ISC invites you to join us for an “Identification Social Night” for the global event City Nature Challenge. We’ll gather at District Brew Yards with other citizen scientists, get a quick tutorial on how to use the great iNaturalist website, and then hang out enjoying the local brew while marking observations that occurred over the past weekend.

Please bring your own computer, tablet or phone that can connect to WIFI — a temporary device to be used for identification will not be provided.

Can’t make it that evening? Not a problem! You can still participate by heading out into ANY nature near you the prior weekend, Friday through Monday. It’s really easy and a fun way to engage with nature when you’re in a large city! Anyone, anywhere can search for wild plants, animals, and other creatures between April 24-27th. Just add your observations to iNaturalist and they’ll automatically be included in the project. See how many species you can find and show the world how diverse our Chicago region is!

Happy exploring!

About the City Nature Challenge:

Started in 2016 as a competition between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the City Nature Challenge (CNC) has grown into an international event, motivating people around the world to find and document wildlife in their cities. The CNC is an annual four-day global bioblitz at the end of April, where cities are in a collaboration-meets-friendly-competition to see not only what can be accomplished when we all work toward a common goal, but also which city can gather the most observations of nature, find the most species, and engage the most people in the event.

The global results of the City Nature Challenge will be announced on May 13, 2026.