City Nature Challenge
Learn more about local plants and wildlife, and help put Surrey's biodiversity on the world stage.
Address
Tickets & pricing
Free
We are gearing up for this year's City Nature Challenge! Our focus continues to be on growing the community science in Surrey and making sure all the valuable biodiversity observation data being gathered contributes to the City’s biodiversity conservation goals.
Learn more about local plants and wildlife in Surrey as your observations are confirmed through the iNaturalist community. Residents, visitors and businesses can be part of that effort. Help Surrey’s biodiversity get recognized!
Join Surrey’s iNaturalist community
- Download the free iNaturalist app to your mobile device and set up your profile.
- Search for surrey-bc_biodiversity, follow us, and join our City Nature Challenge 2024 project.
- From April 26 – 29, take photos of plants, animals and fungi wherever you feel comfortable observing nature (e.g., your backyard, balcony, local park).
- From April 30 – May 5, help the community identify observations to make them count in the final global results.
New for 2024! Surrey is joining other communities across Metro Vancouver for a region-wide challenge hosted by Nature Vancouver. Track local 2024 results in real time through Surrey’s project page, while checking out how well the region is doing. You can also see how metro Vancouver is doing compared to other cities and regions in Canada through the national umbrella project hosted by the Canadian Wildlife Federation.
Posting observations
Learn how to make and add an observation and a whole lot more, check out iNaturalist's Getting Started guide.
- Location of the observation is important, so if you have your phone’s location data turned off you will need to add the location manually.
- If it’s not wild (e.g., a domestic pet or farm animal) be sure to mark the observation as captive/cultivated.
- As you gain experience, feel free to help others identify their observations.
Upcoming events
Bioblitz at Latimer Park | April 27, 10am-2pm
Have fun with us as we discover bugs, flowers and animals and learn to use iNaturalist to record what you find. Bring your mobile phone to record with, and dress for the weather. Drop-in. Ages 6+.
Location: Latimer Park (19258 28 Avenue)
Hosted by Friends of Semiahmoo Bay Society, Little Campbell Watershed Society, Langley Environmental Partners Society and NatureKids BC.
Bioblitz at Serpentine Fen | April 29, 5:30-7pm
Celebrate the return of the birds with a City Nature Challenge Bioblitz and scenic walk on the Serpentine Fen Nature Trail in Surrey. Learn how to use eBird or iNaturalist, and how to identify a variety of marsh species! Dress for the weather. All ages.
Location: Serpentine Fen Parking Lot (44th Avenue and King George Boulevard)
Hosted by Birds Canada.
What we accomplished in 2023
In spring 2023, we completed our fourth City Nature Challenge. Thank you to Surrey's iNaturalist community and the supporting identifiers who helped review 1,845 observations (equaling 437 species). We had over 200 more observations and 25 more species identified than in 2022!
Check out results for:
