January – June 2024
In Partnership With
Oysters returning en masse to clean New York Harbor and shelter one of the world’s great cities from superstorms… Ecuador saving species by enshrining the rights of nature in its constitution… Beavers bringing wild wetlands and biodiversity back to manicured Britain… Soldiers setting fires to save an iconic woodpecker…
These are not the kinds of stories you see on the news. When it comes to the environment, the standard fare these days is a barrage of doom and despair. Enter WILD HOPE, a new series that crisscrosses the globe to spotlight the changemakers who are restoring and protecting the natural world.
The people and stories in WILD HOPE reveal how saving biodiversity begins in our own backyards. There is no need—and no time—to wait for global accords. These mavericks are forging unexpected alliances, making bold interventions, and relying on local expertise to pull our planet back from the brink.
Whether it’s farmers planting coffee to save Mozambican rainforest, Mexican nuns and fishermen working to bring back remarkable salamanders, or trained dogs rescuing koalas from urban encroachment and raging wildfires, the series reveals how small actions have dramatic impact, how individual efforts drive community-wide results, and how local solutions add up to global change.
WILD HOPE provides heroes we can rally around, actions we can share, and optimism we severely need. There is still time to secure the future of life. And if given the chance, nature will bounce back. But we must change the narrative. WILD HOPE shows us how it’s done.
Join us with your classrooms for a series of live events where we’ll get to meet those behind the scenes of these incredible stories of hope from around the world!
Monday, January 29th
The Fight to Save Ecuador’s Biodiversity with Callie Broaddus
January 29th @ 12:30pm eastern
Join us to meet Callie, the founder of Reserva: The Youth Land Trust, and explore one of the most biodiverse rainforests on the planet! Recently, they succeeded in creating the first ever nature reserve, funded entirely by student donations. The Dracula Youth Reserve is in the cloud forests of Ecuador, an area so remote and rich in biodiversity, that every expedition results in the discovery of new plant and animal species!
Ecuador is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, home to more than twice the number of plant and animal species as the United States and Canada combined. Yet its wild spaces are also among the world’s most threatened. In 2008, when Ecuador became the first country in the world to enshrine a revolutionary concept called the “rights of nature” in its constitution, conservationists gained perhaps their most powerful tool for protecting wild spaces. Today, that tool is being put to the test as advocates race to preserve habitats and the remarkable species they support. This is part of our Wild Hope Series in partnership with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios.
Register: https://forms.gle/MFBnTXLLb4BfdQeh6
Thursday, February 8th
Growing Gardens to Save Wildlife with Mary Reynolds
February 8th @ 11:00am eastern
Amid collapsing biodiversity worldwide, Mary Reynolds of Ireland is building a movement to turn gardeners into guardians of the planet by returning our own patch of land to nature, and by restoring hope that individual action can create lasting change. The movement is growing, as Mary reaches a global community who want to rid themselves of the pristine expectations that gardens demand and bring in more life. It’s even taking root with younger generations. A visit to the Loreto school in Wexford County proves how even a small patch of land can not only restore a native community of plants, but also become a safe haven for students. “Patch by patch, we’ll get there” – Mary assures, “make a patchwork quilt of hope.” This is part of our Wild Hope Series in partnership with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios.
Register: https://forms.gle/MFBnTXLLb4BfdQeh6
Friday, March 1st
Rewilding New York City with Pete Malinowski
March 1st @ 11:00am eastern
Pete Malinowski is the Executive Director of Billion Oyster Project (BOP) which envisions a healthy, biodiverse New York Harbor that is well known, well used and well cared for by New Yorkers. Since the organization’s founding in 2014, BOP has introduced over 100 million oysters to the Harbor and engaged tens of thousands of New Yorkers in hands-on educational opportunities in classrooms and at the water’s edge! This is part of our Wild Hope Series in partnership with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios.
Register: https://forms.gle/MFBnTXLLb4BfdQeh6
Friday, April 12th
Bringing Back Coral Reefs with Madeleine Sherman
April 12th @ 2:00pm eastern
Madeleine Sherman is the Project Manager for the Coral Resilience Lab at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology. She helps to lead the coral restoration efforts in Maunalua Bay, O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, where she happened to also grow up. Join her in this presentation where you will be taken around the Coral Resilience Lab in Hawai‘i to learn about the research we do, see living corals up close, what we are doing to help save them, and get a look at the cool robots we’ve built to help us better understand corals. This is part of our Wild Hope Series in partnership with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios.
Register: https://forms.gle/MFBnTXLLb4BfdQeh6
Saving the Cougars of Los Angeles with Beth Pratt
May 15th @ 1:00pm eastern
Big cats and cities don’t mix or do they? L.A proved otherwise but with these big cats being forced to cross some of the world’s largest highways to survive their time was limited. Join Beth Pratt, whose advocacy and community rallying on behalf of these animals proved to be one of the most successful efforts of all time on behalf of wildlife and wild places, as she discusses the work that has led to the world’s largest wildlife overpass getting greenlit! This is part of our Wild Hope Series in partnership with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios.
Register: https://forms.gle/MFBnTXLLb4BfdQeh6
Fighting Extinction – The Black-footed Ferret Success Story
May 17th @ 1:30pm eastern
Kristy Bly is World Wildlife Fund’s Black-footed Ferret Restoration Manager. She works with partners to remove the black-footed ferret – one of North America’s most endangered mammals – from the Endangered Species List. In this session Kristy will share the story of why they almost went extinct, their amazing comeback, threats they face today, and what she and her partners are doing to restore this masked bandit of the prairie. Students will also learn about what they can do to help protect black-footed ferrets and their habitat. This is part of our ongoing series with HHMI Tangled Bank Studio and their Wild Hope series!
Register: https://forms.gle/MFBnTXLLb4BfdQeh6
Saving Axolotls with Luis Zambrano
May 20th @ 12:00pm eastern
The axolotl is an amphibian with incredible regenerative abilities. It lives in only one place outside captivity: the waters of Lake Xochimilco, in Mexico City. Now, a team of scientists is working to secure its future by looking to its past. Working with local farmers, they’re reconstructing a system of chinampas, or island gardens, pioneered by the Aztecs — to restore the axolotl’s habitat. Join Dr. Luis Zambrano to hear about the incredible work being done to save this iconic amphibian! This is part of our Wild Hope series.
Register: https://forms.gle/MFBnTXLLb4BfdQeh6
Sparking Fires to Save Woodpeckers with Jessie Schillaci
May 21st @ 11:00am eastern
One of the most inspiring conservation stories in American history is playing out on, of all places, a live-fire training ground at Ft. Liberty Army base in North Carolina. There, an improbable alliance is giving a special bird—the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW)—a new lease on life. After a clash between U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army revealed that low-grade forest fires sparked by artillery and tracers inadvertently created excellent woodpecker habitat, the two sides joined forces to monitor and protect the birds on the base. Join Jessie Schillaci the woodpecker monitoring coordinator to learn about this amazing work as part of our Wild Hope series in partnership with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios.
Register: https://forms.gle/MFBnTXLLb4BfdQeh6
Saving Manatees with Jessica Mailliez
May 21st @ 1:00pm eastern
Crystal River has long been a safe haven for the Florida manatee, but when an invasive algae wiped out the eelgrass that manatees need for food, the community rallied to restore the river and save the animals that call it home. Sea and Shoreline’s Jessica Mailliez demonstrates the dirty work they do to remove invasive algae and restore native eelgrass and in doing so protect these gentle giants. This is part of our Wild Hope Series with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios.
Register: https://forms.gle/MFBnTXLLb4BfdQeh6
The Ark for Frogs – Protecting the World’s Most Endangered Frogs with Dr. Gina Della Togna
May 27th @ 1:00pm eastern
The Ark at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama houses hundreds of large, captive communities of frogs, some of which no longer exist in the wild. Here, scientists hope to bring these species back from the brink of extinction and solve the world’s worst wildlife pandemic: an amphibian-killing fungus known as chytrid. Join Dr. Gina Della Togna, Executive Director of the Amphibian Survival Alliance as she details the work to preserve these magnificent creatures. This is part of our Wild Hope series in partnership with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios.
Register: https://forms.gle/MFBnTXLLb4BfdQeh6