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KNOXVILLE — People across 13 counties in East Tennessee are urged to record animals, plants and fungi they observe for four days in late April.
City Nature Challenge 2024 is international, but the Knoxville-area challenge includes anyone in Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger, Jefferson, Knox, Loudon, Morgan, Roane, Scott, Sevier and Union counties. It will run April 26 through April 29 via the iNaturalist app, which is available on Google play or the App Store. While the focus is largely centered on urban areas, participants don’t have to live within a city or town to record their observations.
Participants can upload photos from a digital camera to the iNaturalist website even if they lack a smartphone. Zoo Knoxville, Tennessee Butterfly Monitoring Challenge, the city of Knoxville, Ijams Nature Center, Sierra Club, South Doyle Middle School and Discover Life in America are partnering to support the project. No experience is needed to participate. Results will be announced on May 6.
Related events in the area include a Sierra Club hike in the Knoxville Urban Wilderness.
“Even in urban areas, we are surrounded by nature. In fact, pockets of habitat in urban areas are becoming increasingly important for wildlife to survive as urban areas expand,” according to iNaturalist.
“Documenting the nature around us helps scientists, local governments, land managers and citizens like you understand what lives where, how this changes over time and what we can do to protect wildlife. We need your help to learn as much as we can about the wild plants, animals and other wildlife of Knox and the surrounding counties of central East Tennessee.”
