Emily Poeschl’s Post

🦏✨ Meet some of the protagonists of my upcoming book – a tender moment frozen in time between a Rhino mother and her calf. This illustration isn't just a drawing; it’s a window into the profound bond that exists in the wild, telling a story of love, resilience, and the urgent need for conservation. 🌿💕 As we embark on a journey through pages filled with wildlife tales, this section opener is more than just art; it’s a call to cherish and protect these magnificent creatures and their natural habitats. With every stroke and color, I aim to bring you closer to understanding their world and the challenges they face. 📚 This Fall, prepare to explore the wild through my eyes and, perhaps, find a piece of your heart among the pages. Want to journey deeper into the wild with me? Stay tuned for more details on where and how you can grab your copy! 🐾🌍 Curious about the inspiration behind this piece and what other wonders await in the book? Send me a direct message – let’s ignite a conversation about conservation and the indomitable spirit of the animal kingdom! Like the post if you're as excited as I am, and don’t forget to share this journey with friends who share our passion for wildlife and conservation. 🌟 . . . . . #WildlifeIllustration #NatureInArt #ConservationStories #ProtectWildlife #ArtForACause #EcoFriendlyLiving #WildlifeAwareness #AnimalRightsArt #EcoWarrior #SaveTheRhinos #WildAndFree #NatureLovers #EcoConscious #SustainableArt

Late afternoon on September 22, 2023, I decided for the first time since my June 19, 2023, triple bypass surgery to bushwhack alone into my favorite riparian hardwood forest at the nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. I'm a student of this forest, attempting with each visit to learn more about its history, composition, dynamics, and future. I employ a woods-wandering technique I call sauntering. This Post presents observations, reflections, 14 photos, and three videos: https://lnkd.in/eHj3HPXF I offer these observations, from Albert W. Palmer's recollection of a conversation with John Muir: 1. How much better to "saunter" along this trail of life, to measure it in terms of beauty, love, and friendship! 2. How much finer to take time to know and understand the men and women along the way, to stop a while and let the beauty of the sunset possess the soul. 3. To listen to what the trees are saying and the songs of the birds, and to gather the fragrant little flowers that bloom all along the trail of life!   Nature-Inspired Life and Living; Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing! #environment #environmentaleducation #environmental #environmentalscience #natureconnection #forestry #conservation #conservationeducation #hiking #hikingtrails #ecology #nature #natureinspired #inspiredbynature #forests #alabama #refuge #naturepreserve #wildliferefuge

I visited the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge on several days before Christmas 2023. I never tire of the annual spectacle of thousands of sandhill cranes gathering from mid-November through mid-February, escaping the wicked winters of the Great Lakes region of the US and Canada. I am astounded by how few Huntsville residents know this National Geographic-scale wonder lies in our vicinity. Perhaps this photo essay will open a few eyes. I give you my observations, reflections, thirteen photographs, and three videos: https://lnkd.in/eHjzgvhf I offer these observations: 1. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. (Aldo Leopold) 2. Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. (Aldo Leopold) 3. I never tire of the annual spectacle of thousands of sandhill cranes gathering from mid-November through mid-February. Nature-Inspired Life and Living; Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing! #environment #environmentaleducation #environmental #environmentalscience #natureconnection #forestry #conservation #conservationeducation #hiking #hikingtrails #ecology #nature #natureinspired #inspiredbynature #forests #alabama #refuge #wildliferefuge #cranes #waterfowl #marshes

Can you hear the howls for Justice for Wolves that BOTH Political Parties ignore? If the basis of science is skepticism then the core of suspicion for both Democrats and Republicans, when it comes to protecting wolves, should be cynicism. Both parties continue using fake science and PR stunts to manipulate narratives as a slaughter of wolves continues, decimating remaining populations in the Northern Rockies. That’s why there’s a ‘Speak for Wolves conference’ this Fall. It is the longest standing, grassroots activist wildlife conference of its kind, connecting wolf advocates with experts and leaders in wildlife conservation and providing education on how attendees can help protect keystone species and remind voters to ask BOTH parties where they stand to #RelistWolves Registration is open soon! To add some optimism to this post join us to congratulate the recipient of the California Wolf Foundation’s first research grant, Vishal Subramanyan! Vishal Subramanyan is an award-winning wildlife photographer and undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley known for his stunning images of California nature-from elusive bobcats to rare badgers. Using camera traps, telephoto lenses, and other photography techniques, he captures unique imagery that raises awareness about conservation and inspires action. With an academic background in ecology, Subramanyan integrates science into his storytelling efforts to create deeply compelling stories. Vishal will be taking part in a collaborative new effort to capture some of the first ever high-quality photos of California's newly established wolf packs. This camera trap work will support research aimed at learning more about wolves in California and their role on the landscape. We are so excited to play a small role in supporting this work and cannot wait to see the images produced - we know they will be monumental! Please join us in congratulating Vishal and wishing this vitally important project success. Let’s unleash truth and the talents of youth to brandish the corrupt & greedy ways of older generation of humans. Congrats Vishal! Learn more about the #CAWolfFoundation https://lnkd.in/gnqH_J2T National Geographic UCLA California Natural Resources Agency Beyond Academia - UCBerkeley #UCLAHistoryGeographyProject #SouthwestWildlifeConservationCenter #naturelovers #wildliferehab #wolfconservation #insidenatgeo

"We have to remember that landscape without wildlife is just scenery." - Kris Tompkins ❌ So what we mostly see by now, especially in Europe, is scenery.  ↳ Not functioning ecosystems. It is one of those life lessons that shape you & change your perspective. I don't deny that a mountain, forest, lake or ocean is not mesmerizing. But it only truly gets magical when those sceneries are packed with life. You hopefully experienced this first hand before, when you were surprised by a swarm of birds, deer, dolphin, squirrel, bear etc. This feeling of aweeeee-ness. Yet, we got very accustomed to the sight of empty spaces. Time to change that. 💪 3 actions you can take to transform scenery -> vibrant ecosystems 1. Awareness - Next time you are in nature, reflect if you are looking at scenery or vibrant ecosystems + talk about your experience with friends ↳ Do you see many different species?  ↳ Do you have the feeling wildlife is abundant?  ↳ Did you see a board, information etc. that there are some predators? 2. Learn Locally - Polar bears, elephants & jaguars are cool, but so is the nature around your home (or it could be) ↳ Download apps like Merlin Cornell Lab of Ornithology & Seek iNaturalist to learn about your backyard ↳ Check out your closest forest, field, ocean what the current state is ↳ Try to figure out what animals used to be there ↳ Is there a way to protect what is left & bring back some animals? 3. Support Rewilding - Either with your time, skills or money, support the inspiring work of rewilding NGOs ↳ Kris Tompkins Rewilding: Tompkins Conservation ↳ Global Rewilding: Re:wild ↳ Europe Rewilding: Rewilding Europe  ↳ Directory of rewilding projects: Global Rewilding Alliance ↳ Ocean Rewilding: Seawilding I, for my part, don't want to live on a planet with just scenery & I have a feeling you neither. Good news is that we can still change our current path. So, let's get to work to transform scenery into vibrant ecosystems! P.S. What was your favorite moment when you were surprised by the sight of an animal/animals? P.P.S. I heard this quote on the WILD Foundation podcast with Kris Tompkins, where she talks about her rewilding work. Highly recommend! #biodiversity #nature #environment #rewilding 

The chapter I was involved with in grad school in central IL, the Grand Prairie Bird Alliance (formerly JWP Audubon) has also joined this list! In recent weeks, I have heard complaints about the name changes to both the bird species as recently announced by the American Ornithological Society, and to local chapter names independent of the national organization, in my new home of South Florida, both among participants on local bird walks and even among coworkers. The common qualms were the amount of administrative work needed to make all the name changes in terms of revising checklists and entire field guides, that they were stupid because what else would you call the bird (A name that actually describes the bird itself or some part of its biology?), or even that doing away with the old names, no matter how much baggage was attached to them, would be forgetting history. We have books and we have the internet so... no, changing a racist honorific bird name is not a removal of history. We have the resources and can look up the history behind those old names whenever we want to. Even more importantly, the groups impacted by the people bearing those names have not forgotten their history, because those names are a source of harm and oppression to this day. To Indigenous peoples, a Scott's Oriole harkens back to Gen. Winfield Scott and the Trail of Tears, upon which many people were forcibly relocated from their ancestral homelands. To Black people, all the birds that carry the name of John James Audubon are a reminder of slavery and pseudo-scientific racism. We cannot hope to unify everybody to care about and conserve the birds with species and organization names that are actively and systemically excluding certain groups from safely enjoying the outdoors. Will it be a lot of administrative work and revisions as we await the new common species names? Yes. Will it be a major learning curve for those of us who have been birding the longest, are not used to the changes, and have to relearn all the common names? Also yes. But what does that mean? At its heart, it means giving up the privilege some of us have of not having our love of nature or our place in nature being continuously questioned, or being much less likely to experience harassment in the field. As Detroit Bird Alliance executive director Gretchen Abrams has aptly stated, “As long as we have anything stopping us from having everyone in the fight for birds, birds lose.”

#owlkilling #owlslaughter #cultureofdeath #anthropocentrism #hubris #biophilia #life #love #reverenceforlife #loveofJesus My dear friends, vox clamantis in deserto. Once again the sanguinary spectacle of mindless US bureaucrats (yes, I know I repeat myself!) mandating the butchery of one species, ostensibly to permit the survival of another, is front and center. How fitting that the bureaucrats invoke the Nuremberg defense as an apologia for their savagery: “However, the Service [sic] has a legal and ethical responsibility to do all it can to recover northern spotted owl populations. Unless invasive barred owls are managed [sic], the federally listed northern spotted owl will be extirpated in all or a significant portion of its range.” Yes, in “managing”, a cowardly bowdlerization of massacring, we were only following orders. My God we are despicable. There are times when I greatly fear that Albert Schweitzer’s last warning will come to fruition, and sooner rather than later: “Man has lost the capacity to foresee and forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.” Let’s recap the bidding. One species of owl followed a trail blazed across the US by depredating, marauding settlers, loggers, hunters and others. This species arrived in the US northwest, where, thanks to continued depredations of wildlife habitats by us (mainly logging countenanced and acquiesced in by current bureaucrats), the remaining regional biosphere is insufficient to support this species and a smaller one is being outcompeted. And so, the culture of death prevails and the executioners prepare to administer the coup de grâce to untold hundreds of thousands of owls by rifle fire. Naturally, many of these creatures will not die instantaneously, but rather will linger and suffer cruelly before expiring. It won’t do. My dear friends, a reverence for life is an ethos that affirms life, that esteems every creature to be possessed of worth and value, that places an abiding duty on Homo sapiens to serve as stewards of God’s creation, ALL His creation. We are commissioned to protect, assist, and enhance life at every turn, at every opportunity. This much is beyond pellucid. It is an absolute certainty. So long as our species harbors the fallacious and lethal notion that the extirpation of a life is an acceptable solution to a problem, particularly one entirely of our own making (and aren’t they all?), for that period of time will we march in lockstep and quickstep towards the ignominious finality predicted by Schweitzer. Worse, we will have brought along countless other innocent beings on our death march. My dear friends, you must each and every one of you promote and proclaim a reverence for life as our ethos. Only our combined, unified voices will change the catastrophe looming ever larger. That is conferring the love of Jesus generously and globally. That is a reverence for life. Vita brevis. Malum longum est. Cum meo maximo amore.  

What happens when an apex #predator is absent? Research comparing Fort Hood, TX, where #pumas once lived, with current puma territory in the Santa Cruz Mountains found some clear differences in wildlife communities. For example, researchers found the relative abundance of coyotes, the next largest #carnivore after pumas, was 1250% greater in Ft Hood while the relative abundance of raccoons was over 3000% greater! How has the occurrence of other species changed following the loss of pumas, an important apex predator? Check out the full article below: https://lnkd.in/gwQGR_be #ecology #nature #california #mountainlion #puma #coyote #raccoon #wildliferesearch #cameratrap #wildlife

“𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 200 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑤𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛'𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑙. 𝐼𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝐽𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑉𝑖𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑎 𝐷𝑊𝑅 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑠 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑒𝑙𝑘 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑑. 𝑉𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑧𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑏𝑖𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑚𝑎𝑗𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑠. 𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑏𝑜𝑤 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 - 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑗𝑜𝑦, 𝐼'𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑦.” – 𝐀𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞, 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤 The mountains of Virginia’s Appalachian Plateau echo with a sound not heard in over a century - the bugle of bull elk. In this episode, Jackie Rosenberger, Elk Project Leader for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and Avery Rose, Elk Tour Manager for Breaks Interstate Park, trace the hoofprints of these majestic creatures from their local extinction to the present-day flourishing population that attracts visitors from around the country and beyond. The story of elk restoration is a narrative of resilience and ecological triumph that's etched into the very landscape of the region. Join us for a journey that's not only about the past and present of these magnificent animals, but also about the future they're shaping for Southwest Virginia. Let’s Go! https://lnkd.in/eQU8c8ap #elk #elkrestoration #elkbugle #bullelk #elkseason #elksheds #elkcountry #virginiawildlife #vawildlife #wildlifephotography #conservation #appalachia #southwestvirginia #appalachianmountains #swva #breakspark #virginiaoutdoors #virginia #LetsGo #adventure #visitvirginia #loveva #hike #hiking #virginiahiking #hikingvirginia #gooutside #getoutside #optoutside #podcast