Community Science
Learn how to use iNaturalist to contribute to the City's biodiversity conservations goals.
Community science in action
City Nature Challenge
The City Nature Challenge is an annual event in April and May that highlights community science efforts in Surrey.
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!
2025 results
This past spring, we completed our 6th City Nature Challenge. With forty cities and or regional districts participating. To change things up this year Surrey participated as part of the Metro Vancouver Regional project, contributing 1265 observations, 502 species from 63 observers as part of the regional total of 36681 observations and 2326 species. For the second year in a row this collective effort propelled Metro Vancouver to #1 (out of 37 cities in Canada, and had our region finishing 15th globally out of nearly 700 cities!
We are already looking forward to CNC 2026.
Check out results for:
Join Surrey’s iNaturalist community
iNaturalist is the platform we use to record nature observations in Surrey. It's easy to get started:
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Download the free iNaturalist app to your mobile device and set up your profile.
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Search for surrey-bc_biodiversity and follow us.
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Take photos of plants and animals wherever you feel comfortable to observe nature including your backyard, balcony, or a nearby park.
Posting observations
Learn how to make and add an observation and a whole lot more by checking out the iNaturalist getting started guide.
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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.
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If it’s not wild (e.g. a domestic pet or farm animal) be sure to mark the observation as captive/cultivated.
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As you gain experience, feel free to help identify other people's observations.
Related initiatives
Apply your community science skills to these broader projects:
