The California Urban Nature Alliance (UNA) brings together California communities, organizations, and institutions to celebrate urban nature through shared learning, inclusive research, and intergenerational connection. Current members of the alliance include the San Diego Natural History Museum, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Schell Lab at UC Berkeley.
UNA centers people—especially local, Tribal, and historically-underrepresented voices—in shaping, understanding, and taking pride in urban environments. Together, we support community-led conservation, build meaningful partnerships and collaboration, and expand access to the knowledge and resources that help urban biodiversity and culture thrive.
UNA is where communities, institutions, and practitioners across California can come together to care for and understand urban nature in ways that are inclusive, rooted in local knowledge, and informed by long-term data. By combining our strengths, we hope to shift how urban environments are studied, valued, and supported—building a more just and connected relationship between people and the places they live.
In San Diego, scientists from The Nat are investigating the biological diversity of our city through the Healthy Canyons Initiative. Our scientists are teaming up with communities to document the plants and animals living in the canyons and engage locals as stewards of these urban green spaces. The Nat is also collaborating with state agencies, nonprofits, universities, and military bases to improve coastal resilience in dunes and canyons. This new project will create Nature-based Solutions capacity building resources to support an equity-first approach to climate adaptation and restoration planning.
In the San Francisco Bay area, the California Academy of Sciences is bringing together a diverse and growing group of almost 40 nonprofit, city, state, and educational organizations to improve the ecological health of the city and equitably distribute access to nature with the unprecedented new Reimagining San Francisco alliance. The Academy will further activate and engage communities through the continuation of the annual City Nature Challenge, one of the world’s largest community science events. This event was started in 2016 by the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and The Nat has been a longtime participant. In 2025, the challenge engaged over 66,000 people across six continents to make more than 1.8 million wildlife observations using the free mobile app iNaturalist, providing critical data for scientists and policymakers to further study, understand, and protect the natural world.
In Los Angeles, the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) has a long tradition of working in partnership with the community to study urban green spaces through their Community Science Program. In 2012, they initiated BioScan, the world’s largest urban biodiversity study, and in 2016, in partnership with the California Academy of Sciences, they launched the City Nature Challenge. The NHMLAC played an instrumental role in studying and honoring P-22, a famous mountain lion, and continues to partner with community members and groups to study, explore, and celebrate nature in Los Angeles. Their deep history and continued work will lend critical expertise to UNA and ensure California’s largest city is well represented.