瓜神app

Lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic motivated some people to pick up new hobbies, like baking or knitting. Lauren Pharr turned to bird blogging.

鈥淸I was] in my house, just twiddling my thumbs,鈥� Pharr said. 鈥淚 was just kind of like, 鈥極h, let鈥檚 start a blog and start sharing all of my birding info鈥�.鈥�

Pharr is a PhD student and avian ecologist at North Carolina State University pursuing a degree in fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology. During lockdown, she started blogging about her research, which investigated the impacts of light and noise pollution on bird survival.

鈥淭here were a ton of people who would reach out to me to say, 鈥榃ow, I never knew how light pollution could impact birds,鈥� and wanting to know how to fix these environmental issues,鈥� Pharr said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 like the icing on the cake right there, because it lets me know you鈥檙e wanting to fix this problem. You鈥檙e wanting to be part of the solution.鈥�

A year later, Pharr posts regularly on her and accounts about birding. She is an intern with the North Carolina Sea Grant and has written several blog posts for The Nature Conservancy鈥檚

But as a Black birder, science communication has grown to be about more than sharing research for Pharr. 滨迟鈥檚 also about visibility: letting her roughly 6,000 Twitter followers and 6,000 Instagram followers know about her experiences as a Black birder, and the ground that remains to be covered when it comes to keeping her safe in the field.

Protection in the Field

On May 25, 2020, in Central Park, science writer and birdwatcher Christian Cooper asked a woman named Amy Cooper to leash her dog as per the park rules. She refused and called the police, telling them repeatedly that 鈥渁n African American man was threatening her life.鈥� Christian Cooper filmed the encounter, which went on social media as an example of racial profiling.

Christian Cooper was birdwatching at the time of the incident, but the experience of being questioned for being outdoors while Black is not uncommon. During scientific fieldwork, Pharr says this means researchers must have their personal safety in mind whenever they step outside to collect data.

J. Drew Lanham is the alumni distinguished professor of wildlife ecology at Clemson University and has been teaching there for over 20 years. He feels that research universities are lacking when it comes to adequate protections in the field for Black researchers.

鈥淚 think institutions are still largely blind to [the need for additional field safety measures], in part because there are so few students of color doing field work,鈥� Lanham said. 鈥淔or Black students, there are so few that the questions are hardly ever asked.鈥�

Murry Burgess is a graduate research assistant at North Carolina State University and is studying fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology like Pharr. Her research focuses on the effects of manmade light sources, like city lights, on the growth of barn swallow chicks.

Murry Burgess

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Murry Burgess

Burgess conducts her research in a rural community west of Raleigh, and she often sees Confederate flags on the route to her research site. To her, a lack of field safety can prevent Black students from considering careers in the natural sciences.

鈥淚f you don鈥檛 feel safe or comfortable doing the work, that鈥檚 going to potentially deter you from doing the work,鈥� Burgess said.

In mid-May, Burgess submitted a video recording to the board of NC State鈥檚 Natural Resources Foundation, where she advocated for better field safety measures for students of color. One of the ideas Burgess suggested was a magnetic bumper sticker that she could put on her field vehicle to identify herself as an NCSU student conducting official research.

Following the video submission, the board put Burgess鈥� idea into action. At the end of May, Burgess鈥� research advisor Caren Cooper designed and ordered a large magnet for Burgess to place on her car door and identify herself as a university researcher when she is out in the field. The magnets are not yet widely available from the university, but Burgess hopes student interest will motivate the school to make them accessible to all field researchers.

To tackle field safety at a systemic level, Lanham advises institutions to recruit a more diverse pool of students, so that faculty and staff can become more aware of the resources necessary to cater to each student鈥檚 needs. He also emphasizes the need for institutions to be upfront about field safety when they are introducing students to a new project, and make sure students aren鈥檛 hesitant to ask about safety and communications measures.

鈥淥n the one hand, you want to be treated fairly, but you don鈥檛 want to be treated the same,鈥� said Lanham. 鈥淔or a Black female student, for example, to be treated like a white male student in terms of safety considerations鈥�that鈥檚 a big blind spot.鈥�

To address safety concerns relating to birding, the National Audubon Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to bird conservation, is putting together a national field safety manual, as well as field safety trainings that universities could offer to students in the future. The Society plans to offer trainings on topics such as deescalation in the field and the culture of field safety, and will train its members first before attempting to open the trainings to local chapters and partners.

Alison Holloran, executive director at Audubon Rockies and a vice president of the National Audubon Society, is one of the core members involved in developing the training. She says their format and content are still in development but that their goal is to equip birders with the resources they might need to protect their physical and emotional safety in the field.

鈥淭he [Black and Indigenous People of Color] community has been overlooked for a very long time,鈥� Holloran said. 鈥淭hey tend to face a lot of things that their white counterparts don鈥檛. So making sure that they鈥檙e heard and that we鈥檙e addressing issues across the board is really our mission.鈥�

Science Communication for Field Safety

In response to Christian Cooper being racially profiled in Central Park, over 30 Black scientists and naturalists founded in 2020: five days of virtual events aiming to start discussions about safety in the outdoors. The event occurred again in 2021 from

Michelle Jusino

Prior to Black Birders Week in 2020, Pharr had about 2,000 followers on Instagram and 1,000 on Twitter. After being highlighted as a birder during the week, her follower counts began to increase, and she received questions and interview requests from people looking to learn more about her work. That push motivated her to post more regularly on social media about her research, and set her on her journey as a science communicator.

Using social media to share her experiences allows Pharr to reach a wider group of people, and educate her audience about issues they might not have noticed before.

鈥淲ith Black Birders Week, there were a ton of people who were like, 鈥榃ow, I never knew this was happening. I never knew this was a problem,鈥欌�� said Pharr. 鈥淭hat awareness, I think, is everything. That鈥檚 what starts people to be like, 鈥極kay, this needs to change.鈥欌��

Lanham as a speaker in 2020. He values the ability of social media to amplify a message to a greater audience but doesn鈥檛 see it as the only way to create social change.

鈥淸Social media] is not the end-all, be-all,鈥� Lanham said. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e in the 21^st century, and we have to understand that social media is an extraordinarily powerful leverage [and] tool for expansion if used properly.鈥�

Lanham stresses the importance of recognizing Black birders who have been active in the field for years, but who may not be present on social media. He sees birders on social media as a sample size rather than representing the whole of the birding community, and looks at social media as one facet of the larger fight to make birding a more equitable and safe field.

He notes that all activism work may not go viral: grassroots efforts to build relationships with university staff or understand existing university safety policies might not gain instant gratification on Twitter or Instagram, but are just as crucial.

鈥淭he work only begins when you say, 鈥業鈥檓 out here as a Black birder,鈥欌�� Lanham said. 鈥淲hat I hope happens with the great movement of Black Birders Week is that beyond that, people don鈥檛 throw away the ability to join together in ways that are not social media applicable, but that are nonetheless ways that work gets done, so that policy gets changed.鈥�'

A Multi-Faceted Approach

Murry Burgess

In addition to her research and communications work, Burgess is a children鈥檚 book author. She self-published her first book, 鈥淲hy Wolves Howl,鈥� in 2017, and is working on her second book, titled 鈥淪parrow Learns Birds,鈥� about a 5-year old Black girl named Sparrow who learns to identify the bird species in her neighborhood. 鈥淪parrow Learns Birds鈥� will be published by Christy Ottaviano Books, housed under Little, Brown Books.

Burgess hopes the book will get young Black girls excited about the natural world, and plans to write future installments where Sparrow explores reptiles and the rest of the animal kingdom.

鈥淎s I entered my college experience, I learned how little [Black women] are represented,鈥� Burgess said. 鈥淚 want future generations of scientists to have somebody to look up to and see, 鈥極h, a Black woman is doing this thing: maybe I can do this thing as well.鈥欌��

Pushes for representation and visibility take many forms, but Burgess sees all of the efforts鈥攆rom participating in Black Birders Week to advocating for institutional protections鈥攁s united under a common goal.

鈥淚 do feel like they鈥檙e all linked together, from the smallest level of just having interests in outdoor activities to the higher levels of academia and research,鈥� Burgess said. 鈥淚 would really love for all of those areas to be more equitable, more safe鈥�more accessible as well.鈥�

Pharr plans to keep using her social media to show her followers the birds of North Carolina. She recently studying the red-cockaded woodpecker, and wants to continue educating people about her research and talking about diversity in birding.

鈥淭hese are difficult subjects to talk about, but I feel like we鈥檙e sort of reaching that point where we can sit down and have these educational conversations,鈥� said Pharr. 鈥淲here way back when, people didn鈥檛 want these conversations to be touched.鈥�