Why Does It Matter Who Birds?

“Matters of Inclusion & Culture in The Field of View”

by Dr. Drew Lanham

Zoom talk given at the Hoffmann Bird Club of Berkshire County, MA on 2/1/21.

Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/nhPVR5zODOI

Dr. J. Drew Lanham is a writer, birder, hunter, and naturalist wandering on the edge of the Blue Ridge in the Upper Piedmont of South Carolina. Lanham considers “conserving birds and their habitat a moral mission that needs the broadest and most diverse audience possible to be successful.” He is a Clemson University Master Teacher and Alumni Distinguished Professor in wildlife ecology, with research interests in songbird ecology and conservation; integration of game and nongame wildlife management; the African American land ethic and its role in natural resources conservation.

Dr. J. Drew Lanham an Alumni Distinguished Professor and Master Teacher of Wildlife Ecology at Clemson University. He is a cultural and conservation ornithologist whose work addresses the confluence of race, place and nature. Drew is the Poet Laureate of Edgefield County, SC and the author of Sparrow Envy: PoemsSparrow Envy: A Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, and The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature. The Home Place was winner of the Reed Environmental Writing Award, the Southern Book Prize, and was a 2017 finalist for the Burroughs Medal. The Home Place was most recently named the scholarly book of the decade by Lithub and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Drew’s creative work and opinion appears in Orion, Vanity Fair, Oxford American, High Country News, Bitter Southerner, Terrain, Places Journal, Literary Hub, Newsweek, Slate, NPR, Story Corps, Threshold Podcast, Audubon, Sierra Magazine, This is Love Podcast, and The New York Times.  He is a Contributing Editor for Orion Magazine, and a lifelong bird watcher and hunter/conservationist living in Seneca, SC.