Please join us tomorrow, Tuesday for the Athens Area Birders March program!

Ohio University graduate student Tess Herman speaks about her work producing a video documentation about an interoceanic canal project in Nicaragua and its impacts on resident birds and North American migrants. 

Chat and snacks at 6.30 pm, program starts at 7:00 pm. 
ODNR building, 360 East State Street, Athens, OH 45701
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Tuesday, 6 March 2018 – Monthly AAB program
Challenge of Managing Conservation Threats Abroad - Case of the Nicaraguan Canal - with Tess Herman

Tess Herman discusses her experience producing media about the environmental impacts of a proposed inter-oceanic canal in Nicaragua. She partnered with Central American friends and the National Audubon Society to raise awareness about this project that could have devastating impacts on unique habitats and birds. Tess will encourage a discussion with the audience about how to best approach threats abroad.   

Tess Herman is a graduate student at Ohio University. In Environmental Studies, she  conducts research for the development of systems that turn organic waste into natural gas. In Journalism, she studies video-storytelling. After she received an Undergraduate Degree in Cultural Anthropology and a Minor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University Colorado at Boulder, Tess worked as a teaching assistant on a college study abroad program in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.  She taught about global sustainability and tropical conservation biology. Much of her time was spent in the rainforest taking pictures of the incredible biodiversity around her.  She also worked as a field assistant monitoring bird, bat, and feline biodiversity in the cloud forest. While working in Central America in 2013, Tess heard that the Nicaraguan government had granted the rights to a Hong-Kong based company to build an inter-oceanic canal through their country before an environmental impact assessment was conducted. Tess and her local friends decided to do a video project about this topic to try and get the word about and encourage discourse and reflection about the potential impacts and benefits of this megaproject. Her film team partnered with the National Audubon Society to produce informational segments about how this project could impact resident bird species in Nicaragua, as well as North America's overwintering migrants. 
After the production of this piece, Tess moved to Southern California for two years to teach urban students about terrestrial and ocean ecology on Catalina Island. On a kayak trip one day a friend told her about Athens, Ohio where she decided to move and complete her education. Tess hopes to produce science films to help create a greater understanding of the amazing planet we have and therefore encourage people to take better care of it.


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Dr. Stefan Gleissberg
Athens Area Birders
groups.io/g/athensbirders <http://groups.io/g/athensbirders>
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