The City Nature Challenge is back for the eighth year, inviting Texans to explore nature in their immediate surroundings. The friendly community competition takes places April 28 – May 1 among 15 Texas metropolitan areas, including the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

The program is the product of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department through the Texas Nature Trackers program, encouraging people to explore outside their front doors, in their yard or anywhere nature is found and can be safely and responsibly explored.

Whether joining a group event, exploring nature with a family or venturing out on one’s own, participants are encouraged to embrace the collaborative aspect of sharing observations online with a digital community and celebrate the healing power of nature safely as they document their local biodiversity.

This global, community-based, scientific effort is co-organized by San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Texas Nature Trackers encourages use of the hashtag #CityNatureChallenge on social media or as a tag in iNaturalist.

In 2022, Texas metropolitan areas joined 419 other cities in a worldwide celebration of the resilience of urban nature that logged more than 1.6 million observations of more than 50,000 species by 67,000 people. In Texas, 93 counties logged more than 148,000 observations, with 7,700 species recorded.

Visit the Texas City Nature Challenge on the TPWD website to find links to Texas projects and learn more about the global project at the City Nature Challenge website.