Nature Counts!
The 2025 Environmental Conference will take place on
Sunday, April 13, 2025 at
IslandWood
4450 Blakely Avenue NE, Bainbridge Island WA
1 to 4 pm; Doors at 12:30.
This year’s Environmental Conference is a celebration of community science that engages, informs, and helps our community prepare for the upcoming City Nature Challenge! Megan Rohrssen of the Bainbridge Island Land Trust and Christina Woolf from IslandWood will speak about multiple local current projects that rely on community engagement to identify and monitor our local natural ecosystems and resources. We will celebrate the community activism of a local couple receiving this year’s Environmentalist of the Year award, a 20-year Environmental Conference Tradition. And we’ll have displays and walking tours that help participants how to use the tools and skills of observation to help gear our Island up for the City Nature Challenge at the end of April (more about this challenge below).
Conference Agenda
12:30: Doors open and Check-in
1pm: Great Hall Program: Presentation of the 2025 BI Environmental Conference Award and Keynote speakers on Community Science on Bainbridge
2-2:30: Break for refreshments, visit tables for information about Island organisms and ecosystems, and. how to use Community Science Apps
2:30-4: Guided walking taxa tour to learn how to make and record observations about various organisms and ecosystems
City Nature Challenge
One of the main objectives of this year’s Environmental Conference is to get participants excited about and trained for City Nature Challenge. City Nature Challenge is a national, annual event that is an opportunity for everyone to participate in identifying and understanding the rich natural world that surrounds us. This year, City Nature Challenge takes place April 25-28. Any time during these 4 days, participants in the Challenge record and upload what they see using an easy-to use platform called iNaturalist (the Conference will include training on how to use this!).
City Nature Challenge is as easy as walking out your door any time in these four days and observing and recording what you see! There are also multiple events around Kitsap County that you can participate in to conduct observations in specific places likes parks, reserves, and open spaces. The list of events is still being populated and will be available soon on the City Nature Challenge events webpage.
The Bainbridge Island Environmental Conference is brought to you through the partnership of these Bainbridge Island organizations:
