I’m kind of surprised multiple people have mentioned Sacramento. To each their own, but for me, the best part of Sacramento is leaving. It’s within a couple hours driving distance to a lot of amazingly gorgeous and vibrantly biodiverse places (2 hours to Lake Tahoe, 4 hours to Yosemite, 1.5 to Point Reyes National Seashore, etc., etc.), but there’s not much in the city worth recommending, especially if you’re relying on public transit to get there.
Davis, CA on the other hand is fairly nice. There’s a nice arboretum trail that winds it’s way along Putah creek (though the creek could use a good cleaning), it’s got the UC Davis raptor center (which is normally open to the public. It’s been closed during the pandemic, however) and being primarily a college town it’s a little easier to get around with bikes and buses.
make your own green space and record observation from there like I do, my green space is a terrace with native plants and no pestcides with bunch of insects, birds to eat them and butterflies to lay egg on host plant that I have planted. It’s not bigger than area occupied by 3 cars on standing by their width, and you can do birding from any place where you can see the sky.
Washington, D.C. Rock Creek Park and its subsidiary parks are part of the National Park Service, and form a green forest corridor through the middle of the city. The Metro (subway) has stops nearby. Rock Creek Park was where I photographed my first Muskrat (not on iNaturalist).
We have - Table Mountain, a long coastline with kelp forest, our own plant kingdom, many endemics. First time we entered the City Challenge, in our Southern hemisphere off season - we won.
But Cape Town fails abjectly on public transport!
(We have an electric car as a compromise)
Cities & towns in the UK have green spaces. All have parks & I don’t think I’ve been to any which don’t have wilder greenspaces too. There’s usually bits of wildish woodland, linear greenspaces along streams or rivers. Most cities are compact enough that you’ll be able to get somewhere green quickly and walking out of the city is usually possible. When I’ve stayed overnight in a new city for work I’ve usually been able to find greenspace for a walk before or after work often in city centre locations. I usually look at google maps & OpenStreetMap to look for likely places. OSM being my preferred choice as it’s mapping of paths is better.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. You can access beach, park, trails, green space and more without a car. Using a car share you can easily hit the beach and the mountains in the same day. If I had to live in a city this is the one I would choose and I hate cities.
Where I live in Atlanta, I have access to two urban parks within walking distance, where I frequent if I just want to go for a relaxing walk or if I want to go iNatting.
In Hong Kong, urban parks are dotted all over, and have their fair share of biodioversity. Since public transportation is fantastic there it is very easy to access these places.
But overall different locations calls for different iNatting styles.
Minneapolis. 22 lakes, 3 creeks, and 1 mighty Mississippi River. 180 parks and 12 gardens with 55 miles of biking and walking paths. Those parks include 1 bird sanctuary, 1 wildflower garden, 1 formal garden that is fantastic for pollinators, and one quaking bog.
Much of the waterfront is public access. All of the lakes get migrating waterfowl, gulls, warblers, shorebirds, and the occasional nesting owls. Eagles are common occurrences as are Merlins, Cooper’s Hawks and Red-tailed Hawks. (in my neighborhood)
It is harder to find native wild areas (for plants) but there are lots of areas left to grow wild and I find a lot of stuff that is not cultivated. There are three holding/retention ponds around a lake near me. I estimated that, for 2021, I made 273 observations of 137 identified species in this general area (about 1,000,000 square feet in size). One of those species was a critically endangered bee. From that spot, I could throw a stone to hit cars on a major artery driving by and the airport is just a mile and a quarter from there. It is definitely URBAN with all the noise and bustle associated with a city.
Now, Minneapolis is part of a larger metropolitan area and if we expand the area just a little, we add two more major rivers (Minnesota and St. Croix) and they merge with the Mississippi in a great confluence. All of the rivers have extensive public access with much of it being under federal wildlife management or park services. And all those suburbs have their own lakes and park boards. My species count for what iNat classifies as the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metropolitan area is 988. The top observer for Mpls/StP has 3703 species. iNat has extended the boundaries a bit past what I would consider true urban. But that gives you an idea of what is available to us here. And if I try to squash down that bounding box it doesn’t reduce the species count by much so that tell you most of those were found in the cities proper.
Our limited light rail service will get you to a few of these places. Buses will get you to a bit more. Depending on where you live, you can walk to places. One lake and the creek is within easy walking distance of my house. If you’re willing to bike, you will have dozens upon dozens of places to visit where you will be in an urban environment but you have tons of things to see. Many of those bike paths hook up with trails in adjoining cities and there are plans to have bike paths along much of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers.
You just got to like the cold. Last night it was -23F.
Yeah. I’ve been to Philadelphia. I’ve heard mixed reports of some other US cities but NYC and Philly are the only two I’ve personally visited that have functional public transit.
I know I’m just being a cynic, but I’ve been in few dozen cities in America, Israel, and Europe* and America is by far the worst place not to have a car. The transit in NYC is among the best in the US but it is unimpressive in comparison to Tel Aviv or Grenada. Many large cities have barely the semblance of public transit. In rural areas it doesn’t exist at all.
(*And yes, I’m aware that in of itself is a privelege but at least I can offer first person testament)
All places have wonderful biodiversity. Many have parks and reserves. Cities included. But if you can’t get there without a car, in your case it would be exceedingly difficult to avail yourself of that diversity.
Welcome to the forum (and @kevintoo). Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada is a couple of hours north of @mmmiller . 700,000 people, located at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. It’s an interesting location - sort of on the boundary between Boreal forest and Great plains. Lots of parks, and most of the riverbanks are wild, except for homeless ‘encampments’. Public transport is not great, but can get you to park places if you have the time. Cycling is a bit of a nightmare, with few dedicated cycling paths that actually go to someplace. I used to bike to work in various places, and have experienced bike lanes that just stop, and Winnipeg drivers are stupid. It’s table top flat, though. Part of the problem with this city is that for 7 or so months it is frozen, and really only birds and a few mammals are out and about.
Personally I’m tired of the place, but don’t envision a move any time soon. So I make the best of it along the Red River.
most university campuses are designed for foot travelers if they have dorms - I do most of my iNatting on a campus in Lennoxville, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada - there’s 3 rivers nearby and hunting isn’t allowed on campus so the deer are around frequently - I will continue looking at this thread though since I don’t know how to drive and would like to know what cities have nice green spaces. Ironically I have also found the little islands of green in many parking lots can host some plants that sparrows and bees like so just generally keep an eye out.
We visited Seattle in the mid 90s and public transportation was abundant in and out of the city. They have a free downtown bus still, and rain forest and mountain habitats are nearby including national parks.
We visited San Francisco a few times in the 90s and found it easy to get around with amazing habitats in all directions.
We have heard Vancouver, BC, is amazing for livability and nature as you describe.
ANY vacant lot or otherwise neglected, unmowed land – the weedier the better – will be a paradise for observing pollinators and other arthropods. You might even find some native plants reasserting their claim. If you see a few birds hanging around, that’s a good sign that there are bugs and seeds available to them. I love vacant lots!
Toronto is one of the greenest cities in the world, and has endless urban parks with flourishing populations of native species. The Rouge National Urban Park is a perfect example; a slice of untouched nature just 20 minutes or so from the city centre.
Read “Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution” by Menno Schilthuizen. You’ll see human shaped habitats and their inhabitants diffrently afterwards.