Results of the 2019 City Nature Challenge!
Team WNC had a terrific first year with a total of 277 participants in every Western N.C. county! We had a total of 5,440 observations made over the four days yielding a total of 1,219 confirmed species identifications.
A few fun facts regarding Team WNC:
The most observed plant species were the mayapple (37), dwarf crested iris (34), Christmas fern (31), wild geranium (29) and large white trillium (29).
The most observed animal species were the Eastern tent caterpillar (22), Eastern tiger swallowtail (18), common five-lined skink (18), and American robin (14).
A total of 144 observations of 64 species that are rare or threatened were included.
For the battle of NC we held our ground but placed third place for both number of observations (Raleigh had 14,059 and Charlotte had 8,715). We were also third in number of observers (Raleigh had 449 and Charlotte had 377). We did, however, come out ahead of Charlotte in terms of number of species observed (we had 11 more than they did!) and placed second behind Raleigh (1,771 species).
Collectively 35,126 users worldwide contributed 963,773 observations of over 31,000 species. Winner of the top city for number of observations and number of species was Cape Town, while San Francisco took the honor of top number of observers. The most observed species worldwide was the common dandelion. Our region placed 33rd in the world for number of species observed and 47 for number of observations. In comparison Raleigh placed 21 for number of observations and 18 for number of species.
We learned a lot this year and are already coming up with some great ways to get people in the west engaged for the 2020 City Nature Challenge.
We have prizes for the top performing Team WNC members, but we applaud the efforts of every participant! In cases where an individual placed in both categories they won in the category with the highest slot earned. Myself and other employees of The North Carolina Arboretum were not eligible to win prizes.
The 2019 Team WNC Winners are...
Most Species:
1st: loriannkayaker
2nd: lenrely
3rd: adkinsadventures
Most Observations:
1st: jackollis
2nd: logpark
3rd: engelbrep
Congrats to all the winners! I'll be reaching out to each of you to ask for an address to send your prizes. I look forward joining you all in City Nature Challenge 2020 next year!
Jonathan
