iNaturalist City Nature Challenge 2026 Bioblitz

May, 2026
by Renee Benage, Class of 2008

Great Rivers chapter has had several volunteer activities at Little Creve Coeur Ecological Area (LCCEA). During a past City Nature Challenge, Bob Virag set up parameters in iNaturalist that cover all observations made in this area. The search capabilities in iNaturalist make it easy to see how many "Research Grade" observations have been made during particular times.

Southern Leopard Frog, photographed by Carl Davis

During the 2026 City Nature Challenge bioblitz we did on Apr 26th, 30 Research Grade observations were made, with 24 species recorded. Over time there have been 387 Research Grade observations of 182 species. Using iNaturalist to record observations will help generate data for science and conservation, and it will be interesting to see how many new species we can add to the LCCEA data.

Eastern Tailed Blue Butterfly, photographed by Carl Davis