Jeremy Dertien, Courtney Larson and Sarah Reed
Jeremy Dertien is a Ph.D. candidate at Clemson University studying wildlife biology and conservation planning. Jeremy's research focuses on how different bird and mammal species use the habitat of Hardscramble Preserve and the surrounding Congaree Biosphere Region. Knowledge from studies like this help us to better understand best practices for conservation planning. Jeremy's work will help to inventory the 100+ bird species that utilize Hardscramble Preserve every year and guide decisions about important areas in the region to conserve for future generations.
Courtney Larson am a conservation scientist for The Nature Conservancy's Wyoming chapter, based in Lander, WY. I work to conserve biodiversity and promote improved coexistence of humans and wildlife through research, outreach, and collaboration. My research interests are centered around understanding and minimizing human impacts on wildlife, including those from recreation, land use and land cover change, and climate change.
I completed a PhD and MS in Ecology at Colorado State University, focusing on the effects of recreation on wildlife, and hold a B.A. in Environmental Studies and International Studies from Colby College.
Sarah Reed is Associate Conservation Scientist with the Livelihoods Program. She is currently a Smith Conservation Research Fellow at Colorado State University. Her research examines how human development patterns and land use practices affect wildlife and biodiversity. Sarah has worked extensively with government agencies and conservation organizations, addressing issues from local to national scales of resource management, in public as well as private lands contexts. She is especially motivated by research projects that have the potential to inform land use decisions and conservation policies as well as to expand our understanding of how species respond to human disturbances.
Sarah’s current research investigates alternative strategies for residential site design to protect biodiversity on private lands. Sarah recently joined the Board of Directors for the Society of Conservation Biology – North America Section. She also lead several projects—Dr. Reed: 1) Co-leads an interdisciplinary working group on the social, economic, and ecological dimensions of conservation development (School of Global Environmental Sustainability); 2) Integrates social and biological information to map human-wildlife conflicts (National Wildlife Research Center), and 3) Maps how habitat connectivity and threats to connectivity in southern Colorado (Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Collaborative). Sarah earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy & Management from University of California, Berkeley. She is based in Fort Collins, Colorado.
POPULAR
US workers average 10 paid vacation days a year, and 33 million get none
Twenty-five OECD countries require employers to provide at least 20 days. The US legal minimum is zero, and 57 percent of the lowest-paid tenth of workers get no vacation at all.
Who’s enabling Putin’s enablers?
We need a progressive politics that shows solidarity with all victims of military violence — while resisting the militarism of our own government.
Chris Hedges and Albert Raboteau on ‘American Prophets’ importance in an age of radical...
Watch the two thinkers talk about Raboteau’s book, which discusses the work of religious figures such as Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King, Jr.
“An ICE Murder”: Gabriela Soto Says She Miscarried While Husband Was Detained in Solitary
In the wake of a third ICE death at the Delaney Hall ICE jail in Newark, New Jersey, we speak with Gabriela Soto, whose husband Martín was one of the leaders of the May hunger strike at the immigration jail. Martín was transferred to Elizabeth Detention Center, New Jersey’s other ICE facility, during the hunger strike at Delaney. Gabriela is calling for the closure of both facilities.
“At first, I was fighting for my husband, but then I started to meet all of these people who are just innocent, and they are the people that make this country great,” says Soto, who blames her recent miscarriage on the stress of her husband being detained. “I am still grieving,” she says. “To me, this is an ICE murder, too.”
This comes as Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, a Salvadoran immigrant, died Saturday after being held for six weeks at Delaney Hall. He is the third immigrant to die at the ICE jail, which has been open since May 2025. Lopez-Cornejo’s mother, Maria Cornejo, says her son took medicine to manage diabetes, seizures and his blood pressure, but had not received his medications regularly since being detained. ICE said in a statement that Lopez-Conejo experienced a “medical emergency” on Saturday and was transported to University Hospital in Newark, but Maria Cornejo says her son died at Delaney Hall.
More than 70 people inside the ICE jail have filed lawsuits alleging medical neglect. That neglect was one of the factors that led to the hunger strike. “Individuals are not receiving the kind of healthcare that they in fact need, particularly for chronic health conditions, for pregnancies, for cancers,” says Analilia Mejía, Democratic congressmember from New Jersey. “Being undocumented should not be a death sentence.”
Dear Joe
The time has come for a coalition, and that means being open, and honest, and doing the best for the country. So do it.