By Dr. Susan Perz, Photo by Jimmy Cash.
On October 6, 2021, the Conservation Committee of Georgia Nature Photographers Association presented its first statewide webinar about conservation by introducing the concept of Citizen Science with 6 speakers! Featured guest speakers were Caroline Nickerson from Sci-Starter and Andrew Snyder, who is Co-Chair of NANPA’s Conservation Committee and a wildlife biologist with Re-Wild. Several of the GNPA Conservation Committee members made presentations. Susan Perz coordinated the webinar, hosted by the Alpharetta Chapter with a brief introduction by Lee Friedman. Susan spoke about endangered species, camera traps and time lapse photography. Committee Chair Marcia Brandes shared Tammy Cash’s presentation on bird banding and the importance of reporting banded birds viewed in the wild. The presentation was illustrated with images captured by Tammy and Jimmy Cash, Jenny Burdette, and others. Chris Dahl presented his photos from a hummingbird banding event. Tom Wilson gave a presentation about amatuer astronomers and astrophotography, and the impact their images can have on Citizen Science. He shared some of the equipment he uses and how some of his images have been used by scientists/astronomers. Tom is a former GNPA Vice President and Chair of the Conservation Committee, and currently serves as the Communication Committee. The event was well attended online, and recorded for future viewing! The GNPA Conservation committee is proud to announce this webinar is now available for public viewing at the link below, as well as a list of resources related to the webinar.
A few resources from the webinar:
Carolyn Nicholson, a Senior Program Director with SciStarter.org recommends the following SciStarter.org conservation/nature related projects:
- iNaturalist (https://scistarter.org/inaturalist ),
- ISeeChange ( https://scistarter.org/iseechange),
- Land Loss Lookout ( https://scistarter.org/land-loss-lookout),
- Budburst ( https://scistarter.org/budburst),
The Great Sunflower Project ( https://scistarter.org/the-great-sunflower-project)
Susan Perz, Ph.D., Webinar Coordinator and Member of the Conservation Committee, presented 3 topics: Endangered Species, Camera Trap Photography, and Time Lapse Photography.
Additional Related Resources:
James Balog TED Talk about Nature Photography and his project Chasing Ice, which uses camera traps and time lapse photography. https://www.ted.com/talks/james_balog_time_lapse_proof_of_extreme_ice_loss?language=en
Georgia Endangered Species: To submit data on endangered species in GA: https://georgiawildlife.com/conservation/species-of-concern
Florida Wildlife Commission produces annual reports on endangered species: https://myfwc.com/media/28338/2020-21endangeredspeciesreport.pdf
Camera Traps: The Jaguar Identification Project https://www.jaguaridproject.com
Camera Traps in Florida, The FStop Foundation, https://fstopfoundation.org. Their award-winning film about the Florida Wildlife Corridor is here: https://fstopfoundation.org/films-and-videos/
Chasing Ice https://chasingice.com
Sharing photos and videos with public schools for educational purposes. One of the videos that Susan Perz has shared with an elementary school is below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-gxw-JRMwk
