by Tyler Knapp July 2019 Many people don’t realize that IAE has a Southwest Office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in addition to the main office in Corvallis, Oregon. For the past three years, IAE Southwest has offered a week-long summer conservation and botany training program for teens called Forest Bound. This program spans several […]
Who wins when a frog meets a bombardier beetle? And other Bioblitz discoveries
By Deborah Clark, IAE Board of Directors June 2019 Before I tell the story of the frog and the bombardier beetle, I want to share my mini-adventure at the 2019 Corvallis BioBlitz. What is a BioBlitz, you might ask? It is a celebration of biodiversity — a fun, family-friendly challenge to find and record as […]
Taylor’s checkerspot – the fair weather butterfly
By Andy Neill May 2019 Location: Benton County (Site names and locations excluded to protect sensitive species and habitats) Many of you are probably familiar with the Fender’s blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioides fenderi), sometimes used as the poster child of prairie restoration in Oregon and rightfully so. It is likely that some of you have […]
Welcome to Table Rocks, may I take your order?
By Cia Crowe and Eva Brod June 2019 Have you ever been so hungry that nearly everything around you reminds you of food? Well, that is exactly what happened to our crew while on top of Upper and Lower Table Rocks near Medford, Oregon this April. During our daily hikes up the steep switchbacks, throughout […]
Fender’s blue or silvery blue butterfly? And other entomological adventures
By Jessica Celis April 2019 IAE’s restoration ecologists tend to focus on plant communities. But this year, three of HR’s five restoration ecologists will shift their search image from plants to butterflies as they participate in the annual range-wide survey for Fender’s blue butterfly, which is funded each year by the US Fish and Wildlife […]
Meet the 2019 Conservation Research Interns!
by Miranda Geller May 2019 IAE 2019 Conservation Research Program Interns Eva, Erica, Cia, Rose and Crew Lead Miranda started on a typical gloomy spring day in Oregon, and have since been settling in and learning about what the season will bring for them. Eva, Cia, and Miranda will be traveling all over Oregon—from the […]
Snake River Correctional Institute Inmates sow 60,000 native plants for restoration
By Stacy Moore April 2019 At the Snake River Correctional Institution (SRCI) in Ontario, Oregon, inmate Whitecalf carefully waters hundreds of trays of soil sprinkled with minuscule sagebrush seeds. Nearby, two other inmates use a seeding tool to place approximately 5-7 seeds on top of the loam in each “conetainer,” a cone-shaped pot that allows […]
Como evitar los gatos si eres un ave migratoria y otras lecciones de los días de campo de Aulas sin Fronteras
por Stacy Moore y Dionné Mej̨ía Abril de 2019 Como parte del proyecto del Instituto para Ecología Aplicada (IAE) llamado Aulas Sin Fronteras, los estudiantes de las primarias bilingües (inglés-español) Lincoln y Garfield, ubicadas en Corvallis, Oregon, recientemente participaron en varias actividades de ciencias como parte de los días de campo en Bald Hill Farm. […]
Exploring pollinator conservation as an essential skill
by Michel Wiman April 2019 We at IAE feel that science education and the opportunity to steward our planet’s natural resources should be available to all. Recently, I was invited to give a workshop for the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Program out of Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon. The goal of the program […]
How to avoid cats if you’re a migrating bird, and other lessons from Classrooms Across Borders
by Stacy Moore and Dionné Mej̨ía April 2019 Click to read this blog in Spanish As part of IAE’s Classrooms Across Borders project, dual language (Spanish-English) immersion students from Lincoln and Garfield Elementary, schools located in Corvallis, Oregon, recently participated in a suite of outdoor science activities as part of all-day field trips to nearby […]
In search of the next generation of ecologists
By Denise Giles February 2019 It is always with a sense of excitement that we sort through applications looking for the team of seasonal interns that will contribute to our research, monitoring and restoration efforts. After 10 years of contributing to this process, I am always invigorated by the interest and passion for the natural […]
What native bees live in northern New Mexico? New bee inventory sheds light
By Olivia Carril, PhD, IAE partner and contractor February 2019 The southwest is often characterized by its stark beauty and vast landscapes. Here, rocks that sparkle in a ceaseless sun create a mosaic, from which sprout homely junipers and unwelcoming cacti. Mountains lie silently, 300 miles distant, the view of them uninterrupted by lush trees, […]
Four Reasons to Love Prairies
By Anna Ramthun February 2019 We talk a lot about prairie restoration at IAE. But why do we care about prairies? Why should you care about them? Although prairies don’t provide the obvious resources that forests do (no trees), and they do not provide the splashy benefits of wetlands (requiring folks to mitigate their losses), […]
The New Mexico Nature in Prisons Project: A Successful First Year
By Ella Samuel, Melanie Gisler, & Lillis Urban January 2019 More than 7,000 people are currently incarcerated in New Mexico state prisons, and this number is only projected to rise (See Source below; New Mexico prison population forecast, 2017). Despite a large and growing inmate population, New Mexico correctional facilities have few educational programs that […]
Teaching Animal Tracking in Juvenile Detention
By Tyler Knapp January 2019 How do you teach high school students about animal tracking if they are incarcerated, and can’t go out in nature? Well, you bring the tracks to them! On Wednesday January 9th, IAE Ecological Education Coordinator Tyler Knapp and Stacy Moore, Ecological Education Program Director, did just that at the Linn-Benton […]