BirdNote Commemorates Juneteenth

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BirdNote is joining people across the United States in celebrating Juneteenth, a federal holiday to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States.

As this day serves as a time of reflection and celebration, BirdNote invites our listeners and the entire BirdNote staff to take time to reflect and recognize the hardship of the men, women, and children who were enslaved and treated as chattel property in the U.S. from 1619 through 1865, to develop awareness and understanding of the ongoing racial inequities in the United States stemming from this long and painful history, and to participate in local Juneteenth events to build a sense of community.

BirdNote’s stories strive to be compelling, accurate, inclusive, and accessible to all. The latest episode of our Bring Birds Back podcast highlights the need to have inclusive, thoughtful homes for birders who otherwise wouldn’t have community. You can listen to this insightful conversation about Finding your Flock here. 

You can also learn about how conservationists in South Carolina are transforming old systems of oppression into practices that preserve land and create habitat for an extraordinary number of birds, including the Black Rail (pictured above), in the Plantation Ecology episode of Threatened.

BirdNote seeks to create the kind of inclusive environmentalism we wish to see in the world, and that starts with recognizing historical legacies that have created unequal access and power dynamics in the world of birding and in environmental movements. You can view BirdNote’s commitment to centering inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility here.

_{Black Rail © Greg Lavaty}