Archives: Profiles
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Bioblitzes
One of the first steps to protect native plants and animals is making sure we understand where wildlife is located and how it’s distributed. A Bioblitz takes a snapshot of an ecosystem at a certain point in time — usually conducted over just a few hours or a few days — when team of observers gathers together…
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Natalia Greene
Natalia Greene is a political scientist with the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN). She promoted the recognition of the Rights for Nature in Ecuador’s Constitution and has worked on environmental and Indigenous aspects of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative to keep oil underground in the Amazon. She was previously the president, and is currently…
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Javier Robayo
Javier Robayo is the executive director of Fundación EcoMinga, a nonprofit which maintains over 27,000 acres of protected areas in Ecuador’s Chocó and Tropical Andes. As a biologist and educator, he has led more than 200 research and teaching expeditions in Ecuador. His extensive, collaborative field work has led to the discovery of more than…
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Callie Broaddus
Callie Broaddus is founder and executive director of Reserva: The Youth Land Trust, which empowers young people to help protect threatened species and habitats through conservation, education, and storytelling. Reserva’s Dracula Youth Reserve in Ecuador is said to be the world’s first, entirely youth-funded reserve. Broaddus is a member of the Rainforest Trust Council, the…
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Longleaf Pines
Longleaf pine forests once spanned 90 million acres of the southeast United States. Early colonists relied heavily on the pines as materials for shipbuilding: the trees’ tall, sturdy, and straight trunks being the perfect material for ship masts, and their resin was used as tar. By 1970, only 3% of the original forests remained. Many…
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Jesse Wimberley
Jesse Wimberley is a fourth-generation landowner and burner from Moore County, North Carolina. For the past 35 years, he has been engaged in restoring his family’s 1870 home and longleaf forestlands. Part of his restoration efforts include bringing together neighbors and the local community in returning fire to the landscape. As a result, Wimberley has…
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Jessie Schillaci
Jessie Schillaci is the red-cockaded woodpecker program manager at Fort Liberty Endangered Species Branch. Her 19 years monitoring RCWs on Fort Liberty Military Installation have helped to promote a broader understanding of the compatibility of military training and ecosystem management in this unique fire-driven system. She contributes to North Carolina Sandhills Conservation Partnership efforts, citizen…
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Reintroductions
The process of releasing a species back into its natural habitat, after its population has suffered significant declines or local extinction, is called reintroduction. The methods are often very hands-on: scientists either breed captive populations from surviving individuals, or caretakers move wild individuals from places where they still thrive to a new location. Once there,…
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Wetlands
A wetland is defined as an ecosystem in which the soil is saturated with water, or flooded for at least part of the year. From coastal mangroves and salt marshes to inland bogs and river basins, wetlands are home to unique species assemblages and serve as critical habitats for migratory birds. They also perform vital…
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Ecosystem Engineers
Any species that extensively shapes its physical environment, creating new habitat for other species in the process, is called an ecosystem engineer. Examples include beavers, whose dams form wetlands upstream; American alligators, whose burrows serve as drinking water sources and hiding places for other animals; and coral, whose massive reefs serve as literal bedrock for…
