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City Nature Challenge – Event Dates Announced!

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Silver City Watershed Keepers is organizing a City Nature Challenge in Silver City and the broader Grant County area from April 25-28, 2025! The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is an annual bioblitz event, with citizen scientists from around the world working to record as many species as possible during a four day challenge. 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of this international event, with a theme of “Bringing the World Together for Biodiversity.” Last year, CNC participants recorded nearly 2.5 million observations of plants, fungi, and animals in their local areas. Over 65,000 species (including 3,900 rare/endangered/threatened species) were observed and over 83,000 people have participated. 

Why is this event important? We believe that it is critical for members of our community to know the wildlife that also calls our watershed home. CNC emphasizes the role that towns and cities play in affecting biodiversity and invites people of all ages and abilities to explore nature in their back yards, city parks, and beyond! Observations made during the CNC will all be publicly available on the iNaturalist database and app. These observations can be viewed by other people in our community, used in schools for biology lessons, utilized by local governments and conservation organizations to monitor invasive species or ecosystem health, and employed by scientists to define shifting species’ ranges, migration corridors, or relationships (e.g. plant-pollinator interactions). 

Schedule of Events

  • April 19: iNaturalist training – Join us for a virtual training meeting in preparation for City Nature Challenge 2025 – Silver City. We will talk about the history of the City Nature Challenge, practice using iNaturalist to take photos and identify species, and learn how to improve your “good” observations into “great” ones!  
  • April 25: “Birds and Bees” – Visit native cacti, wildflowers, and trees at the Silva Creek Botanical Garden and Silver City Waterworks. These plants host to view the dazzling array of animal life, from pollinators, to predators and pests, that depend plants for food and shelter.
    • This event is handicap accessible. Accessible parking is available at Silva Creek Botanical Garden and guests are welcome to travel at their own place around the smooth gravel paths of the garden.
    • Experts from the Gila Native Plant Society and Bird Alliance of Southwest New Mexico will be present to help identify species
    • Erik Geyer, Assistant Director of Urban Forestry at Western New Mexico University and ISA Certified Arborist, will also be present to talk about native, naturalized, and cultivated trees at the garden and around Silver City.
  • April 26, 9am-11am: “Life on the Trail” – Explore Silver City’s Boston Hill Open Space & Trail System. This location is home to over 300 plant species and a surprising diversity of reptiles and birds.
    • Please register for meet-up location. This hike will cover ~2 miles of rocky and sometimes steep trails. Hike rated as easy-moderate.
    • Andrew Tree, creator and curator of the Boston Hill Plant List, will help hikers discover the plants, both common and rare, that call this urban space home. Andrew will also provide pointers on how to make great iNaturalist observations, from descriptive photographs to helpful notes.
    • Dr. Caleb Loughran, Assistant Professor of Biology, Department of Natural Sciences, Western New Mexico University, will (safely!) locate and identify snakes and lizards.
  • April 26, 12:30pm-3pm: “Tree Frogs of Cherry Creek” – Traverse Cherry Creek to find amphibians and reptiles, like canyon tree frogs, as well as aquatic insects and fish along this forested creek.
    • Please register for meet-up location. This hike will cover ~2 miles of stream-side trail, with multiple water crossings. Hike rated as moderate.
    • Hosted by members of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy: Maya Morales, Grace Laskey, and Jacob Bartley
  • April 27, 9am-noon: “Wild Silver City” – Journey through Silver City neighborhoods to learn about the wild plants and animals that live alongside humans in our built environments.
    • Please register for meet-up location. This hike will cover ~2 miles of urban sidewalks and trails. Hike rated as easy.
    • Hosted by Dr. Bill Norris, Professor of Biology and Herbarium Curator, Department of Natural Sciences, Western New Mexico University; lead author of the Flora of Silver City
  • April 28, 9am-noon: “Riparian Oasis” – Investigate the shady banks of San Vicente Creek, where urban streets meet a wild riparian forest to create a biodiversity corridor through Silver City.
    • Please register for meet-up location. This hike will cover ~2 miles of streamside trail, with some water crossings, large rocks, and fallen trees. Hike rated as moderate.
    • Experts from the Gila Native Plant Society and Bird Alliance of Southwest New Mexico will be present to help identify species.
    • Dr. Gregor Hamilton from The Nature Conservancy and Eric Head from Trout Unlimited will be present to discuss riparian wildlife within San Vicente Creek and the Gila and Mimbres watersheds of greater Grant County.

Space on these guided hikes is limited! Please RSVP to reserve a spot during one (or more) of our events. If group size limits are exceeded, spots will be given on a first come, first serve basis.

Participant RSVP

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World Water Day 2025

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World Water Day 2025 was a splash!

This year, the Silver City Watershed Keepers celebrated World Water Day with a series of events focused on watershed education and protection. We had a great time meeting new neighbors in our community and working outdoors in our beautiful urban waterways.

For the past 12 years, Silver City has been celebrating World Water Day, an annual international observance day held on March 22 that highlights the importance of freshwater. The day is used to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.  The theme of each year focuses on topics relevant to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. This year, the international theme was focused on glacier preservation, protecting glaciers from further melting and from contamination and pollution. While this theme does not immediately impact Silver City, we are experiencing an extreme drought year, with near-zero snow accumulation in our mountains. Dry spring conditions are already decreasing the growth and germination of spring-growing plants in the area. Throughout the next month, lack of snow melt is predicted to slow or stop local stream and river flows, which could cause rippling effects: farmers and ranchers will not be able to use flood irrigation, dry grass and trees will be at higher risk of fire, and finite groundwater resources will be over-used.

We conducted our quarterly water quality assessment this week. Flows in the upper watershed, along Pinos Altos Creek, were low, resulting in some isolated, stagnant pools of water where E. coli were higher than in the rest of the stream, but still within reasonable environmental levels. Further along, flows increased, resulting in higher dissolved oxygen levels and lower E. coli counts. Green, emergent vegetation was sprouting throughout the watershed and vegetation near the stream looked healthy. We noticed that areas recently cleaned during Pick It Up – Toss No Más events looked beautiful and we counted over 25 species of birds, many early spring migrants, as we collected the water samples.

Our April Pick It Up – Toss No Más community litter cleanup focused on removing litter and debris from our neighborhood water drainages and waterways. We removed several hundred pounds of litter from these areas and also compiled reports about large litter items: a pile of tires in Silva Creek, a mattress and toilet in San Vicente Creek, and windblown litter and fallen branches accumulating in stagnant puddles of Pinos Altos Creek. Overall, it was enlightening for us and for our volunteers to assess litter in our local waterways.

Finally, we hosted a nature hike on World Water Day. Ten community members joined Alesia for a hike along the San Vicente Creek Trail. As we walked, we discussed how the rapid expansion of European settlement transformed the area from a marsh-like cienega into the Big Ditch and channelized stream that we know as San Vicente Creek today. We compared stories of what “the jungle” of Siberian elm and shrub thickets along the Creek looked like in past decades versus the open cottonwood gallery forest and trail system created by recent restoration programs have created today. Along the way, we watched longfin dace swimming in the stream and making rocky nests for their eggs, saw flowers and leaf buds sprouting, and even spotted the newly-returned black hawks hunting along the stream banks. Viewing our urban waterway through an historical and ecological lens, we began to appreciate that the Silver City Watershed has been irreparably altered from what it looked like pre-1800. We cannot return this area to a functioning cienega, but we do have the power to cultivate native plants, provide habitat for Gila wildlife, utilize this green zone for fire and sewer protections, and create open spaces for Silver Citizens to enjoy.

In the wake of World Water Day, we encourage our community to reflect on the importance of water in their lives and think of ways to conserve and protect our limited water resources! You can take action by changing a few or your daily water-use habits, joining our next community litter cleanup, volunteering for our River Stewardship restoration project, planting a climate-change-ready tree, or learning more about the species around you during City Nature Challenge.

SCWK Nature Discovery Summer Camp 2024 (Facebook Post (Square))

Register Today for the Nature Discovery Summer Camp

With support from the New Mexico Outdoor Equity Fund, the Lineberry Foundation, and the Alex Olsen and Martyn Pearson Memorial Donor Advised Fund at the Grant County Community Foundation, the Silver City Watershed Keepers is offering a free Nature Discovery Summer Camp for incoming 4th, 5th and 6th graders. 

The summer camp is designed and delivered by professional educators to provide campers with a connection to nature through discovery and exploration of the natural world, including native plants, insects, birds, fish, mammals, stream ecology, and watershed health. Campers will also learn about our cultural history through field trips to the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site, the Gila River, and the Mimbres River. New this year is a field trip to the Gila Wilderness with US Forest Service staff in celebration of the Gila Centennial. Activities include hiking, nature and wildlife observation and journaling, water quality testing, and more.

The camp will be held Monday through Friday from 9 am – 3 pm during the month of June. 

Three camp sessions are scheduled for:

  • June 10 – 14, 2024 at Big Ditch Park in Silver City; 
  • June 17 – 21, 2024 at Big Ditch Park in Silver City; 
  • June 24 – 28, 2024 at Bayard Public Library in Bayard.

The camp is free. Free lunches and snacks will also be provided. We are working with the school districts to provide free transportation for campers to/from their homes if needed.

To register your child for one of the three summer camp sessions, please fill out the form below. Participation is capped at 20 campers per session. We will have adult supervision of at least 1 adult for 5 children.

Campers should bring a hat, water bottle, sunscreen, and water shoes or sneakers that can get wet. Parents/guardians will be notified of any additional items required via email before the camp session begins.

PLEASE REGISTER BY JUNE 3RD here.

Want to learn more? Watch the video from last year’s camp or call the Silver City Watershed Keepers with your questions at 575.538.8078