Austin Schuver

Category: Causes

  • Animating Maps to Show the Spread of Aquatic Invasive Species

    Invasive species threaten fish populations and water quality in lakes, rivers, and streams across America.

    For a project on invasive species awareness, I’ve drafted animated maps of the spread of invasive species across North America. Data comes from the USGS’s Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) map center.

    The process involves importing data into QGIS, exporting the map into Adobe Illustrator and creating each year as its own properly labeled layer. Organizing and renaming each layer, especially for invasive species that have spread throughout the US since the 1990s, is the most time-consuming step.

    After Illustrator, the layers are uploaded into Adobe After Effects for animating. Animating allows the “dots,” which are confirmed records of a species in a specific location, to visually spread across the continent.

    Stay tuned for the full and final video on preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species.

  • Storytelling with Video

    Lights. Audio. Camera. ACTION!

    For the last two years, I’ve worked with Jeremy Roberts, owner of Conservation Media in Missoula, Montana. Conservation Media is an award-winning storytelling outlet that produces short films for non-profit organizations, government agencies, and other clients.

    While Jeremy excels in captivating audiences with incredible imagery of wildlife and landscapes, his hidden mastery lies in telling human tales. Jeremy taught me how to communicate science and conservation not simply through Planet Earth-esque documentary filming, but also by connecting audiences to the people deeply involved in changing the world.

    The Nature Conservancy Montana

    For a non-profit like the Nature Conservancy, for example, Jeremy walked me through “story boarding.” First, this process involved winnowing down an hour-long interview with a top forester. Then we combined it with B-roll, which was video from a prescribed burn. The end result was a concise 3-minute film allowing viewers to discover the necessity of prescribed burning to restore forests, an invaluable educational and fundraising tool for TNC Montana.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roklegBVrjA

    Defenders of Wildlife

    We also worked on a short video for Defenders of Wildlife. Defenders is a non-profit helping Montana landowners install electric fencing. This fencing deters hungry bears from entering gardens, orchards, or chicken coops, ultimately reducing human-wildlife conflict. Here you can watch the final product of my audio work combined with Jeremy’s editing in a short video to celebrate Defenders of Wildlife’s 500th electric fence project.

    Blackfoot Challenge

    To practice collecting high-quality audio-video while conducting engaging interviews, I also joined Jeremy and community leaders for a project with the Blackfoot Challenge. A local non-profit, the Blackfoot Challenge collaborates with ranchers, conservationists, and other community members to reduce wildlife conflict and conserve the Blackfoot River watershed. The final film was a 13-minute gem, showcasing the inspiring and meaningful work of those involved in the Blackfoot Challenge.

    https://vimeo.com/709729025

    As a direct result of my time with Jeremy, I have a better appreciation for the experience, time, and skill involved in communicating complex conservation topics through video. While I can’t yet match Jeremy’s decades of experience weaving together science and emotion, I am incredibly privileged to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from one of the masters.

  • What if normal is the problem? And other coronavirus questions

    The pandemic diaries

    Eleven months ago, I flew home to Sea-Tac as coronavirus dug its claws into the flesh of the world. Shelves emptied, businesses closed, panic began to set in. In March 2020, I wrote in my notebook a snippet of conversation I overheard in the grocery store:

    “Are we going to die?” A young woman asked.

    After a long pause, from behind his mask a man reassured her with two words: “not today.”

    In my notebook, I added:

    Apocalyptic thoughts rush forward when uncertainty is the only certainty.

    Nobody knew how bad it would get. Sitting at the gate for the flight back to Reno, I listened to my pilot talking to a flight attendant:

    “The media is freaking out about the virus,” the pilot said.

    For twenty minutes, he described overreaction that was hurting the industry. On the flight back to Reno, I crouched over the tray table to write a few more anxious pages.

    Suddenly, life is no longer normal. How did we get into this mess?

    I didn’t share my thoughts back in March. The pandemic felt too fluid, evolving, unknown. My reaction felt too, well, reactionary, to be accurate. Maybe I was overreacting. I needed patience, perspective.

    We’re nearly a year in. But looking back at that notebook, I’m shocked by how little has changed:

    US leads the world in coronavirus cases by far. We haven’t even seen the worst of it. The virus is underscoring so many pre-existing problems in the country and stressing every aspect of our constitution.

    Today, over 100 million people have contracted the virus. Over 2 million have died. The United States still leads the world in both categories.

    This irrefutable proof could—should—spread the realization that we can’t ignore our connection to each other, everyone, and everything.

    bright orange beach at sunset
    Distant strangers on a beach in Washington in December 2020.
    (more…)