Today’s Community Success Story is all about the City Nature Challenge. In Lethbridge, the Challenge is led by the Friends of the Helen Schuler Nature Centre.
Please describe the City Nature Challenge
The City Nature Challenge is a global citizen science bio-blitz held annually. Last year, over 66,394 people from cities around the world documented urban biodiversity on the first weekend of May. Together, they submitted 2.4 million observations for more than 65,682+ species, including more than 3,940+ rare/endangered/threatened species.
Why is it important?
City Nature Challenge, like other citizen science projects, fosters a deeper connection with nature, provides valuable data for conservation research and can even be used to inform policy-making. It also helps us see trends over time, like changes in insect emergence patterns, migration, and species populations.
Also, because the data is freely available, it can be used by the public to answer questions like “where can I see a turtle?” or “which trees are in my local park?” or “when do crocus bloom in Lethbridge?”.
What makes this project a success for Lethbridge?
Lethbridge is lucky to have some excellent naturalists who are committed to documenting their nature sightings, as well as curious newcomers willing to give it a try. In the City Nature Challenge that just happened in May 2025, there were 2,002 observations made by 30 observers here in Lethbridge, with one notable observer spotting 242 different species.
How can people get involved?
Because observations are verified by other naturalists, you don’t have to be an expert observer to participate. It’s ok to try your best and improve your identification skills over time.
Learning how to identify the wildlife around us and how to use technology to report those observations is the first step (i.e. iNaturalist, Ebird, EDDMaps). Watch the Helen Schuler Nature Centre website for courses and workshops to learn about our most common species and how to use citizen science tools, and make sure to take plenty of walks outside!
Keep an eye out early next year for information on the 2026 City Nature Challenge. There are many other citizen science projects throughout the year as well, including the Alberta Biodiversity Challenge (June 12-15, 2025), EDDMaps Big EDD challenge, Butterfly BioBlitz in Waterton (July), Christmas and Spring Bird Counts and Spring Flower Count Waterton (last Saturday in May each year).
Click here to find all of this year’s success stories, plus Environment Week events and activities.