Back at the beginning of the Wild Coachella Challenge, we talked about the value of recording a single wild thing in the Coachella Valley during the month of March. In the end, 285 of you did just just that (and more!), making a deeper connection with nature and contributing to our understanding of the unique biodiversity of the desert. And, although it wasn't something I planned for at the start, I hope the Challenge gave you an escape from the events that have transformed our community over the past several weeks.

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The early numbers are in for the The Wild Coachella Challenge: together, you made more than 8,000 observations of plants, animals, and fungi in the Coachella Valley! Even more impressive: you observed 838 different species, actually an increase from 2019 (813 species), one of the best years for wildflowers in living memory. Amazing!

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We've entered the final week of the challenge, and there's a tight race for the top spot on the observations chart, with iNat users @rbelshee and @eogren with near 600 observations each. The competition part of the challenge is still wide open, though - there's still plenty of time to make observations, and remember that while you have to make the observation during the month of March, you'll have until Monday, April 6th to add them to iNat.

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What a week it's been in the desert (for better or worse…)! The number of species observed in the Wild Coachella Challenge project has more than doubled to well over 500, and the total number of observations has soared to more than 3,500! Here are a couple of highlights:

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Thank you for taking the Wild Coachella Challenge! It's been less than a week, and it's so exciting to see the amazing diversity of wildlife people are finding in the wilds of the Coachella Valley. We are already creeping up on 1,000 observations and have more than 250 species observed on the challenge iNaturalist project!

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