Kickoff to the City Nature Challenge!
Welcome Everyone!
It's great to have you join the City Nature Challenge (CNC) and take part in something truly special. 2021 is the first year that Barrett, The Honors College will be joining Macaulay Honors College in this global bioblitz to increase awareness and documentation of urban ecology. This year's CNC represents one of the first initiatives to kickoff the Justice and Equity Honors Network (JEHN), which will leverage our colleges' partnership to address issues of systemic inequity.
At today's Kickoff Event, we will be starting slow, explaining the intent behind the CNC, getting to know one another, and running through the mechanics of logging observations through iNaturalist. This challenge is designed to be a fun and rewarding use of time. For those in the middle of final exams or prepping for the end of the year, taking a few moments outside can be an incredible study break and leave you feeling refreshed, so please be kind to yourself in these next few weeks by building in breaks from your studies. Our challenge starts today and the official CNC takes place April 30 - May 3, 2021. Each observation will help the scientific community understand the biodiversity of participating areas, something that is only possible with the contributions of citizen scientists like you!
These community actions pave the way for deeper conversations about biodiversity and urban planning. Considering the JEHN's charge to create new definitions and understandings for achieving equity, it’s important to consider how residential segregation has come in many forms throughout history and has contributed to an unequal distribution of nature within cities. Empirical data suggests that this segregation through various policies and practices have led to reduced exposure to the natural environment amongst communities of color and low-income populations. The CNC promotes a physical exploration of biodiversity amidst the built environment, and this process can help us understand how our lives may look and feel different from others who live in different parts of our cities. Seeing first-hand how one’s location may impact biodiversity is a great introduction into how location can also impact a community’s access to greenspaces, clean air, fresh food, and more. As we dive deeper into the topic of environmental justice/racism, we begin to understand how a community’s lack of biodiversity can negatively impact the overall mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing of its inhabitants.
So how can our challenge help overcome these difficult realities within our cities? Well, the complexity of these issues often require stakeholders from many different fields to come together, which has proven to be difficult when identifying sustainable solutions. By sharing this experience amongst the brightest students in our nation, we start to build a contingency of passionate scholars who can usher in a new era of collaboration to address the sources and manifestations of systemic racism.
We hope you're excited for the 2021 CNC and invite you to comment below with some initial thoughts, tips for first-timers, questions, or a simple introduction. This initiative is far too rewarding to experience alone, so please engage with each other, continue the dialogue, and have fun with it.
We're looking forward to seeing our impact during this challenge and hope you all have an incredible finish to your week!
- Macaulay and Barrett CNC Committees
