The 2025 City Nature Challenge is a citizen science event happening in over 600 cities across the world. Indianapolis (and environs) will be among the cities competing in this international event. Indiana Sciences is coordinating the local effort.

The four-day event asks citizen scientists to find and document as much urban nature as possible in their area. Explore your backyard, or expand into local playgrounds, parks, and nature preserves to look for plants, insects, and animals. Document your findings with a photo, and report them via the iNaturalist website or app. The goal is to develop a new baseline of a city’s biodiversity.

Find out more here.

RSVP

To register for the event, you must have an iNaturalist account. After logging in, click Join from the City Nature Challenge 2025: Indianapolis page.

Participating Counties

The following counties are included in the Indianapolis City Nature Challenge:

• Boone County
• Brown County
• Hamilton County
• Hancock County
• Hendricks County
• Johnson County
• Madison County
• Marion County
• Morgan County
• Putnam County
• Shelby County

CILTI’s Involvement

We encourage everyone to visit our open nature preserves during this global event (April 25 to 28) and share your observations on iNaturalist.

Public preserves that fall within the geographic parameters include: Meltzer Woods, Nonie Werbe Krauss Nature Preserve, Oliver’s Woods, Fred and Dorothy Meyer Nature Preserve, the Laura Hare Preserve at Blossom Hollow, and more! Use our Preserves page to plan your visits.