Boston and New YorkBoston and NY

Coastal Habitats: Life on the Edge

Swissnex presents a film screening and conversation on the saltmarsh sparrow, an endangered species caught between hardening coastlines and the rising tide.

The saltmarsh sparrow is among the most imperiled species on the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Rising seas, habitat loss, and centuries of human interventions have left these birds on the brink of extinction, their chicks unable to survive the high tides that now inundate their nesting grounds. Yet in their fragility lies a lens for understanding the intertwined fate of human and more-than-human worlds, and the ecological, cultural, and ethical stakes of coastal conservation.

This event brings together artistic and scientific perspectives from Switzerland and the United States to reflect on birds as vital sensors of planetary change. The evening begins with a screening of BirdStory: Saltmarsh Sparrow, following a female sparrow raising her chicks in a threatened East Coast saltmarsh. Emmy-nominated Swiss-British wildlife cinematographer Matt Aeberhard and award-winning novelist and producer Melanie Finn will share insights into the filmmaking process, exploring how storytelling, observation, and scientific collaboration can illuminate urgent environmental crises. Russ Hopping, Director of Coastal Ecology for The Trustees, will provide a conservation perspective on restoring saltmarshes, managing rare species habitats, and addressing sea level rise along Massachusetts’ coastlines.

Situated within Swissnex’s Planetary Embassy in Boston, this conversation invites audiences to consider birds not only as indicators of environmental change, but as relational entities whose lives intersect with human histories, landscapes, and responsibilities. Together, the speakers ask how storytelling, science, and stewardship can foster new practices of care and planetary responsibility, and what it means to witness life on the edge of extinction.

Program

  • 6:00pm – Doors open
  • 6:30pm – Opening remarks
  • 6:35pm – Film Screening | BirdStory: Saltmarsh Sparrow
  • 7:15pm – Discussion and Q&A
  • 7:45pm – Reception
  • 8:15pm – End
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Event start time

  • Boston

    6:00PM

Contributors

  •

    Bio

    Matt Aebehard

    Director & Cinematographer
    Co-founder, Birdstory

    BirdStory co-founder Matt Aeberhard is one of the world’s leading wildlife filmmakers—a twice-Emmy nominated cinematographer with more than three decades of experience in the world’s wildest places, beginning on the Serengeti as a protégé of Hugo Van Lawick, to work for the BBC’s Our Planet and Perfect Planet series, Dancing with the Birds for Netflix, and The Crimson Wing for Disney. His work behind the lens renders the natural world with unforgettable artistry and nuance. Sir David Attenborough described Matt’s work as “awe-inspiring.”

  •

    Bio

    Melanie Finn

    Writer & Producer
    Co-founder, BirdStory

    BirdStory co-founder Melanie Finn is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. She is also the co-founder and director of a small healthcare charity in Lake Natron, Tanzania which brings sustainable healthcare to marginalized Maasai communities. As the writer and producer of the Stories to Save Us series, she is particularly interested in unpacking how we mythologize landscapes and how this impacts the ways we exploit and restore them.

  •

    Bio

    Russ Hopping

    Ecology Program Director,
    The Trustees of Reservations

    Russ Hopping is the Director of Coastal Ecology for The Trustees. He has a master’s degree in Environmental Biology from Antioch New England Graduate School and a bachelor’s degree in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic. He has worked for The Trustees since 1997, overseeing the stewardship of ecological resources at The Trustees. Current focus areas include directing a team of professionals managing and restoring breeding shorebird populations on more than 22 miles of barrier beaches in Massachusetts, restoring nearly 1,600 acres of salt marsh threatened by sea level rise, managing rare species habitats including through the use of prescribed fire and deer management for habitat resiliency.

Partners

This event is organized by Swissnex in Boston and New York in partnership with BirdStory, nonprofit blending creative natural history filmmaking, scientific research, and grassroots distribution to educate and engage across social and political divides.