Impact: Humans & Birds in Dallas
In 2018, The Dallas Morning News partnered with the Trinity River Audubon Center to present a collection of images from The News' archive intended to illuminate the life of birds in and around Dallas. The exhibition highlights how birds and humans share similar spaces.
Right in front of our eyes, the natural environment is being reshaped. Glaciers are melting at a rapid pace, loss of sea ice is threatening the polar bear population, the bald eagle and the brown pelican are two of 314 North American bird species that are considered endangered, according to the National Audubon Society.
A sense of urgency is expressed by a growing "see it before it's gone" outlook — is settling in among a population realizing that climate change isn't a future prospect, but a present-day reality. For Dallasites, the moment could be now to consider future impacts on the area's most significant natural resources, the Great Trinity Forest and Trinity River. These photographs convey the natural history of a Trinity River that not only serves as a migratory freeway and home for a multitude of birds, but also a home to humans. With this collection of images, we hope to find — and convey — a more thorough understanding of and appreciation for the relationship between bird and human, and human and nature.
Following the Audubon premiere, the gallery showed at EarthX at Fair Park in Dallas. Photographs by various Dallas Morning News photographers. Curated by Andy Jacobsohn.
Cattle Egrets in Cedar Hill, Texas June 14, 2016. (Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News)
A male painted bunting is one of thousands which arrive at Cedar Hill State Park each year from as far south as Panama. (David Leeson/The Dallas Morning News)
A pet emus in Boyd, Texas, Thursday Sept. 27, 2012. (Guy Reynolds/The Dallas Morning News)
Grackles and cowbirds fill the sky above the Metro Diner at dusk in Dallas, Texas, Thursday December 7, 2006. (Guy Reynolds/The Dallas Morning News)
A pigeon in downtown Dallas April 1, 2013. (Kye R. Lee/The Dallas Morning News)
"Impact: Humans & Birds in Dallas" at the Trinity River Audubon Center in Dallas on Thursday, February 15, 2018. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)
"Impact: Humans & Birds in Dallas" at the Trinity River Audubon Center in Dallas on Thursday, February 15, 2018. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)
"Impact: Humans & Birds in Dallas" at the Trinity River Audubon Center in Dallas on Thursday, February 15, 2018. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)
"Impact: Humans & Birds in Dallas" at the Trinity River Audubon Center in Dallas on Thursday, February 15, 2018. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)