Residents across Webster Parish will have an opportunity in April to document local plants and wildlife as part of two new community science initiatives spanning Northwest Louisiana and beyond.
George Gehrig, a Louisiana native and former Shreveport resident, has organized the 2026 City Nature Challenge: Northwest Louisiana and the 2026 Spring South Central Plains Biodiversity Challenge. Both events will take place April 24-27.
The Northwest Louisiana challenge includes 12 parishes, among them all of Webster Parish. The broader South Central Plains effort encompasses 102 counties and parishes in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas that fall within the South Central Plains ecoregion.
A bioblitz is an organized effort to record living species within a defined area over a specific period. Participants use the free iNaturalist app or website to photograph wild plants and animals and upload those observations to a shared project page, where other users help identify the species.
“This is the first CNC project in North Louisiana,” Gehrig said of the local effort, which is part of the international City Nature Challenge. “My hope is to introduce people to community science, and in particular bioblitzes, and to encourage them to help observe and document the incredible biodiversity in this region.”
The City Nature Challenge began in 2016 as a competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco to document urban biodiversity. It has since grown into an international event held annually in late April and early May. In 2025, organizers reported 669 participating projects in 62 countries, with more than 3.3 million wildlife observations recorded.
Gehrig said participation is free and open to anyone age 13 or older who creates an iNaturalist account. Observations must be made between April 24 and April 27 and uploaded by May 10. Results will be announced May 13.
Participants are encouraged to photograph wild organisms only, including plants growing without cultivation and non-domesticated animals. Casual observations and captive or cultivated organisms will not count toward challenge totals.
The Northwest Louisiana project is structured as an “umbrella” that tracks observations parish by parish. Gehrig said he hopes to foster friendly competition among jurisdictions based on the number of unique observers per capita.
The South Central Plains Biodiversity Challenge will operate on a similar model but at the ecoregional level. The project includes 28 Louisiana parishes within the designated EPA Level III South Central Plains ecoregion.
Gehrig said the broader challenge is intended to help participants think beyond political boundaries.
“One way to begin to overcome it is to understand that species don’t recognize the artificial boundaries that we have drawn upon the landscape,” he said, describing what he calls “Biodiversity Blindness.”
In addition to overall rankings, the South Central Plains challenge plans to recognize top observers in each jurisdiction and state and to encourage youth involvement through potential school-based competitions and local biodiversity clubs.
Gehrig, who retired after 20 years at the former LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport and later organized regional bioblitzes in Idaho and the Northern Rockies, said he is available to make presentations, host practice bioblitzes, and work with schools, libraries, and community groups interested in participating.
To take part, residents can download the iNaturalist app, create an account, and photograph wild plants or animals anywhere within the project areas during the four-day window. Observations automatically populate the project maps once uploaded.
Links to project pages, instructional materials, and social media events will be included with the online version of this article.
For more information or to schedule a presentation, Gehrig can be reached at [email protected] or 318-564-0840.