Conservation Science

Mark Elbroch works to mitigate human-carnivore conflict through research and education, with the goal of providing the data needed to fight old mythology that perpetuates fear of large carnivores. His latest study suggests that food provided by pumas may be vital to the maintenance and diversity of scavenger and decomposer communities in Patagonia and elsewhere. Read the original research that appeared in Biology Letters (PDF download, less than 0.5 MB)

Michael S. Stevens is the Co-Founder and Principal of Pioneer Mountain Group, an environmental consulting firm based in Hailey, Idaho. PMG provides a range of management, conservation, scientific and natural resource production and marketing services to clients including non-profit organizations, investment firms, and private landowners. The firm’s current projects are in the western United States, Latin America and Canada.

The prime culprit in all this is the green crab. And as Brian Beal explains, green crab populations can be hard to control. He's professor of marine ecology at the University of Maine in Machias. "Nobody really eats them and that's the problem," Beal says. "They're just so highly fecund, they have lots of eggs, there's no real predator that can keep them in check." Listen to the full story