Conservation Science

As many of you probably already heard, last week the Coastal Conservancy approved up to $6.5 million to complete studies and permitting for the Ballona Wetlands. If that price tag for planning is giving you sticker shock, I have two words: Army Corps. Actually more than two words – you see, one alternative proposes removing and relocating the levees that currently contain Ballona Creek’s flows from spreading over the wetlands. (You know, th

Read the full story

Americans want more bison in more places. As the National Park Service makes the case for the eradication of bison from Grand Canyon National Park, a growing number of scientists and citizens are convinced that bison should remain there. Eradication would be inconsistent with ecological history and counter to the Service’s mission to “promote and regulate the use of the ... national parks ... which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein … for the enjoyment of future generations.”

The plastics on Mahahual's picturesque beaches are more than an eyesore. They may threaten the fragile coral reef and mangrove ecosystems of the Yucatan Peninsula, said H. Bruce Rinker, an ecologist at the Maine-based Biodiversity Research Institute and science advisor to Sustenta.com. "If we turn our backs, we risk harming the integrity of those systems," Rinker said. Read full story

The subtle rust and charcoal hues of the robin’s plumage told me it was a female, and her feathers shone fresh and porcelain smooth in the sunlight. She cocked her head, hopped, and then lunged forward to root at something in the soil. Tilting upright again, she suddenly launched skyward, turning sharply around a fence post and swooping up at an impossible angle to land on an alder branch. Perched there, the robin shook her tail and fluffed up her body feathers before letting everything settle back into place.

Watch the videos on YouTube

This image was captured in the Mendocino National Forest in Califoria as part of a study on black-tail deer survival. The study targets understanding how predation and habitat quality and spatial arrangement contribute to deer survival in order to manage mammal populations in a changing world. Tavis Forrester and his team use the cameras to get a relative density of predator species in fawning areas to determine if this density affects survival probability for deer fawns.