Videos

West Virginia landowner and conservationist, Robert Tinnell, created the beautiful, inspirational video above about his journey to restore biodiversity to a strip-mined – and thus nearly-barren – hilltop on his property.

At the beginning of the video, Mr. Tinnell speaks of how he remembers the now low-diversity area as once being a “mature forest with huge trees, cool laurel thickets, deep leaf litter, black dirt, and wet-weather springs that were home to salamanders.” Though he cannot quickly recreate such a complex ecosystem, he begins to restore the land by planting an acre of pollinator habitat; just one acre, but an acre that flourishes and inspires him to continue the intimidating work of restoring ecosystems on his land.

Morning song at Ohio’s edge of Appalachia preserve — actually, a system of 11 preserves covering 13,000 acres in southern Ohio. It features a range of habitats: rolling meadows, forested hillsides, and a variety of waterways.

The Wildlife Center of Virginia, a leading teaching and research hospital for native wildlife, released a Bald Eagle on Wednesday, December 12, at the Land’s End Wildlife Management Area. On November 11, an animal control officer in King George County picked up a mature Bald Eagle—an eagle that had reportedly been fighting with another eagle. The injured eagle was taken to a local permitted rehabilitator. The eagle was admitted to the Wildlife Center on November 13 and was assigned Patient Number 12-2554—the 2,554th patient admitted to the Center in 2012.

Upon admission, Dr. Rich Sim and the veterinary treatment team examined the male Bald Eagle and treated it for a bruised right elbow The eagle was placed on a course of anti-inflammatories and pain medications. The bird showed steady improvement and was gradually moved to a large flight pen on Thanksgiving Day. The Center’s rehabilitation staff has been exercising the eagle in the flight pen, gradually building up the bird’s stamina to allow for its release back to the wild.

The new Safe Harbor program provides mutually-beneficial opportunities for private landowners and endangered species.

Southern Appalachian bogs are an extremely rare habitat type. In this video, Service biologist Sue Cameron discusses the importance of bogs to a variety of birds.

A golden eagle is flying free again after being injured. This video shows its first flight—on February 16, 2011—after a month of rehabilitation. Golden eagles migrate through the mountains of western Virginia and some winter here, but they are rarely seen. A biologist at the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and researchers with West Virginia University and Virginia Tech are studying the migration patterns of the raptors. This eagle was banded and fitted with a GPS transmitter that will track its movements for up to two years. The bird, a male eagle, is expected to head to Canada for the breeding season within the next few weeks.