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Conservation

An illustration showing wildlife, including flowers, snakes, butterflies, turtles, and crabs

Conservation

Safeguarding Helene-threatened salamanders, cultivating gulf oysters, boosting mallard habitat, and spreading native grasslands—the work of this year’s under-the-radar Southern eco-heroes is more important than ever

A Venus flytrap in the wild

Land & Conservation

Venus flytraps are native to a tiny corner of the globe: the Coastal Plain of the Carolinas. As development threatens, one town—spurred on by one tireless botanist—has taken up the shovel to save the world’s most fascinating plant.

A seal in water

Conservation

A kayaking guide at South Carolina’s Murrells Inlet enjoyed a rare sighting of a harbor seal—and has the photos to prove it

A wood building on a well-landscaped lot

Conservation

Reclaimed wood, native landscaping, and local art shine on fifty acres that will soon house a county park

A zebra longwing butterfly

Travel

Flutter to any of these spots to see the universally adored insect in its element

A woman sits in a chair in an art studio surrounded by earthy paintings

Arts & Culture

One Atlanta artist turns to foraged materials to honor and conserve the natural world

flattened musk turtle

Conservation

The tiny flattened musk turtle lives within a single watershed in Alabama, and biologists are racing to study it before it’s too late

An illustration of two women standing in a foggy rainforest

Land

A mystical stroll through a rare, endangered mountain ecosystem brings one writer an afternoon of visual splendor

spanish moss on a tree

Conservation

An age-old question answered…plus everything else you never knew about the South’s most epic epiphyte

a grove of American chestnuts

CONSERVATION

“When you visit these places, you’re experiencing a monumental step in the restoration of a historic landscape that had basically vanished from the earth”

A kayak in a tree-covered watering hole area

Land & Conservation

In Key West’s backcountry, nature’s storm shelters offer calm waters and a wild world of discovery

A wet osprey perches on a surfboard

Land & Conservation

“I treated it like I was rescuing a small child,” says Richard Miller, who sprang into action on Folly Beach, South Carolina, to save an injured raptor

A blue florida scrub jay

Land & Conservation

Along ancient sand dunes, a long-studied, whip-smart bird still astonishes biologists

A man holds a hammerhead shark

Land & Conservation

A Myrtle Beach resident gets his own nature show moment

Bats take flight from a bridge

Land & Conservation

Near sunset on every summer night, Austinites gather to watch bats pour by the hundreds of thousands from underneath a downtown bridge

A copperhead

Land & Conservation

Fact-checking an old Southern saying

A person holds up a turkey with blonde-tinged feathers

The Wild South

The wildturkeyDNA project engages hunters to try and determine why some gobblers don’t look like the others

A Belgian Malinois holds a ball in his mouth

Land & Conservation

With noses trained to find species by scent, these dogs work alongside scientists to help protect rare plants and animals

Two shotgun shell-shaped containers of whiskey and a bottle of bourbon

Food & Drink

Ducks Unlimited and World Whiskey Society collaborate on a pair of bottles for waterfowl lovers

Three photos of birds: cerulean warbler, burrowing owl, scarlet tanager

Seven Southern

Rare, secretive, or just plain beautiful, these species are a treat to behold