Conservation Science

Dr. Jeff Dlott is the father of one of the students (Chloe Dlott) where I am teaching this year. We connected early in the year when he realized we are both Switzer Fellows and have been in communication. Jeff did his Ph.D. in entomology, but now runs a sustainable agriculture company. I asked Jeff if he was willing to come and run two lab sessions with junior biology students.

This issue brief reports on the mechanics of and lessons learned from a conservation incentive program focused on the gopher tortoise. Its aim is to inform the successful design and implementation of other candidate programs emerging throughout the southern forests and greater United States. The Switzer Foundation is funding a pilot demonstration project to test the feasibility of the project concept. Read a summary and download the report

The study, "Connecting Natural Landscapes Using a Landscape Permeability Model to Prioritize Conservation Activities in the United States," appears in the journal Conservation Letters. Authors include David Theobald of CSU, Kenyon Fields and Michael Soulé from Wildlands Network and Sarah Reed from the Wildlife Conservation Society. Read the full story

From the blog's About Me page: My name is Tara Cornelisse and I’m a Ph.D. candidate at University of California Santa Cruz. I have a Master’s degree in Conservation Biology from San Francisco State University. I am also an insect enthusiast (I love them!) but with a wider passion to advance the conservation of biodiversity- all of the plants and animals on this beautiful Earth of ours.

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The overall objective of this field study is to quantify cougar ecology in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Specific goals are to:

“People once had the pleasure of spotting flying squirrels gliding through the forests and visiting their porches at night in the San Jacinto Mountains, but not anymore,” said Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s a tremendous loss. The flying squirrel needs the immediate protections of the Endangered Species Act to ensure that it doesn’t suffer any more declines.”

Linda Kramme, manager of the forest program at World Wildlife Fund, said her organization and others applaud Kroger for making a responsible business decision. “WWF and other groups that are asking consumers not to buy Mercury’s products...aren’t trying to put Mercury or APP out of business, but simply asking them to adhere to the same forestry practices that responsible pulp and paper companies the world over adhere to,’’ she said.

“With little regret but out of respect to protocol, the State of Israel announces the loss of Cerbalus aravensis, a newly discovered species of spider, which made its home in the Samar sand dunes in the southern Arava. Although the spider, like all of earth’s diverse species, is the unique product of millions of years of evolutionary history ‏(or the no-less wondrous work of God, if you will‏), we saw fit to sacrifice it by plowing up its only known habitat for approximately NIS 1 million worth of sand.