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Evan Barrientos

@evanbarrientosphotography

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Conservation photographer & filmmaker based in Virginia and Colorado.

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🐣🪁💦 Beach-nesting birds everywhere share a fundamental challenge: raising their babies amid the people, pets, and developments that share the shore with them. @audubonsociety’s new documentary “Shoreline Sentinels of Great Salt Lake,” directed by @evanbarrientosphotography, provides a heartfelt look into the struggles of one of our most beloved species: Snowy Plovers. ⁣
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Shoreline Sentinels follows Audubon and Tracy Aviary staff and volunteers as they embark on a journey to make Great Salt Lake a safer place for Snowy Plovers to raise their babies.⁣
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👉 Watch it now at youtube.com/nationalaudubon or tap the link in our Bio!

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Our new documentary is out! “Shoreline Sentinels of Great Salt Lake,” directed by @evanbarrientosphotography, follows Audubon and @tracyaviaryofficial staff and volunteers as they embark on a journey to study how people recreating is impacting Snowy Plovers nesting at Great Salt Lake.

The shore of Great Salt Lake in Utah is a critical breeding area for western Snowy Plovers—spunky ground-nesting birds—but their nesting area overlaps with the most heavily used part of the lake. In 2023, Audubon and Tracy Aviary set out to learn how that overlap is impacting them and to create management recommendations to protect these beloved birds.

Subscribe to our channel on YouTube and watch it now at youtube.com/nationalaudubon or at the link in bio!

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🎥 2026 BEND FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Pre-Feature Shorts

Covering an array of themes and styles, these pre-feature short films are scheduled to screen ahead of complementing feature films. Congratulations to all these talented filmmakers!

Grab your festival passes at the link in our bio and join us to watch these and many more shorts at this year’s festival Oct 7-11. #BFF26 #BendFilmFestival2026 #BendFilmFestival #filmmaker #shortfilm

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This is the second time we have participated in the Rural Film Festival at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, VA. What a great venue! What a great audience! What wonderful films! Kudos to Seth Davis, the theatre’s executive director, who has overseen the recently completed renovation of the interior of the historic theatre and to Deidre Hand, Engagement Specialist at the Virginia Tech Center for Rural Education, for her role in organizing the film festival. We were thrilled to see that The Tracks of Joe Troop showed well on the big screen. I was delighted to participate in the Q&A session after the screenings with Laura Iancu, producer/director of The Good Neighbors, a film about the Appalachian herbalist Lauren Cooper and Evan Barrientos, producer/director of Fireforest, a film that tells the story of how controlled burns and forest restoration combined to avert disaster during the 2020 Cameron Peak fire in Colorado. We feel blessed to live, travel, and work in rural Appalachia.

@vt_rural @deidrehand @joe.troop.music

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January Program - The State of Butterflies in the United States: A Colorado Viewpoint

Recent data highlights a concerning decline in insect abundance, making the study of butterflies more critical than ever. On January 8th, join us for a presentation by Steve Armstead, a pollinator conservation specialist with the @xercessociety. Steve will share insights from a study on the Mountain-Prairie region, highlighting butterfly species native to Colorado and discussing how these findings can drive local conservation efforts. With over 30 years of experience in natural lands management, Steve will provide practical steps we can all take to support pollinator health. This program is free and open to the public. Join us in person or attend via Zoom link in bio.

#coloradoentomology #nocobirdalliance #butterfliesofcolorado

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Our watershed is no stranger to wildfire risk. But what makes the Big Thompson different is the strength of its partnerships. The Big Thompson Watershed Health Partnership (BTWHP) has brought together federal, state, and local agencies, nonprofits, utilities, and other stakeholders who all share a deep commitment to the health of this landscape. Out of that collective commitment, the Wildfire Ready Action Plan (WRAP) was born. By uniting science, local knowledge, and shared values, we’ve created a model that not only prepares us for what’s ahead—but also strengthens the fabric of our community in the process.

Read all about it in our latest blog Building Wildfire Resilience from the Ground Up: The Story Behind Our Wildfire Ready Action Plan. Link In BIO
VIDEO: Evan Barrientos

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On Sunday, February 2, 2025, we had the honor of viewing Evan Barrientos’ short documentary, Fireforest, and hearing a panel of experts answer insightful questions about fire and forest restoration. In addition to the filmmaker, the speakers on the panel from Rocky Mountain National Park were Kevin Gaalaas, Forest Ecologist; Nathan Hallam, Fuels Specialist; and Kyle Patterson, Public Affairs Officer. If you were unable to make it to this past Winter Speaker Series event, click through these photos for 3 key takeaways and information on how to watch Fireforest for free online.

We’d like to thank @evanbarrientosphotography and our panelists for sharing their time and expertise with us! This program is made possible by the support from Rocky Mountain Conservancy. Register for upcoming Winter Speaker Series events by clicking the link in our bio.

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In the wake of megafires, the narrative is often one of devastation and loss. That’s what makes Fireforest so refreshing—it’s a rare and inspiring success story. Over the past few months, this 16-minute documentary has captivated audiences, and now that it’s available online, we wanted to spread the word to our community.

Directed by conservation filmmaker @evanbarrientosphotography, Fireforest highlights how proactive forest restoration and prescribed burns played a pivotal role in protecting communities from the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire, Colorado’s largest recorded wildfire. While the film celebrates this success, it also delivers a powerful message: to safeguard our forests and communities against the increasing threat of megafires, we must significantly scale up restoration efforts.

This film is part of a larger initiative to deepen public understanding of fire ecology and advocate for forest and watershed restoration at scale. While we weren’t involved in creating Fireforest, we’re thrilled to uplift stories that align with our mission of restoring and protecting forests, watersheds, and communities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuoXGH4IOIw

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Join us next week for a #CXLFireChallenge virtual watch party and webinar, Beneficial Fire on Film!

Discover how fire can be a tool for ecosystem restoration and community resilience through two powerful films—Fire Tender and FireForest—and hear from the filmmakers themselves:

- Dr. @ronijodraper, National Geographic Explorer and director of Fire Tender
- @evanbarrientosphotography , director of FireForest

When you register, you’ll gain exclusive access to watch both films online before the webinar, offering a firsthand look at how beneficial fire is changing the way we view and manage fire.

🎟️ Click the link in our bio to register!

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Meet the Gunnison grouse, a medium-sized bird native to the Colorado Plateau in the United States. It’s known for its distinctive mating display, which includes inflating its chest and making a series of popping sounds. This species is closely related to the greater sage-grouse but is smaller and has a more restricted range. The Gunnison grouse is considered near threatened due to habitat loss and fragmentation, primarily from human activities such as development and agriculture. Conservation efforts focus on protecting its sagebrush habitat and managing land use to ensure the bird’s survival.

📍🎥 @evanbarrientosphotography

#nature #naturephotography #birdphotography #wildlife #birds #naturelovers #wildlifephotography #wildanimals #wildbirds #birdlovers #birdfreaks

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Here are my impressions of the #AlexanderMountainFire last night. Aircraft were dwarfed by the size of the smoke columns (photo 2), but when the fire crept into sight, I remembered how much smoke small flames can make.

People gathered on the side of the road to watch the fire for more than an hour. Some were there out of fear, watching to see how close the fire was to their houses. Others were there out of wonder, young friends sitting on their car watching the scene like fireworks. There was a sense of community.

With photography, it’s easy to make wildfires look like massive explosions. Just wait till dusk, put on a wide-angle lens, frame the full smoke column, and take a long exposure. Photo 1. Or put on a telephoto and zoom in on the most intense flames. Photo 5. But in real life, the fire is just a cluster of small twinkling orange stars on the mountain. Photo 6.

#wildfire #forestfire #colorado # nature

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Last night I drove to see the #AlexanderMountainFire. Although I’ve been around a couple dozen prescribed fires and lots of wildfire smoke, this was my first time seeing the flames of wild fire. It gave me the same surreal feeling that seeing a new species of animal does. For years I’ve felt that fire is like a rare native species.

The smoke columns and news footage we see give the impression that forest fires are massive, volcanic infernos, and sometimes they are, but not always. The spirit of the fire that I saw was delicate, almost serene.

Yes, this fire has the potential to do a lot of scary damage, but for now, the small portion that I could see looked like a natural process of rejuvenation returning to the land. We’ll see what this does. Have hope.

#wildfire #forestfire #colorado #nature

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