On Episode 9 of The Overstory we go birding with Jason Ward, an impassioned birder in Atlanta, Georgia whose enthusiasm and social media savvy is helping to attract younger and more ethnically diverse groups of people into the world of bird-watching. We also hear from climate activist Patrick Houston about his tips for social change, and talk with Haviland Whiting, the youth poet laureate of Nashville. Plus: Ms. Green discusses the challenges of being a vegan.

Transcript

Jason Mark: Jason Ward is walking on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, which flows through a wooded park in the suburban sprawl of Atlanta, Georgia. Today he's leading a bird walk with the Atlanta Audubon Society.

Jason Ward: Birding amongst traffic sounds and car sounds is something that I've gotten used to over the years.

Jason Mark: Amid the sounds of the Georgia suburbs, Jason is after something wild.

Jason Ward: Red shouldered hawk, low.

Birder: I don't see it.

Jason Ward: Flying low across.

Jason Mark: Jason Ward is a birder. Well he's actually more than a birder, he's like a bird evangelist.

Jason Ward: Here we go.

Jason Mark: He likes to describe himself as a PR person for the birds.

Jason Ward: So now we are going to get eyes on this hawk.

That's a woodpecker flight right there. You see that bouncing flight there. That (whistles) that you hear the up note, the largest Sparrow in North America.

Miraculous, you see that long tail?

Jason Mark: And he's really good at this self-appointed role.

Jason Ward: There you go.

 Red belly.

Jason Mark: That's partially because he's just so enthusiastic.

Jason Ward: Birding is essentially Pokémon GO with real animals.

Jason Mark: But it's also because he doesn't exactly fit many people's stereotype of a bird watcher.

(intro music fades in)

Jason Ward: Your average birder is going to be a white male in their mid-fifties, who makes about 75K a year. You know, I don't meet any of those characteristics.

Jason Mark: He's young and he's African American, and that helps make him the perfect messenger to inspire a new, more diverse generation of birders.

Jason Ward: Hey, this can be done and this can be deemed cool by people who come from all walks of life.

1:26: Introduction

Jason Mark: In this episode of The Overstory, we'll join Jason Ward for a bird walk and later Jason and I catch up in the studio to talk about how it all started for him, about his TV show, and about the challenges of birding while black.

Jason Ward: So I started birding, I walked past the cop vehicle, and I keep on birding. I hear more gravel and I look back and he's inched 50 to 100 feet closer to me. And in my head I'm like, "Wow, he’s… they're watching me!"

Jason Mark: And we hear from Nashville's Youth Poet Laureate, who's found her voice in the climate movement.

Haviland Whiting: My form of protest was writing and speaking.

Jason Mark: Also, some helpful tips for green living from Ms. Green, our advice columnists, and youth climate activists, Patrick Houston.

Patrick Houston: I think it's important for people to recognize that this complex world of climate action, it doesn't mean that the action that we take has to be complicated.

Jason Mark: These are the stories that connect people to each other under the wild nature that's all around us. This is The Overstory. Come explore with us.

(intro music fades out)

2:30:  Jason Ward Inspires New Birders

(Sounds of nature and birds)

Jason Ward: Killdeer are super noisy, as they usually are.

Jason Mark: Back in Georgia, Jason Ward walks along the river, listening for birds and looking for them.

Jason Ward: So it's good to scan this river. You just never know what's in the water or what's on the far edge of the tree line-

Jason Mark: It was just about, about six years ago when Jason purchased a cheap pair of binoculars on Amazon and he went on a guided bird walk. He was amazed at how his guide could spot birds that seemed just about invisible. So Jason hit the books. He studied, he downloaded the apps, he spent as much time in the field as possible. And only eight months later, he was the guy who was leading that same bird walk.

Jason Ward: Yellow warbler, again.

Jason Mark: Now, today he hosts as many as three walks a month.

Jason Ward: So I try to lead as many tours as possible. My goal ultimately is to share my love and passion for birds with as many people as I can. So leading tours is a really good way to do it. They're completely free. Anyone can just show up. I have extra pairs of binoculars in my car at any given point in time for anyone who wants to join.

Jason Mark: And even though he does this all the time, his enthusiasm for birds is still as if he just started. You can hear it in his voice.

Jason Ward: Now we're sitting here and a red-tailed hawk is soaring right above us, and it's circling around. So it's riding this invisible thermal of warm air that it's finally caught, this little pocket of warm air, and it's using that to rise higher and higher and higher until it figures out where it's going next.

Jason Mark: For Jason, it's all part of a larger goal to make birding more accessible.

Jason Ward: My bird walks in particular cover a wide range of demographics. Then we have age ranges as well. We have birders that are less than 10 years old, and those who are over 60, over 70 as well. We have birders from all different socioeconomic backgrounds as well, birders who come from different walks of life. And that's really what I try to get that message out and share with folks the fact that birding is literally for everyone.

Jason Mark: By the end of this morning's walk, his group had spotted about 35 different species.

Jason Ward: Which if anyone who knows me personally knows that I am disappointed. I go for higher numbers than that. I like to produce big numbers on my walks, so everyone can go and run and tell their friends and families.

Jason Mark: Later sitting by the river, Jason says that birding is really all about taking a little bit of time just to notice what's all around you.

Jason Ward: I think it's important because it's meditative, first and foremost. I'm sitting here on the bank of a river and there are three American crows just flying over, and you wonder to yourself, "Where are they going?" They're clearly together, so this is their crew that they've set up. What are they about to get into? Are they about to find a hawk and bother it so it leaves an area? Or, they're about to search for some food? They're carefree, right? They're not checking their phones, every five seconds. It would be quite scary if I saw a crow checking its phone.

 So they're flying around, they're just seemingly having fun. And I think that if we took a couple moments or so out of our day just to appreciate birds. We don't have to become master bird identifiers, but if we just took a little bit of time out of our day to appreciate the nature and the wildlife that lives around us, it can be meditative. So just observing and not moving around so much, just sitting and observing is a skill that I think a lot of people could benefit from.

Jason Mark: So how did it all get started for Jason Ward? Well, he joined me in the studio to talk about the bird that got him hooked and everything that came next.

(nature sounds fade out)

6:08 – Jason Ward in the Studio

Jason Mark: Well, Jason Ward, thanks so much for joining us and welcome to The Overstory.

Jason Ward: Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Jason Mark: So I discovered you first on Twitter, I'm a little bit of a amateur birder. I'm not the birder you are, but I'm a little bit of an amateur birder. And then eventually checked out your YouTube series, which is called, Birds of North America. And in the intro you share this story of your spark bird, the bird that got you interested in birds.

(YouTube Theme Music)

Jason Ward: When I was 14, I spotted a peregrine falcon eating a pigeon on my windowsill in the Bronx. I never looked back. I'm Jason Ward, and this is Birds of North America.

(YouTube Theme Music)

Jason Mark: So why was that so magnetic for you? Why did that hook you?

Jason Ward: So at the time I was living in a homeless shelter. So that was a pretty low time for me. And I was around 14 or 15 at the time, and I had been an animal nerd for about 10 years running at that point in time. But the majority of my experience with wildlife was either on books or on television. And when I saw those feathers floating by the window, I had no idea what was going on. So the nosy New Yorker in me ran to the window to check it out. Sure enough, there's the peregrine falcon just de-feathering, just plucking the feathers off of this pigeon. And just diving into some research about this bird, I quickly learned that it was the fastest animal on the planet capable of diving at over 200 miles per hour.

Jason Mark: Right that's amazing.

Jason Ward: And not only that, but it's scientific name is Falco peregrinus, which translates to wandering falcon. So this is a bird that can be found on six of the seven continents. It can leave an unsuitable situation in search for greener pastures, and that was something that I wanted the ability to do growing up as well. So instead I just adopted this bird as my spirit bird essentially. And I was able to live vicariously through that bird and it's ability.

Jason Mark: You're saying in part because you and your family at that point were going through a really rough time, obviously. I mean, it was this ideal that you could wander yourself and make new futures for yourself?

Jason Ward: Exactly. I mean, this is a bird who has the capability to see the world for itself. And when you see any bird, you wonder where it's been, what things has it seen. And there was this dream that one day I'd get to see some of the places that this bird has seen as well.

Jason Mark: You did this great a segment on Birds of North America about young birders in Ohio. I think in general, I'd love to hear your thoughts about getting new people into birding. I think your story is so inspiring. But also kids, is there a secret sauce or some trick about, especially getting younger folks to get excited about the magic of birds, and is that different from like getting an adult or let's say someone who's in their twenties involved?

Jason Ward: I think that it's already happening. Birding already has so many things in common with other popular crazes that we've seen over the past several years. Birding is essentially Pokémon GO with real animals, essentially. It's hunting without the gore. There's this treasure hunt kind of feel to it. We're seeing these numbers, these estimations of how many birders are in the United States, and they're in the tens of millions, and I think that that number is going to continue to grow over the years. And I think it's inevitable, birding will become younger and it will become more colorful as well. That's an inevitable fact.

Jason Mark: You went birding with the poet, Drew Lanham.

Jason Ward: Yeah.

Jason Mark: And he talked about how for birders of color, for people of color, there are unique headwinds. And in his words, it's like a migrating warbler combating wind. As an African American man, I wonder if you could talk about those headwinds and what are the unique challenges that might face people of color who are just getting into birding?

Jason Ward: Where was I? Alpharetta, Georgia. Yes. Yes. And it just finished raining. So after-rain birding is some of my favorite birding for two reasons. One, the birds have just finished hunkering down and now they're about to start feeding again. It's typically pretty cool around that time, as far as the weather goes, and also not a lot of people around. That's perfect birding right there.

Jason Mark: Good pro tip folks, good pro tip folks.

Jason Ward: So I was sitting in my car, waiting for the storm to pass over. And when I got out of the vehicle, I noticed that there was a cop car that was just sitting in the same parking lot as I was, but just sitting there. And we are the only two cars in the parking lot. And I do some birding around the area, jumped back in my car and I drive to a different part of the same park. And when I parked and get out, I hear some gravel, because it's like a gravel parking lot there. And I hear some gravel moving, and sure enough, it's the same police vehicle that has decided to follow me down this driveway and park about 200 feet from me. And so I registered that in my mind and I'm just like, "Okay, well, you know what? I'm here to see birds let's start birding."

 So I started birding, I walked past the cop vehicle and I keep on birding. I hear more gravel. And I looked back and he's inched about 50 to 100 feet closer to me. And in my head I'm like, "Wow, they're watching me." Like, there's nothing else going here. I'm right along the Chattahoochee River, so I'm by Morgan Falls Dam, and there's nothing else going on around here. There's no one else out here. And so that was a little bit off putting, but nothing came from that, thankfully.

Jason Mark: Still, man, that sucks. I mean, that's just sucks. And I'm sorry that happened to you. I guess, regardless of what our human situation might be, but how birds sometimes allow windows on a different world. You recently went birding with the novelist, Jonathan Franzen. He said, "Birds are the last readily available connection to the wildness that's all around us." Why do you think people are hungry for that connection?

Jason Ward: I think it's because of the state of things as of late. Birds, no matter what kind of environment you're in, if you're in a city, suburbs, out in the country, there are birds around you and they're going to be several different species of birds around you. That's partially what drew me to them in the first place.

 Sure. I can fall in love with big cats, but I'd have to travel to another continent to see them. Here in Atlanta, where this is like known for the worst traffic in the country. And I'm sitting in traffic one day and I'm not moving much, and I'm seeing these barn swallows that are swooping around the car as being acrobatic and catching insects, and I stopped being upset for a moment that I was in bumper to bumper traffic. So I think that having them around and having them sit there and sing these songs every spring and summer morning can kind of distract you in a good way, away from what's going on in the world.

 And I think that in addition to that, we're starting to spend a lot of attention talking about mental health these days, which I think is a great thing. I think that if each and every individual would spend 10 to 15 minutes out there in the green space, you don't have to be deeply immersed in the woods. You could just visit a local patch without your phone and just literally smell the roses and listened to the bird song. You'll find that your mental health will increase just a little.

Jason Mark: Well, Jason, thank you so much for all the wisdom. Thank you for sharing with us your passion. I really appreciate it. Wish you all the best of luck.

Jason Ward: Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.

Jason Mark: Folks, that was Jason Ward. He's the host of the YouTube channel Birds of North America. He's a birder. You can follow him on Twitter @JasonWardNY, don't be confused by the Twitter handle. He's actually in Atlanta, Georgia. Thanks so much, Jason.

Jason Ward: Thank you.

(calm music fades in )

14:39 Tip from Young Climate Activist, Patrick

Jason Mark: Now, a moment of inspiration in action, our segment, where we invite young climate activists to call in from the field and share one tip for fighting the climate crisis, something that we all can do. This time we're going to hear from Patrick Houston, a 26 year old climate organizer from Philadelphia. Earlier this year, Patrick was a leader of the successful campaign to pass New York City Law 97. That's the world's biggest Municipal Emissions Reduction bill. He's a graduate of the Community College of Philadelphia and Swarthmore college.

Patrick Houston: My name is Patrick Houston. I'm a 26-year-old climate activist from Philadelphia working in New York City. I've been involved in common work for several years at this point, and I still find it easily overwhelming if I lose focus. There's tens of thousands of organizations that are taking action, traditional climate groups, environmental justice groups, faith-based institutions. But, I think it's important for people to recognize that this complex world of climate action. It doesn't mean that the action that we take has to be complicated. That just means that there's more opportunities for us to take a lane and begin to do the work.

Several years ago. I was hearing more and more about the climate crisis, greenhouse gas emissions, and too much CO2 and that's somehow warming our planet and threatening communities. So at that point, I had a big desire to figure out how can I respond in a real way, preferably in my city and in my community? I knew I had to start somewhere.

 I began to get involved with an organization called Serenity Solar. They were working to build community solar in the neighborhood that I grew up in. So it was very busy at the time during school, but I found small patch at a time and I pitched in where I could, helping write some newsletters, and organize events, and also just showing up at those events. And at the end of the day, it paid off, it paid off because I've learned from the process which helped inform work that I did after. It also paid off because, certainly, the Serenity Solar Project has been successful in North Philadelphia and has led to the employment of several North Philadelphia residents in the solar industry. And we were able to actually install solar panels into several buildings in North Philadelphia.

 So I encourage people to get started by taking simple steps to get involved, jump online search for climate action organization that's active in your area. Check out their website, see if their values and their vision align with yours, and then reach out to offer your help. And I bet that they are going to be happy to hear from you. And don't worry, this doesn't mean that it's the only thing that you do with the only group that you'll work with. Break the ice by getting started. You'll learn more about the issue itself, you'll learn more about other opportunities to get engaged in this fight.

Jason Mark: Patrick Houston is the climate and Inequality Campaigns associate with New York Communities for Change. Find them on Twitter @PatrickHoos20, that's @PatrickH-O-O-S-20. If you've got a climate action tip or trick to share contact us, overstory.podcast@sierraclub.org, for a chance to be featured on this segment. We'd love to hear from you.

18:09 - Climate Podcast: Drilled

Jason Mark: I'm going to pause here for a second and I'm going to tell you about another climate podcast you might enjoy. It's called Drilled, and it's a true climate approach to the story of climate denial. Season one, traces the oil industry's approach on climate change from its initial research in the 1970s to its denial campaigns, to its all out war on global climate action. Season two follows West Coast crab fishermen as they become the first industry to sue Big Oil.

 Season three is coming soon and it traces the history of industry PR men and how they created the giant industry propaganda machine that we're still dealing with today.

Check them out.

18:47 - Ms. Green on Veganism

Jason Mark: Now it's time far advice, columnist, Jessian Choy. AKA Ms. Green. On this segment, Jesse has something of a commiseration session about veganism, how hard it can be, and also what you can do to get your friends and family to think critically about the environmental impacts of their diet.

Mickey: Hi, this is Mickey, and I just wanted to have a little discussion and ask you about the benefits of a vegetarian and vegan diet for the environment.

Jessian Choy: Yeah, well the third and fourth best climate change solutions are eating a plant rich diet, which you may know, and the fourth best climate change solution is reducing food waste. So there's some really great impacts you can make by eating a vegan diet.

Mickey: Did it motivate you? Are you vegan?

Jessian Choy: I am. Well when I was 12, I learned about how the Amazon rainforest was being cut down to raise cows for burgers. And that's when I stopped eating most meat.

Mickey: Well, I just think a lot of people are close-minded, and with my daughter, she sometimes gets made fun of, and I think they're just so close-minded. They're used to eating meat and are like," What are you eating?"

Jessian Choy: Yeah, I know what you mean, and I have experienced difficult conversations, maybe like ones your daughter has experienced. And there are a lot more people that are going vegan then people might think. There are lists on the web of all kinds of famous people. I mean, that might be helpful for your daughter's schoolmates to see that there are a lot of people going... I think Beyoncé went, has a whole website about going vegan.

Mickey: And Billie Eilish. She loves Billie Eilish. So-

Jessian Choy: Yeah. I think it really helps when people that there are people that look like them that are going vegan.

Mickey: Thank you so much.

Jason Mark: That was Jessian Choy, AKA Ms. Green. You can find more of her columns online all the time at sierramagazine.org, or you can follow her on Twitter @realMsGreen.

(music fades in)

21:14 – Youth Poet Laureate of Nashville

Jason Mark: Now another young person who is getting involved in climate action through the written word.

Haviland Whiting: My name is Haviland Nona Gai Whiting and I'm 17 years old. I'm a poet. That's my main thing. That's what I'm known for, is for writing

Jason Mark: Haviland Whiting is the youth poet Laureate of Nashville. With that platform, she started to speak publicly about the climate crisis.

News Reporter: Welcome back to Open Line. Our topic tonight is climate change. We have some guests from Sunrise Movement, Nashville with us tonight talking about their efforts here locally. To put this issue in the spotlight, you guys recently had a sit-in in Mayor Cooper's office, asking him to declare a climate emergency. Explain a little more about what you were hoping to accomplish by doing that.

Haviland Whiting: We need those who are making the laws, and we need those in power to see that we're willing to take matters into our own hands to declare this as an emergency, and that we are skipping our lessons to teach them one.

Jason Mark: In September, she was a featured speaker at Nashville's Global Climate Strike action. Later, she sat with us to talk about what it's like to be a young person coming of age in the shadow of the climate crisis, and how she's finding her power through her art.

Haviland Whiting: So this is called On Change. There's a humming between the shutters clinging from the October winds, and my mouth tastes like iron mid-July. Somewhere, rib cages rattle against hunger, like wind chimes. The crops haven't grown here for months and the people have started looking at the looming dark, dark sky for answers. The fires start, first in the depth of the human heart, and then they engulf for the lungs too. When the rain forest shutters, it be the brown-skinned people holding their rib cages up with bamboo and prayers to burning sky that tastes like iron. Running, children are running from war-torn nations that claim bodies like trophies. We watched from muted screen so the screams look like yawns. The shells of houses, a field of wheat, the melting skin, we watch. Capitalism swallows us all whole. We work at the expense of the dying and the sick. In the Sudan, babies choke on the stars like tear gas.

 A mother in Alabama delivers under the blue-black sky, a baby who will not cry as the soil seeps into her newborn lungs. The midwife tells her, having a baby in Alabama ain't never been safe when the ground is full of bones. The failure of climate change activists is the inability to recognize the connectedness of suffering. In Nepal, smog blocks out the sun. In New York, the only religion is homelessness. In Brazil, the people grasp for a leader and find American dollars drenched in sweat. At home, we forget those who follow the stars for guidance. We are searching for a God in a sky that looks like the inside of a rocking ship. There's no substitute for immediate action. There's action, and there's immediacy, and there's nothing after that.

 I started writing, I can't even remember probably third grade. Freshman year is when I really started to write more political pieces. I was really shy and introverted, so art just appealed to me because it was something I could really do by myself. And even though I had all these political opinions and things that I want to say about things that mattered, I just was so shy to say them. So my form of protest was writing and speaking. I read a lot of poetry that's to do with current events and controversies and stuff. And I started realizing how many of these things were actually connected. It really all leads back to climate issues.

 A lot of climate related disasters leave a lot of people very vulnerable and without homes. Usually their jobs are destroyed. These kinds of things always happen, and we know, and we send money and relief in aid to these countries, but really what ends up happening is that a lot of people get left behind, and a lot of those are women and children, especially young girls. What ends up happening, is they don't have a way to make money. They don't have a way to reintegrate into a society that's fallen apart because of natural disasters. And that leaves them open to all types of violence. A lot of it is sexual and a lot of it having to do with being trafficked, which is like a multi-billion dollar industry.

 Mostly, I get overwhelmed when I see the amount of inaction. So I think it's really the job of the students. So, I've gone to a few protests approved by the school, but coming back, I was given like a hard time. That's been disheartening really, but at the same time, I've gotten a lot of support and a lot of people are wanting to become invested in the movement because they can see it happening right at their school, like in their classroom. It's no longer in Washington D.C., it is here. So despite the pushback I'm going to keep doing it. There's always hope in every situation, but I think really, hope only comes from action. I truly do believe that if people come together and announce this as an international emergency and really work to fix it, then yes, there's a lot of hope.

Jason Mark: That was Haviland Whiting in Nashville, Tennessee.

26:37 - Notes and Thank Yous

The Overstory is produced by Josephine Holtzman and Isaac Kestenbaum of Future Projects Media, with help from Danielle Roth and Reva Goldberg. Special thanks this time to Anthony Majors. Our theme music is by Jeff Brodsky. This episode was mixed by Merritt Jacob. This is our last episode in 2019. I want to thank you all for tuning in and for listening. I'm Jason Mark, and you've been listening to The Overstory.

End of Transcript.

What’s Next?

 Check out Season Two of The Overstory, which begins with a celebration of the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day!