Fernandez Ranch BioBlitz

Hey nature enthusiasts! This fun, family-friendly event is your chance to explore nature, contribute to citizen science, and help us document the incredible biodiversity of Fernandez Ranch. All you need is a smartphone with internet access.

What’s a Bioblitz? Think of it as a giant nature scavenger hunt! We’ll be taking pictures of all the plants and animals we find using the free app iNaturalist. This valuable data helps scientists nationwide understand the health of our ecosystems.

Choose Your BioBlitz Adventure:

• Self-Guided Bioblitz (9:00 am – 2:00 pm): Explore the ranch at your own pace, snapping photos and contributing to science!
• Guided Pond Stroll Bioblitz (10:00 am – Noon): Join Stewardship Manager Ricardo Black on a leisurely 1.5-mile walk to a beautiful pond. Along the way, keep your eyes peeled for wildflowers and fascinating amphibians! Meet at the main parking lot at 10:00 am.

Register

The Fernandez Ranch BioBlitz is part of this year’s City Nature Challenge (CNC). It all started in 2016 as a friendly competition between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Now, the CNC is a global phenomenon, uniting people worldwide to document urban wildlife. It’s a collaborative effort with a touch of friendly competition! Cities race to see who can record the most nature observations, identify the most species, and get the most people involved. In 2023, over 66,000 citizen scientists from 482 cities made a staggering 1.9 million observations!

Here’s how it works:

April 26th – 29th: Get outside and observe! Use iNaturalist to snap photos of wild plants, animals, and fungi.
April 30th – May 5th: Upload your observations and help identify others’ finds on iNaturalist.
May 6th: The results are announced!

Sign up for the iNaturalist project for the San Francisco Bay Area and help us make the 2024 CNC the biggest one yet! All iNaturalist observations within the challenge dates will be automatically included.