By Mary Lundeberg

When I received a 2020 Philip Hyde Conservation Grant from the NANPA Foundation, I was both excited about using images to conserve threatened seabirds and shorebirds, and scared. How could I stay safe working with schools, and policymakers during a pandemic? Would libraries, nature festivals, and exhibits remain closed?  What I wanted to do was to use images to create awareness of beach-nesting birds, and encourage people to conserve them, and protect their habitat. I’d also hoped to raise awareness of problems shorebirds face, such as human disturbance, habitat loss, predation, climate change, red tide, and plastic pollution. Through my work as a bird steward and photographer, I recognized that some of the threats beach-nesting birds face are caused by people who unknowingly disturb them, so I envisioned educating teachers, students, beachgoers, and policymakers about these threatened species. I hoped that through environmental education, we might be able to raise a generation of people who care about the wildlife around them and respect them. My plan involved youth helping to solve the human disturbance problem through art and messages to the community.