During our holiday travels, @annagypsy and I discussed what we would do with this year's City Nature Challenge. The last two have been great fun--one with a very pregnant @annagypsy and the other with a 1 year-old Lark, who was getting early camping experience--so what of this year?
We decided that we would head somewhere new rather than spend the third year in our home CNC, Washington, DC. Our first thought was San Francisco because they clearly have a lot that we haven't seen before, but that's already a crowded field. Then we considered Bogota--we've worked in Latin America, but not Columbia--then Kuala Lumpur--no Malaysia in our history--just two of the many possibilities. But when we paused to recognize that CNC-ing in completely new lands with a now almost 2 year-old might be better done one step at a time, we thought the UK might be a good place to start. (Plus we've been trying to get my parents to go over there, so this would nudge them a bit.) Both the Portsmouth and London CNCs would offer opportunities to see things we haven't observed before, and we can contribute to these cities' species, observations, and observers totals!
Because of iNaturalist, there is an existing community to help newcomers to an area. But how can we find fellow naturalists who might be interested in and willing to help get us oriented, with whom we might meet up in the field to learn, and whom we might get to know during the CNC? One option is to trawl the 2018 CNC participants for the cities, but that could both be weird ("Why is an ogre writing to me?") and / or cost a bunch of time in missed connections. There isn't (yet) a central clearinghouse to make connections among iNaturalists looking for sharing local knowledge when others visit an area, but maybe there is a need? Could the iNat Google Group be the place (though the audience is much narrower)? We don't know the answer yet, but for now, I'll leave this journal entry here as an open invitation to see if anyone has other ideas about how to connect.
And if you're in southern England, you plan to participate in the 2019 Plymouth or London CNCs, and are open to helping a couple of experienced (albeit in other regions!) naturalists in late April, please get in touch!
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I shared this with the CNC organizers on Slack. We'll miss you here!
Hi @jacobogre and @annagypsy,
I'm Lucy and I'm coordinating London's City Nature Challenge. Of course you'd be very welcome to visit our fabulous city and the amazing greenspace we have to offer! There will be a range of organised events throughout the CNC weekend, as well as the opportunity to explore our Royal Parks, London Wetlands Centre and other sites on your own. The London National Park City campaign have created a map showing all the greenspaces in London http://www.nationalparkcity.london/map
On the Saturday of the City Nature Challenge weekend we'll be holding an all-day BioBlitz event in Hyde Park with lots of voluntary naturalists from the UK's many wildlife recording schemes and societies as well as guided surveys led by experts from the Royal Parks, Natural History Museum (where I'm based) and other partner organisations.
You'd be very welcome to join us! If you want some more info, or help about visiting the UK, you can contact me on here (@LucyRobinsonNHM) or I'm on l.robinson@nhm.ac.uk.
All the best,
Lucy
p.s. I love the fact that you're taking the CNC as an opportunity to see new cities - I think you could start a trend there!
Hey Jacob, Great to hear you're considering visiting the UK during the CNC. There's more to us then just the South! The Liverpool City Region is involved this year as are our close neighbours (competitors) Manchester. The LCR has much to offer in terms of culture and sites and plenty of wildlife, in particular the Sefton Coast. Internationally recognised for it's importance to biodiversity (https://www.sefton.gov.uk/1251). Away from the coast the CNC area will take in urban parks out to more rural countryside and woodland. Just bear in mind that our habitats are likely to be far less expansive than what you'll be used to in the U.S.!
Hi @lucyrobinsonnhm and @deedb8, great to hear from you both, thank you for the invites! (And thank you for the Slack mention @carrieseltzer !) We're both really excited about this. We're coordinating with other family who may also be part of the trip--still working out logistics--and their plans, e.g., if they wanted to head towards Cornwall before turning north, will shape our plans a bit. I will be in touch with DMs (or email) as soon as we get some resolution. Thanks again and look forward to meeting one or both of you in a few months!
--@jacobogre and @annagypsy
@jacobogre @annagypsy Whatever you end up doing i hope you enjoy your trip! Stay in touch.
Hi @deedb8 and @lucyrobinsonnhm--turns out our relatives need to postpone their trip to the UK until September (more time to recover from surgery), so we're going to stay closer to home for CNC this year (run down to the Everglades). Even though we won't make it at the planned time, we'd love to stay in touch for when we do make it over. Thank you!
Not to worry and i hope everything gets sorted with your relative and they recover well. if you do make it out here and want to get involved in anything then please do just give us a shout!
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