There’s no shortage of ideas for great nature photography and conservation projects. And there are certainly many problems to address. What’s often lacking is funding, especially in a pandemic. If you have a peer-reviewed environmental project, the NANPA Foundation’s Philip Hyde Conservation Grant might be right up your alley.
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Among many important projects, the NANPA Foundation offers two grants each year: the Philip Hyde Conservation Grant and the Janie Moore Greene Scholarship Grant. The deadline for both grants is 11 PM Eastern Time tomorrow, October 31st, 2019. Although that’s not a lot of time, the grant application forms are not onerous and can be completed with a few hours effort. So, if you are a student studying photography in college or are either planning or in the midst of a conservation photography project, this is your chance for some financial assistance that can have a real impact on what you’re doing!
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A true spectacle of biodiversity, freshwater hosts a teeming collage of colors, shapes and behaviors. These flowing waters are essential to life. Yet, as a society dependent upon this vital resource, how often do we look beneath the water’s surface? Over the last ten years, Freshwaters Illustrated has worked to document the vibrancy and wonder of life found in the rivers and streams of Southern Appalachia, North America’s most biologically-rich waters. This unique region harbors the world’s richest temperate fish fauna and is home to the highest diversity of freshwater mussels, snails, crayfish and salamanders on the planet. Highlighting this great variety, Freshwaters Illustrated created its newest feature film, Hidden Rivers, which follows the work of conservation biologists and explorers throughout the region and reveals both the beauty and vulnerability of these ecosystems.
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Leopard frog in the Anacostia River watershed, Washington DC metro area.
Applications are now being accepted for NANPA Foundation’s Philip Hyde Grant, a $2,500 award given annually to an individual NANPA member actively pursuing completion of a peer-reviewed environmental project featuring natural photography as a medium of communication, nature appreciation and environmental protection. Application deadline is October 31, 2017 at 11:59pm EDT. Continue reading
Bright orange Tennessee shiners surround a stoneroller on a chub nest in the West Fork of the Pigeon River in Smoky Mountain National Park. Both species take advantage of nests built by chubs, and use them to deposit their eggs in. © David Herasimtschuk
I awkwardly clamber up the cobble and bedrock of a swift Southern Appalachian River. My senses and thoughts are continually captivated by the life that call these forests home. Small slimy salamanders scurry along the bank as the heavy buzz of cicadas flood the sweet Southern air, all a pleasant reminder of the unique diversity that is supported by these ecosystems. However, to truly understand how special Southern Appalachia is you have to look below the water’s surface.
As I hike up river, occasionally looking for glimpses of what might be lurking in the small rapids and pools, all I see from above are fleeting dark shadows that seem to blend in with the patterns of the water. From the surface, these rivers can appear as lifeless bands of bedrock and boulders, as if that’s where the forest’s life stops. But looks can be deceiving, and as every photographer knows, perspective is everything. Hidden beneath the surface of Southern Appalachia’s rivers and streams lives one of the greatest assemblages of freshwater life found anywhere on this planet. Continue reading