Observing Protected Species: How We Hide Their Location Data

By Brian Kron

The location data of your observations are automatically obscured for threatened and endangered species. Here's how it works.

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In the Silence of Whip-poor-wills

By Dan Lambert

I’m neither bored nor disappointed on zero-count nights. I relish the chance to pay close attention outside at night, and to do so as part of a community ritual.

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Are Honey Bees Good?

By Spencer Hardy

As a wild bee biologist for VCE, I’ve spent the better part of the last five years studying, counting, and watching native bees, which are often overlooked in favor of their domesticated cousins.

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You might have heard the call of the loon this season, witnessed loon parents teaching their chicks to dive for food, or seen VCE Loon Biologists Eric Hanson and Eloise Girard paddling in your local lake, looking for nests.

Eloise and Eric have their hands full helping volunteers build, deploy, and manage loon nesting rafts and signs; responding to calls about loons in distress; and speaking to students, lake associations, and other community groups to answer questions about loons.

This dedicated and neighborly approach is unmatched in helping loons raise chicks to successfully fledge. This work—supported by your gifts—yields more volunteers, more educated and aware Vermonters and visitors, and more loon lovers!

We invite you to join VCE in celebrating this loon nesting season, a time of watchful wonder, careful monitoring, and direct action on behalf of these magnificent birds.

Camilla Price (she/her) is the Spatial Science Intern for VCE, where she answers applied conservation questions using big data from community science platforms under the supervision of Dr. Mike Hallworth. She is an aspiring wildlife conservationist and science communicator from Fort Worth, Texas. This fall, Camilla will start graduate school at Colorado State University.

Sammi Rizzo graduated from UVM in the Class of 2025 and is now an interdisciplinary intern for summer 2025 with VCE. They will be involved in several ongoing projects throughout the season, including the Vermont Loon Conservation Project, grassland management, on-farm pollinator research, the Native Plants and Pollinators Ecotype Project, and the Second Vermont Butterfly Atlas.

Isabella Soddu studies at the University of Vermont, majoring in Sustainability, Ecology, and Policy. As an interdisciplinary intern, she assists VCE biologists on a range of projects, including the Vermont Loon Conservation Project, grassland management, on-farm pollinator research, the Native Plants and Pollinators Ecotype Project, and the Second Vermont Butterfly Atlas.

Massimo Gulino is a student at Northern Michigan University majoring in Biology-Ecology. He is serving as the future ecology intern at VCE working under Dr. Desiree Narango with pollination studies. Massimo is also a student leader on the Presque Isle Salamander project in Marquette MI, leading student volunteers and conducting experiments on behavior and ecology.