Compete
Take part for a chance to win gift-card prizes while helping build a trusted record of UMD’s living landscape.
Categories
Garden Crawl Challenge
Be the first to submit a valid entry from every Garden Submission Area.
Tie-breaker: Earliest verified completion of all Garden Submission Areas.
Daily Visitor
Build the longest Daily Visitor streak during the event. A day counts toward your streak when you submit valid entries from at least five distinct Garden Submission Areas. Missing a day ends your streak.
Tie-breakers: Most distinct Garden Submission Areas visited during the qualifying streak, then earliest completion of the final qualifying day.
Explorer
Earn the most Explorer Days during the event. You earn one Explorer Day by submitting valid photos from at least two different Garden Submission Areas on the same day. Explorer Days do not need to be consecutive.
Tie-breakers: Most distinct Garden Submission Areas visited during the event, then the highest total number of distinct Garden Submission Areas represented across all qualifying days, then earliest completion of the final Explorer Day.
Nature in Focus
Capture the Arboretum’s natural beauty in your most compelling photograph. Submit a photo that highlights its gardens, plants, wildlife, landscapes, or seasonal character. We’ll select the top three photos that showcase creativity, thoughtful composition, a connection to nature, and visual impact.
Rules
What is a Garden Submission Area?
A Garden Submission Area is a geofenced boundary around one or more gardens on UMD's Arboretum campus. It defines where a Submission must be captured to qualify for competition categories and prize eligibility.
Photos captured with Proofmode include cryptographically signed location and capture-time data. This data is used to verify the authenticity of a Submission and confirm where and when it was captured.
Any Submission captured within the UMD campus boundary is eligible for the event. However, only those captured within an approved Garden Submission Area qualify for competition categories.
Refer to the event map for the current boundaries of each Garden Submission Area.
What counts as a Submission?
A Submission is a photo captured with Proofmode's in-app camera, containing a valid C2PA signature, and submitted during the event period, October 9th - November 8th, 2026
To be eligible, a Submission must be captured within the UMD campus boundary, have an on-chain Attestation, be uploaded to and retrievable from IPFS, and pass reviewer approval. Submissions . All Submissions appear on the Public Submission map and must also comply with the event’s content and conduct rules map.
What is a Qualifying Entry?
A Qualifying Entry is a Submission captured within an approved Garden Submission Area.
There is no limit to the number of Submissions you can make during the event. However, only Qualifying Entries count for prize eligibility.
What about taking multiple photos from a single Garden Submission Area in a day?
You may submit multiple photos from the same Garden Submission Area on the same calendar day. For the Garden Crawl Challenge, Daily Visitor, and Explorer categories, only one Qualifying Entry from each Garden Submission Area per participant per calendar day is used to determine a winner.
This does not impact the selection of a photo for Nature in Focus.
Can my submission be rejected?
Yes. We may reject a submission that violates event rules. Rejected Submissions are removed from the Public Submission Map and do not count in the competition or prize eligibility. Submissions captured outside the UMD campus boundary are automatically rejected. Note, rejected Submission metadata remain on the blockchain and photos can remain retrievable through IPFS.
What are the prizes?
Participants have a chance to win from a total pool of up to $1,000 in gift cards and prizes across the four competition categories.