WYOMISSING, Pa. — Penn State Berks and Berks Nature are again teaming up to coordinate the City Nature Challenge (CNC), a citizen science initiative that helps people learn about nature in their surrounding environments and share observations with a worldwide community of naturalists and conservationists.

Programs to discover nature all around us

Programming at Penn State Berks begins on Wednesday, April 22, after the college’s Earth Day celebration. That afternoon, the campus and community are invited to a nature discovery program about using the free app iNaturalist to document and identify creatures and plants in our local ecosystems. After a user’s observations are uploaded to a global database, an online community confirms the species identifications and may use the data to discover and analyze trends in how species are distributed. The nature discovery program begins at 4:30 p.m. in 005 Luerssen Science Building. Registration is requested and refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public.

Participants in the nature discovery program will be well-prepared to contribute to the City Nature Challenge. Bryan Wang, teaching professor of biology at Penn State Berks and coordinator of CNC Berks County, explains that “CNC encourages ‘community scientists’ of all levels to explore their local environment while contributing to biodiversity science and conservation. Anyone using iNaturalist in Berks County between Friday, April 24, and Monday, April 27, will be contributing to the CNC Berks effort.”

Last year was Berks County’s first foray into CNC. Over 230 people participated in the countywide bioblitz, submitting over 4,600 iNaturalist observations representing more than 900 unique species of plants, animals, and fungi.

To encourage participation this year, community organizations have been holding a series of additional events. Berks Nature has taken the lead, holding workshops for children, youth, and adults at The Nature Place, the organization’s headquarters. Other events are being hosted in advance of the CNC observation weekend April 24-27 at Earth Day Berks in Reading City Park, Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center, Wyomissing Park, Schlegel Park in Reading, and Historic Dreibelbis Farm. There will also be a CNC Wrap-Up Celebration at Berks Nature held May 14.

Telling stories and creating art inspired by nature

While organizers hope for similar levels of participation in CNC 2026 as last year, they are also aware that nature is meant to be savored.

“We want people to slow down when they are out in nature, to experience moments of connection to what they are seeing — and with one another. The global organizers of the challenge this year are promoting collaboration over competition and quality over quantity,” Wang said.

To help participants appreciate those moments of connection, CNC Berks is creating Berks Nature Highlights, an online gallery of observations made during this year’s Challenge. Howra Amirshokoohi, a first-year biology major at Berks and student curator of the collection, describes the collection as an opportunity to make CNC more meaningful for participants.

“It’s a gallery of experiences from City Nature Challenge,” she explains. “When they tell a story about the moment that led to their taking that picture of a creature or a plant, when they see their work and the others’ work, it will help them reflect on why they took that picture and make a deeper impact.” And, she adds, “It will impact everyone who is viewing the collection and encourage future volunteers.”

All who participate in CNC are invited to submit stories and photos of their favorite observations to Berks Nature Highlights and to then further reflect on their nature encounters through one final program at Penn State Berks, a communal art-making experience called Visions of Nature.

This collage art workshop, the capstone of CNC Berks activities in 2026, will be held on Saturday, May 16, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Penn State Berks. Guided by Visiting Artist Abbey Muza and student art ambassadors from the college, workshop participants will use multimedia craft supplies to make an artistic depiction of a CNC observation, such as an observation submitted for the Berks Nature Highlights collection. These collaged artworks will be displayed together in a one-day exhibition “ecosystem” celebrating participants’ encounters with nature and engagement with biodiversity. All CNC participants are welcome, no experience with art is necessary, and lunch will be provided. Advance registration is required. This event is free and open to the public.

About City Nature Challenge

City Nature Challenge is organized on a global scale by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Academy of Sciences. Since its inception, City Nature Challenge has collected over 7.13 million urban biodiversity observations of 94,000+ species and engaged over 364,000 people. In previous years, observations made during the challenge have helped scientists detect patterns of biodiversity change on a global and local scale. These wildlife observations provide invaluable insights that support scientists, conservationists and policymakers to make informed resource management and conservation decisions that can help curb biodiversity loss.

For more information about the challenge or any of the events, visit the CNC Berks website at or contact Bryan Wang at citynaturechallengeberks@gmail.com. City Nature Challenge Berks is supported in part by a Penn State Opportunity Grant and the Beaver Community Service endowment of Penn State Berks. Visions of Nature is funded by a Penn State OVPCC Community Impact and Engagement Seed Funding program grant.