Last year, in my first blog post for UCS, I asked a question still on the minds of many Americans: “Do we still have a democracy?” Drawing on my previous work advocating for the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and my experience with the national NAACP as a policy analyst, I observed the relentless campaign to
Every Fourth of July my family goes on an adventure and this year we are going to Niagara Falls. The iconic falls in all their power and scale feel like an important destination for my kids’ formative years. Reflecting on 250 years As I prepare for the trip to this famed American tourist destination and
For years, Joshua Harkness and his family had seen American Woodcocks on their farm and forest property Perry Hill in Amenia, NY, but only at the tail-end of winter. 22926The woodcocks would arrive...
Decades of farmers using more fertilizer than they needed have quietly built up large reserves of nutrients in the soil.
Peerrnt! The nasal cry is sharp enough to penetrate traffic noise on the streets below. Looking up from the sidewalk, we see the source: a pigeon-sized bird with long, angular wings, brown with a...
Birds aren’t the only migrators: Dozens of North American insect species also undertake long-distance journeys seasonally, including beetles, moths, and grasshoppers. Best known, and...
In a world that is becoming increasingly more digitalized, where people find joy in other people's experiences through a screen and connect to nature using the next trend that appears on our social...
Conservation researchers will go to great lengths to survey birds—getting up before dawn, driving hours on back roads, undertaking grueling hikes—all for only a brief snapshot of which species or...
The chase starts when the rice field still looks like a kaleidoscope of molten-silver puddles under a pitch-dark sky. Here in Jamundí, sugarcane fields and rice crops stretch to the horizon...
Good news: If you’re familiar with bird photography, then you already have many of the skills and equipment required to photograph bugs. While often overlooked, insects and other arthropods can...
Birding connects us to the world around us as we search for and observe Earth’s stunning biodiversity. But why stop at birds? Insects and other arthropods may have a creepy-crawly reputation, but...
The chill of the February morning air nipped at Aiyana Uter’s face, bringing tears to her eyes as she lifted binoculars to examine the trees for flecks of blue. Alongside other members of Claflin...