Editor's Note

An old memory crossed my mind recently. When I was a kid growing up in rural Missouri, my parents subscribed to Missouri Conservationist magazine. The content was mostly focused on articles about nature and it was published by the Missouri Conservation Department, which is similar to our Georgia DNR. I loved learning about the animals and plants I saw nearby and although I struggled a bit with some of the science when I was very young, I read every issue cover to cover from the time I learned to read until I left home.

I won’t lead you down the spiraling path that provoked the memory of Conservationist, but it prompted a smile and I went to my desk to look it up online. I fully expected to find that it had ceased publishing decades earlier, but was thrilled to discover Volume 85, Issue 9, September 2022 right there, available for me to look at online via a flipbook similar to what I use for Southern Tides!

As I flipped through those pages two things occurred to me. One was to wonder if the decision to make Southern Tides focused on nature and conservation was a subliminal mimicking of the magazine I so enjoyed as a child. The second was to realize that a lot of the ways they present content would work extremely well in my own magazine.

For example, Conservationist has a feature called “Get Outside” which shares information about what you might find that month if you got outside and explored nature. While of course the ecology and climate is different there, the idea still translates well here. It could include what fish are biting this month, the current water temperature, where shrimp can be found, what native plants are blooming, what birds are nesting or fledging, what edibles you might find, what shells to look for on the beach, any migratory species that will be here, or even tips for escaping the wrath of biting flies or throwing a cast net.

The potential for information is extensive, so I reached out to our resident naturalist, John "Crawfish" Crawford, and asked if he would help me compile information for this feature. He’s agreed and we hope to launch it with the October issue. While ideas are sharable, names are not, so we’re thinking of calling this “Explore Nature.” Unless one of you has a better suggestion? Send it to me!

The pages of Conservationist provoked other ideas for new and interesting content, and its great layout made me realize that it might be time for a bit of a facelift for our magazine as well. This issue marks seven years of publishing Southern Tides, and aside from changing ad sizes in 2017 and fonts in 2020, it looks pretty much the same as it did at the start. I’ll be working on more eye-catching designs and

The very first cover of Southern Tides Magazine in September 2015. We chose a roseate spoonbill for this month's cover as well, as a small nod to our seven year anniversary. We have some exciting new things coming up as we head into year eight! Cover photo shown here by Kelley Luikey, Nature Muse Imagery

interesting ways of presenting content in the coming issues.

Another thing I figured out by looking at Missouri Conservationist is how to handle reader photos. You might remember last month when I put out an appeal for a cover photo and was inundated with submissions – so many of which were stunning images! You can see some examples of those submissions starting on page 16, in our For the Birds feature, showcasing some of those photos of birds. Just beautiful!

But how to use reader photos more? Many of you have asked me about that over the years, but it’s difficult to get your photos to me in a large enough file size for print, and wading through dozens of emails is time consuming. The way Conservationist handled this was to set up a Flickr group where readers can upload photos to be considered for publication and the staff chooses three photos each month in their reader photo section. We can do this! And we have. We’re currently accepting reader photos of shells – no need to stage them, and by no means should the living occupants be harmed, but if you have great photos of shells, we’d love to consider them for a feature layout. Visit www.flickr.com/ groups/southerntides/ to join the group and share your photos. Check back each month to see if there’s a theme or if any coastal photo is acceptable.

I’m excited about these and other upcoming additions! Many thanks to Missouri Conservationist staff: Stephanie Thurber, magazine manager, Angie Morfeld, editor, and Laura Scheuler, circulation manager, for their enthusiasm, willingness to talk with me, and for a great magazine that takes me back to happy childhood memories and gives me inspiration for my own publication! Well done, ladies!

And thanks also to you, our readers, for picking the magazine up each month, or subscribing, for letting us hear from you, and for sharing Southern Tides with friends. We hope you enjoy every page!

See you out there! Amy Thurman Editor in Chief amy@southerntidesmagazine.com

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