While filming Between Moon Tides, Jason Jaacks captured still photography, as well. Here, citizen scientists work to place a saltmarsh sparrow nest and eggs on an ark that will prevent the nest from being drowned by the incoming tide.
URI filmmaker Jason Jaacks tells the story of a small group of citizen scientists at Jacob’s Point in Warren, R.I., who are trying to save the saltmarsh sparrow from extinction in a new documentary, Between Moon Tides.
The time it takes a saltmarsh sparrow to build a nest, lay and incubate eggs, and nurture chicks to fledge is intimately connected and precisely matched to the 28-day tidal cycle. But higher tidal water caused by climate change can, and often does, flood the nests before the chicks are ready to fledge. Experts predict that at current rates of decline, saltmarsh sparrows will be extinct by the middle of this century.
Deirdre Robinson, M.S. ’99, at Jacob’s Point in Warren, R.I. Robinson calls salt marshes “magical ecosystems [that] serve as a buffer [and] protect the coast and all of the beings that live there.”
A saltmarsh sparrow is banded and released at Jacob’s Point.
The citizen scientists featured in Between Moon Tides, including URI alumni Deirdre Robinson, M.S. ’99, and Steve Reinert ’75, M.S. ’78, are attempting to save the sparrows by saving their nests—building simple “arks,” so that incoming moon tides lift, rather than drown, the nests.
“What really drew me to this story was what the saltmarsh sparrow can teach us about extinction and climate change,” says Jaacks. “This seemed like a quiet but very important story about an otherwise unremarkable little brown bird. I hope that, by looking a little closer, audiences will appreciate how the story of climate change is really a local story.”
“I have two young children, aged five and eight, and their curiosity about the world is infectious. I was able to bring both of them into the field while shooting the film and they delighted in watching the sparrows, especially as the females entered the nest.”
—Jason Jaacks, URI associate professor of journalism
At URI, Jaacks, an associate professor in the Harrington School of Communication and Media, works with undergraduate and graduate students, teaching both foundational and advanced courses. “When you train the next generation of reporters,” Jaacks says, “you broaden the impact far beyond what I can do as a single filmmaker.”
Jason Jaacks is a filmmaker and photographer who has produced films for National Geographic, an award-winning web series for PBS Digital Studios, and video shorts for The New York Times. His films have been screened at numerous film festivals, and he is a National Geographic Explorer.
Watch Between Moon Tides at theguardian.com/between-moon-tides