Plitvice joins nature challenge

Plitvice Lakes National Park and the wider Lika-Senj County area will join the 2026 City Nature Challenge from April 24 to April 27. (np-plitvicka-jezera.hr) The park said people can take part by photographing or recording wild plants, animals and fungi, then uploading those observations through iNaturalist. The event in Croatia is being coordinated by the Institute for Environment and Nature Protection at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Green Transition. (np-plitvicka-jezera.hr) The global challenge runs in two stages this year: observation from April 24 to April 27, 2026, and identification from April 28 to May 10, with results scheduled for May 13. The official City Nature Challenge site says participants should document only wild organisms, not planted or captive ones. (citynaturechallenge.org) iNaturalist describes the project as a community science biodiversity census focused on plants and animals living in and around urban areas. The Nature Conservancy says participants join by using the iNaturalist app and adding observations to their local project. (inaturalist.org) (nature.org) Croatia’s 2026 edition is larger than last year’s, according to the park’s Croatian-language notice, with co-organizers now covering 12 counties. That expansion adds Plitvice Lakes National Park and the full territory of Lika-Senj County to this year’s map. (np-plitvicka-jezera.hr) That puts one of Croatia’s best-known protected landscapes into a project built around public species counts. Plitvice Lakes is Croatia’s oldest and largest national park, and UNESCO says its lake-and-waterfall system is still being shaped by ongoing travertine formation. (np-plitvicka-jezera.hr) (whc.unesco.org) The park’s official information page says visitors can tour the lake system on seven routes and four hiking trails, giving participants multiple access points for making observations during the four-day count. The park is open year-round. (np-plitvicka-jezera.hr) For residents and visitors, the assignment is simple: find something wild in Plitvice or Lika-Senj between April 24 and April 27, record it, and upload it before identification closes in May. (citynaturechallenge.org) (np-plitvicka-jezera.hr)