Audubon Magazine / Fall 2024

Driving Forces

With creativity and determination, people featured in our pages lean into sharing the things they love.
Donna Posont sits at a table holding tweezers with a log in front of her.
Donna Posont, naturalist and program coordinator of Birding by Ear and Beyond, uses tweezers to mimic the movement of a woodpecker beak during the Great Backyard Bird Count at Camp Tuhsmeheta in Greenville, Michigan. Photo: Sarahbeth Maney
By Jennifer Bogo
Vice President, Creative and Editorial
Published Fall 2024

As we were working on this issue, my six-year-old discovered the joy of Calvin and Hobbes. I would hear him cackling gleefully as he devoured a collection of the comic strips. The cartoon, chronicling the adventures of a boy and his stuffed tiger friend, also sparked delight in a young Rosemary Mosco. She carried that love of the funnies with her through life and today is a celebrated cartoonist, creating comics that fuse humor with science.

That this could be a career choice was not at first obvious. In his profile of the artist, Brian Kevin describes the challenges Mosco faced en route to finding her groove as a science communicator. But once she discovered how to combine her dual passions, her career took off. Today Mosco deftly pinpoints the hilarity in nature, producing cartoons beloved for their ability to both inform and entertain.

As a blind person, Donna Posont was also at first stymied in pursuing her interests. She eventually had to forge her own path through school to study biology. Today she runs a program that teaches birding and outdoor skills to other visually impaired individuals, and in doing so, builds their confidence to achieve their own dreams.

Conservation biologist Bret Mossman, meanwhile, grew up in Utah obsessed with birds, but always longed to connect more closely with his Hawaiian heritage. Since moving to the islands his passion project has involved documenting birds that have already been lost to extinction, then sharing them with the public to revive cultural connections with native birdlife currently at risk of slipping away, reports Will McCarthy

Throughout this issue you’ll see stories of people who have arrived at creative ways to educate and inspire. Ada Limón found the catalyst for her signature project as Poet Laureate on an actual trail. Others may still be finding their own paths, like the young adults participating in the new American Climate Corps, a program that combines skill-building with opportunities to address climate change. 

I have no idea where my own kid’s path will lead. But I hope he, too, finds a way to bring the things he’s passionate about with him to help paint a better future for all.

This piece originally ran in the Fall 2024 issue. To receive our print magazine, become a member by making a donation today.