City Nature Challenge: BioBlitz! 

Saturday, April 26th, 1:00-3:00 PM 

Classroom, trails, and gardens at the Randall Davey Audubon Center, 1800 Upper Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM 

Ever wonder what types of plants, butterflies, or birds are found in your yard? Want to explore the biodiversity of Santa Fe, your local neighborhood, and the rest of the globe? Join the global City Nature Challenge from wherever you are! Folks from communities around the globe are working to record all of their local biodiversity and log as many iNaturalist app observations as they can!  

Local naturalist, Michael Carr, will teach participants the ins and outs of using the iNaturalist and Seek apps, including their identification and community science functions. Then, we’ll head outside to the garden to practice using the app and identifying some of the local species that we find! He will also be leading a guided hike, as well as a BioBlitz observation challenge around the garden! 

Program Schedule (subject to change): 

• 12-1pm, Docent led activities in the garden and around RDAC 
• 1:00, Garden, grounds, and trails bioblitz! 
• 2:00, Guided hike to Two Mile Reservoir- Meet at the visitor Center (limited to 18 people) 
• 3:00, Docent led activities in the garden and around RDAC 

Program Details: 

• Registrants are encouraged to bring a device, such as phone or iPad, to use for practice, if possible. 
• Registrants are encouraged to download the iNaturalist and/or Seek apps ahead of the workshop. Limited WiFi is available at RDAC, but can sometimes be slow. 
• No registration fee required, but donations are encouraged to support the outdoor education programs at RDAC. 

About the speaker, Michael Carr: 

Michael is a naturalist and environmental professional residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Originally from rural Virginia, he has worked in a variety of disciplines ranging from archaeology to wildlife conversation management. He currently balances his job of stormwater program development and environmental compliance with Santa Fe County, alongside his independent research into the ecology of stag beetles across the United States. He is a research associate of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, where he has initiated the development of an on-site synoptic entomological collection, a preliminary index of the insect fauna documented within the Preserve and manages their iNaturalist project page. His previous experiences include managing natural history collections at the National Museum of Natural History, performing terrestrial field ecology with the National Ecological Observatory Network, and horticultural stewardship at the Oak Springs Garden Foundation. He also facilitated the first popular filming of giant stag beetles and is featured in the Disney Plus series "A 'Real' Bug's Life 2. 

About the City Nature Challenge: 

Residents across the Santa Fe region are preparing to join a global community science event with a very local focus: the wildlife in our urban environment. The City Nature Challenge will happen from April 25th to May 4th, with observations of nature taking place April 25th through April 28th, and identifications through May 4th. Thousands of people from across New Mexico are expected to participate. Their mission: to observe and identify as many species of wild animals, plants, and fungi as they can during the Challenge period - in local parks, neighborhoods, front stoops, and back yards. The Challenge is a fun event that offers a great opportunity to get outdoors. It also has a serious intent: data collected during the Santa Fe Area City Nature Challenge will provide valuable information to scientists on urban wildlife and global biodiversity. 

The City Nature Challenge, sometimes called an annual “bioblitz,” started as a friendly competition between two cities in 2016, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Organizers in each city challenged their communities to see who could make the most observations of urban wildlife over one long weekend. Their competition soon attracted interest, and within two years people in over 50 cities were participating. In 2025 residents in over 700 cities on all continents are expected to take part.