Services

WHAT WE DO

(And why we do it)

Treetop Expeditions

OE was sparked by the wonder of climbing into the treetops, and draws upon our time specialising in canopy studies. We’ve been coming to terms with our obsession with technical treeclimbing for almost fifteen years, and have been fortunate to work, explore, and play in some of the world’s most significant forests and trees.

We’ve measured the branching structure of Australia’s towering eucalypts of Australia (the world’s tallest flowering plants), surveyed the animal life in the giant evergreen conifers of the American West Coast, and studied the magnificent cedar trees of the Himalaya. We’ve helped out Japanese film crews, attended climbing events with the Tree Climbers International group, presented at canopy research conferences, observed a treeclimbing class in Borneo, conducted leaf samples in at long term research sites, interned at the International Canopy Network, joined the Tree Climbers International in Atlanta, and created 3-d maps of tropical rainforest trees. We’ve set up cameras at raven nets, surveyed endangered bird nests, measured the soil collected on branches high in the sky, and taught several people how to climb safely on ropes.

If you’d like to discuss your own ideas or goals about accessing this high frontier, we look forward to hearing from you.

Let’s go treeclimbing.

Ecology & Interpretation

OE has field experience in wildlife ecology, landscape dynamics, lab procedures, natural history, and biodiversity surveys. We’ve published dozens of articles interpreting the natural world for the widest possible audience. We can draw upon undergraduate education from the highly ranked College of Forest Resources University of Washington (Seattle), postgraduate research experience from the University of Tasmania, a research fellowship as a Fulbright Fellow (US Department of State, training in Wilderness First Responder medicine, and fifteen years of mountaineering, hiking, and caving. We’ve led field crews in complicated and demanding terrain, and worked with government, consultancies, NGOs, and universities.

We can help design studies, interpretation, and education, and look forward to working with you to learn from and be inspired by the natural world.

Let’s go exploring!

Wordcraft

What are sharper than knives, more powerful than meteors, yet as subtle as moonlight? Words and sentences are the building blocks of any collaborative endeavour. We tell stories. Outreach Ecology has published dozens of reports, articles, and narratives , spanning a range of styles. We started out with travel journalism and technical peer reviewed science articles, and branched out into magazine work and web copywriting. We are always looking for a new challenge.

YDB has served as Field Editor for Asian Geographic and Chief Editor for Tasmanian Geographic. We’re especially keen on building a sense of place and sparking a sense of wonder. We can write engaging, descriptive prose, and we can develop your own thoughts and ideas into exciting tales.

Let’s write a story.

Citizen Science

Together, we can observe the world around us with a precision unmatched by any single participant. There’s a trend in conservation and education towards collaborative projects in which paricipants contribute to science and monitoring projects using communication technologies. Long performed by community groups such as birders and cavers, citizen science has grown immeasurably with the rise of smartphones and the internet.

We’d like to harness these new enthusiasms for interaction and knowledge. We’ve helped set up scannable codes and photo portals at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, promoted smartphone GPS tracing of the giant banyans of India (the broadest trees in the world), and set up baseline photomonitoring efforts in South India, the Himalayan cedars, and Australian heritage convict prisons.

We believe that all projects should be set up to grow into the future- and encouraging public participation and social media is a key part of this process. We can enhance your project by sharing it with the widest possible audience.

Let’s all work as a team.

Visuals

OE has produced photographs and maps for publications and projects in several countries. We have unlimited enthusiasm for photodocumentary and creative design, and have produced visual outputs that draw upon our technical training as a scientist. We remember the film days, and try to balance that valuation of a single shot with the new opportunities that digital photography offers.

We’re especially keen on illustrated mapmaking and novel uses for cameras, including conservation photomonitoring, photo spheres, and timelapses.

We’ve held film cameras for footage on Japanese Public TV’s flagship nature program; had photos printed in the Melbourne Age, Times of India, Australian Geographic, and Asian Geographic; collected images of tiny critters using a microscope; taught one-on-one photo technique tutorials; and managed thousands of photos in an image database.

If you’ve got a story to tell with images, an event you’d like to capture, or a map you’d like to produce, get in touch.

Let’s visualise it.