National Parks Traveler – Battling Lionfish at Biscayne Bay

Lionfish. Impossibly beautiful, incredibly invasive. Arriving on Florida’s shores in the 20th century, the initial lionfish population invasion probably resulted from an accidental or intentional release from a hobbyist fish tank. Since then, their numbers have exploded, stretching across the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Reef species, lionfish cruise these aquatic habitats for prey, both outcompeting…

LTER Road Trip – A Long Legacy

Victoria Long has a deep connection to the land here in Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Her family has farmed this land for generations—since 1652 to be exact. She grew up a few miles from the Virginia Coast Reserve Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, attended the local high school and began to work for the LTER in the…

LTER Road Trip – A Shrubby Invasion

I stood on a windy barrier island, hair whipping around my face as my boots crunched across beach seashells. The waves crashed into the sand, here and there stirring up food for one of the many gulls seeking rest or prey on this island. Before me stretched the Atlantic Ocean, as far as the eye…