grosbeak, spiny softshell turtle, Eastern fairy-slipper, bobcat and a leucistic grackle. 

We even had 165 research-grade observations of 31 species that are listed as rare, endangered or threatened by NatureServe or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

For 2026’s global challenge, there were 3 million observations of over 76,000 species. These observations came from 61 countries and 754 cities around the world. Over 5,600 rare, endangered or threatened species were observed; this is more than 2,000 more than last year. During this year’s challenge, more than 70 species were recorded for the first time. This number highlights the growing power of community science to support biodiversity research and conservation efforts. 

Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s City Nature Challenge. We are looking forward to participating with you next year.

Shout out to the winners of the Denver-Boulder City Nature Challenge:
Most observations: @blazeclaw with 360 observations of 186 species
Most identifications: @Andershastings with 510 observations identified
 

This article was contributed by Floristic and Outreach Coordinator Alissa Iverson.