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You can join Port Moody's participation in an international nature challenge

The international City Nature Challenge originally started in 2016 as a friendly competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Mario Bartel
Mario Bartel
0519-SalmonSurgery 9w
Port Moody's Mossom Creek hatchery is one of the places you can visit to help record the city's flora and fauna for the 204 City Nature Challenge.MARIO BARTEL/THE TRI-CITY NEWS

A walk in a Port Moody park April 26 to 29 will help put the city on the international map for urban biodiversity.

Port Moody is participating in the 2024 City Nature Challenge, a friendly competition that challenges people to identify and document plants and wildlife in their urban environs around the world.

The result is a kind of census of city flora and fauna and how it is able to co-exist in busy locations.

In 2023, more than 66,000 participants logged 1,870,763 observations of over 57,000 species.

To get involved, you have to download the iNaturalist app to a mobile device or home computer and join the City Nature Challenge 2024: Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD) under the Projects tab.

Then, when you’re out and about between April 26 and 29, take photos or record audio of the plants and animals you encounter and upload them directly to the app.

To facilitate participation, there will be several special events in Port Moody:

Saturday, April 27

Shorebirds and songbirds of the Shoreline trail

  • 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
  • Meet at the PCT stage in Rocky Point Park to join a walk along the shoreline trail led by the Burke Mountain Naturalists. Registration is required.

Fish & friends of Noons Creek

  • 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
  • Discover the wildlife around Noons Creek during a guided tour of the riparian area around the Noons Creek hatchery (340 Ioco Rd.). There will also be microscopes available to see creatures from the creek itself. Registration is required.

Heron walk

  • 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • Volunteers from the Burke Mountain Naturalists will lead a walk along the Shoreline trail from the tennis courts behind the Port Moody recreation centre to observe and record the resident great blue heron colony. Registration is required

Sunday, April 28

Tri-Cities Bear Aware

  • 10 a.m to 12 p.m.
  • Tri-Cities Bear Aware will have an information booth at the entrance to Bert Flinn Park (David Avenue and Heritage Mountain Boulevard) to help educate people about the local bear population and help you observe and record their natural food sources. No registration is required

Fish and friends of Mossom Creek

  • 1:30 to 3 p.m.
  • Tour the Mossom Creek hatchery (Mossom Creek Drive, off Ioco Road) and help identify watershed plants and animals nearby. Registration is required.