Field Notes: Conservation Impact Stories

From a Pioneer’s Journals to Hard-to-Gather Field Data

by Chrissy Very | October 16, 2026 | biodiversity, citizen science, hiking | 0 Comments

Skookum Dave spends his days transcribing a pioneer's journals about the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Then he hikes the same ground to place wildlife recorders. My name is Skookum Dave, and I'm haunted by a man named George F. Wright. I'm a volunteer for the...

Planting Hope Beneath the Surface for the Next Generation

by Chrissy Very | October 10, 2026 | community, conservation, coral, ocean, oceans | 0 Comments

Andrea Calix traded volunteer hours for dive training on Roatán. Now she monitors the reef she hopes her daughter will inherit. A volunteer records data along a transect during a reef survey. Ask Andrea Calix why community members should be the ones collecting...

Where Our Coral Reef Network Began: A New Film from Mexico’s Pacific Coast

by Chrissy Very | October 9, 2026 | community, conservation, coral, film festival, oceans | 0 Comments

A new short film follows the volunteer divers who monitor coral reefs in Bahía de Banderas, on Mexico's Pacific coast where our Latin American reef network started in 2020.Our new short film follows a coral reef monitoring team in Bahía de Banderas, on the Pacific...

Whitebark Pine Conference Recap from Forest Programs Manager, Lila

by Chrissy Very | October 6, 2026 | community, conservation, tree health & resilience, whitebark pine, women | 0 Comments

Landing in South Lake Tahoe for the first time ever felt like a full-circle moment. If we haven't met: I'm Lila Sadler, Forest Programs Manager at Adventure Scientists. This wasn't my first Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation (WPEF) conference, but it was my first...

5 Things a PNW Volunteer Wishes He’d Known Before Backcountry Trekking

by Chrissy Very | September 25, 2026 | adventure trekking, citizen science, hiking, pacific northwest | 0 Comments

Christian Murillo spent his summer bushwhacking off-trail through Pacific Northwest forests to retrieve wildlife recorders. Here are the five tips he wants you to know before backcountry trekking for science.Christian Murillo is a nature photographer that has spent...

Filling the Whitebark Pine Data Gap

by Chrissy Very | September 23, 2026 | pacific northwest, protect, skiing, snow, tree health & resilience, whitebark pine | 0 Comments

A volunteer on skis can find what the Forest Service can't easily reach. Here's how ski tourers and splitboarders are closing the whitebark pine data gap.Somewhere in the Oregon Cascades, a Forest Service crew is deciding which trees to climb. Cage the cones on the...