City Nature Challenge is a free four-day event where communities across the world collaborate to see which city can gather the greatest number of wildlife observations, find the most species and engage the most people in nature connection.

Each record of a plant or animal submitted helps track and understand biodiversity! Everyone can participate, find instructions below.

EcoSpark and TRCA are regional organizers for the city of Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (Toronto and GTA). Together, we will put Toronto and GTA on the map to win the title of the wildest city in Canada.

Help global participants contribute millions of observations this year to make a HUGE difference for biodiversity.

Schools, Youth & CommunitY VOlunteer Groups

Teachers, volunteers, and youth aged 13+ can participate in the City Nature Challenge on their own. Our resources make it easy!

Get students outside and collect nature observations using the iNaturalist platform during the Challenge. Youth environmental leaders can spread the word about the Challenge and encourage eco-clubs or communities to get involved.

EcoSpark can visit your school or community group to deliver hands-on biodiversity training, introducing participants to the world of citizen science through curriculum-linked on-site activities.

Corporate Group Challenge

Engage Your Team, Make a Real Impact!

Join the City Nature Challenge with EcoSpark and turn your corporate team into biodiversity champions!

Your involvement directly supports local biodiversity, community health, and environmental education. Nature is everywhere! Your participation helps document wild species, supporting biodiversity, documenting impacts to climate-sensitive species.

Explore nature from wherever you are in the GTA by finding wild species close to home. Even watching birds from your window is helpful!

Record observations by taking a picture or recording a sound of what you find and uploading it to iNaturalist, making note of the location. Observations submitted to iNaturalist between April 25 - 28 will be included in the challenge.

Be aware of human and wildlife safety at all times and explore natural areas responsibly with ethical wildlife photography.

To support biodiversity research, focus on insects, birds, weeds, and other wild plants, animals and fungi (rather than cultivated species like garden flowers).

Submit observations by uploading them to your iNaturalist account (on your computer or with the app). Join EcoSpark’s iNaturalist page for fascinating biodiversity info and local updates

Observations submitted within Toronto and the GTA will be included in the City Nature Challenge: Toronto and GTA iNaturalist project. Encourage your friends and neighbours to help out!

Check back on iNaturalist April 29 - May 4 to help identify what species we found. No special skills are required to get involved in exploring the data!

EcoSpark will showcase local results and species totals for this collaborative global event.

Note: iNaturalist requires users to be 13+ to make an account

Dig deeper to explore the plants and animals that share our city! EcoSpark educator resources and City Nature Challenge Education Toolkit help teachers and students make curriculum connections and practice outdoor inquiry.

Book an interactive EcoSpark session to engage your grade 6-12 class, corporate team or volunteer group in citizen science activities and connect with their local environment.

Subscribe to our newsletter (below) for updates. Let’s support even more diverse species for next year’s count! Together we can steward the GTA’s ecosystems that sustain us all.

Register for City Nature Challenge updates, be eligible to win prizes from our generous sponsors while supporting local biodiversity!

Check out the TRCA events calendar for community events during City Nature Challenge.

toronto and gta regional organizers

We are grateful for support from our Local sponsors