'Voices of a Flyway Episode 5: The Upland Deciduous Forests

Episode 5: In this episode, we head to higher ground to explore the Mississippi Flyway’s biggest urban centers. What does it mean for birds when hundreds of thousands humans congregate on once densely forested landscape? What does it mean for people to have a relationship with the ecosystem when they’re living a life that’s “urbanized”? Turns out, the barriers of access to the natural world are many. We’re looking at how folks, in spite of the odds, are trying to get past them. And what can happen….. if they make it to the other side. To learn more about the project, visit www.voicesofaflyway.com/explore to start exploring our 6 interactive story maps that feature more of the stories, photos, and videos of the project! Funded by an Explorer grant from National Geographic, our team - a soundscape recordist, an audio producer, and a wildlife photographer - traveled from the Louisiana coastline to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota with the 2019 spring songbird migration. We visited six at-risk ecosystems along the route to uncover: 1. Why each of these delicate ecosystems is so critical to bird migration. 2. The infinite ways that people living in these areas share connections to the natural world. 3. What stands to be lost as these ecosystems vanish?