|
Catch up on the latest LightHawk news 
October 2023 Featured mission: Providing the aerial perspective over western Oregon
Tidal marshes downstream from the various forest sites along the Oregon Coast. Photo by Casey Kulla. In early October, LightHawk volunteer pilot Jane Rosevelt took writer Jenna Butler on a flight above western Oregon to get a sense of the landscape, forests, and forest management. The flight was conducted in partnership with Oregon Wild. Oregon Wild is an organization that works to protect and restore Oregon's wildlands, wildlife, and water. They partner with the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University to provide an Environmental Writing Fellowship to one scholar each year. The focus of this year's fellowship is the critical relationship between climate change and forests in Oregon's Coastal Range and will result in a portfolio of written work on this topic. 
Different management and ownership of Oregon Coast Range forests. Photo by Casey Kulla. Jenna Butler, this year's Environmental Writing Fellow, is an author and scholar based in Alberta, Canada, whose research focuses on endangered ecosystems. During her year-long Fellowship, Jenna has described the focus of her work as providing a look at the ways in which communities interact with, alter, and protect the climate forests of Oregon's Coastal Range and drawing connections to the ways in which communities interact, alter, and struggle to protect the boreal forests in northern Canada. The book which Jenna plans to write as part of her fellowship will tie together themes related to differences in land use and environmental protections and the increasing occurrence of fire from a warming climate. 
Oregon Coast Range foothills meet the Willamette Valley west of Philomath. Photo by Casey Kulla. Oregon Wild is a long term partner of LightHawk's and we were excited to provide a flight to contribute to Jenna's understanding of forest management and ecological impacts to forests in a way that is only possible from gaining an aerial perspective. Following the flight, Jenna shared, "The LightHawk flight was an incredible opportunity to see the various forestry management strategies and burn sites from the air and to hold them in direct visual contrast in a way I couldn't just by reading books and articles for my research." Both Jenna and Casey Kulla from Oregon Wild commended volunteer pilot Jane Rosevelt for a fantastic flight and thanked her for sharing her vast knowledge of the area. 
Photos by Casey Kulla. LightHawk in the News
LightHawk Photo of the Month
Photo by Alexander Heilner A flight earlier this month took photographer Alexander Heilner over parts of the Colorado River and Colorado River Delta. His primary goal was to document the original delta of the Colorado River, in Mexico. A second goal for this flight was to photograph the agricultural region around the Arizona / Mexico border, south and southwest of Yuma. Heilners photos are both artistic and activist, illustrating the many conservation issues surrounding the Colorado River and inspiring people to act to preserve this important watershed. Thanks to volunteer pilot Will Worthington for providing this flight. Support LightHawk and make conservation fly! 
LightHawk's mission is as important today as it has ever been. Working with partners across the country, we're bringing the gift of aviation to conservation issues. Thanks to LightHawk and its community of volunteer pilots, our conservation partners are able to accomplish more, in less time - preserving important resources. Your gift lifts our wings and brings success to projects sooner. You can make conservation fly! |
