{"id":60994,"date":"2026-04-10T11:08:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=60994"},"modified":"2026-04-10T11:08:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:08:42","slug":"professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor&#8217;s backyard pond makes it onto cover of national magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In the spring 2026 issue of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nwf.org\/Magazines\/National-Wildlife\">National Wildlife Magazine<\/a><\/em>, <strong>Steven David Johnson<\/strong>, professor of Visual and Communication Arts (VACA) at EMU, writes about how his daughter&#8217;s school project building a small backyard pond turned into a family native plant landscaping effort bringing biodiversity to their yard.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Johnson&#8217;s photography of the pond and its bountiful wildlife\u2014think butterflies, hummingbirds, and frogs\u2014are beautifully captured on the magazine&#8217;s cover and its glossy pages, as well as online. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right has-medium-font-size\">Read his story and view the photos <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nwf.org\/Home\/Magazines\/National-Wildlife\/2026\/Spring\/PhotoZone\/Building-Backyard-Pond\">here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result of the project, Johnson wrote, &#8220;we went from seeing an occasional wandering toad to now having a fully functioning ecosystem.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;For me, this is a story of hope,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Tackling the extinction crisis can seem overwhelming, but everyday folks can transform their backyards into an oasis for wildlife.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dwr.virginia.gov\/blog\/i-spy-salamanders\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10100341\/EMU-2026-04-10T100311.099-1024x683.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-61181\" style=\"width:650px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10100341\/EMU-2026-04-10T100311.099-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10100341\/EMU-2026-04-10T100311.099-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10100341\/EMU-2026-04-10T100311.099-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10100341\/EMU-2026-04-10T100311.099.jpeg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Professor Steven David Johnson&#8217;s photography also graces the cover of the March-April 2026 issue of <em>Virginia Wildlife Magazine<\/em>, which features a story about Virginia&#8217;s vernal pools and the salamanders that inhabit them. To view his photos with that story, click on the photo above or visit <a href=\"http:\/\/dwr.virginia.gov\/blog\/i-spy-salamanders.\">dwr.virginia.gov\/blog\/i-spy-salamanders<\/a>. (Photos courtesy of Steven David Johnson)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the spring 2026 issue of National Wildlife Magazine, Steven David Johnson, professor of Visual and Communication Arts (VACA) at EMU, writes about how his daughter&#8217;s school project building a <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Professor&#8217;s backyard pond makes it onto cover of national magazine<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":61179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7931,5583,17562,5642,5730,12507],"tags":[18990,17875,18988,18989,18490,17602,9598,14260,18987],"feature":[17427,17426,17241,17422],"class_list":["post-60994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-campus-community","category-digest","category-faculty-and-staff","category-undergraduate-programs","category-vaca","tag-biodiversity","tag-in-the-news","tag-magazines","tag-national-wildlife-magazine","tag-nature","tag-steven-david-johnson","tag-vaca","tag-visual-and-communication-arts","tag-wildlife","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature","feature-news-landing-page-main-feature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Professor&#039;s backyard pond makes it onto cover of national magazine - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Professor&#039;s backyard pond makes it onto cover of national magazine - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the spring 2026 issue of National Wildlife Magazine, Steven David Johnson, professor of Visual and Communication Arts (VACA) at EMU, writes about how his daughter&#8217;s school project building a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-10T15:08:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-10T15:08:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10094728\/EMU-2026-04-10T094703.104.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"854\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Cornell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ryan Cornell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/\",\"name\":\"Professor's backyard pond makes it onto cover of national magazine - EMU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10094728\/EMU-2026-04-10T094703.104.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-10T15:08:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-10T15:08:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10094728\/EMU-2026-04-10T094703.104.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10094728\/EMU-2026-04-10T094703.104.jpeg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":854},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Professor&#8217;s backyard pond makes it onto cover of national magazine\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\",\"name\":\"EMU News\",\"description\":\"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf\",\"name\":\"Ryan Cornell\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Professor's backyard pond makes it onto cover of national magazine - EMU News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Professor's backyard pond makes it onto cover of national magazine - EMU News","og_description":"In the spring 2026 issue of National Wildlife Magazine, Steven David Johnson, professor of Visual and Communication Arts (VACA) at EMU, writes about how his daughter&#8217;s school project building a","og_url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/","og_site_name":"EMU News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite","article_published_time":"2026-04-10T15:08:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-10T15:08:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":854,"url":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10094728\/EMU-2026-04-10T094703.104.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ryan Cornell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EMU_News","twitter_site":"@EMU_News","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ryan Cornell","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/","name":"Professor's backyard pond makes it onto cover of national magazine - EMU News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10094728\/EMU-2026-04-10T094703.104.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-04-10T15:08:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-10T15:08:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10094728\/EMU-2026-04-10T094703.104.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/10094728\/EMU-2026-04-10T094703.104.jpeg","width":1280,"height":854},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/professors-backyard-pond-makes-it-onto-cover-of-national-magazine\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Professor&#8217;s backyard pond makes it onto cover of national magazine"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/","name":"EMU News","description":"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d24e9770fdab8276fbcf29504123fdf","name":"Ryan Cornell"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/302"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60994"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61186,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60994\/revisions\/61186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60994"},{"taxonomy":"feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature?post=60994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}