OOS 32

Backing It Up: Science at Non-Profit Conservation Organizations

Non-profit, non-governmental conservation organizations are traditionally valued for their advocacy, outreach, and conservation actions. In that unique position, these organizations have designed and championed several well-known conservation strategies, such as Audubon’s Important Bird Areas, The Nature Conservancy’s Ecoregional Assessments, and the National Wildlife Federation’s Climate-Smart Conservation. These and other local-scale strategies are increasingly supported by in-house monitoring and scientific analysis. Many conservation organizations have established science divisions contributing to a variety of disciplines including wildlife biology, agro-ecology, climate-impacts science, and the study of ecosystem services. Their scientists also partner with academic and government scientists through co-sponsorship, memoranda of understanding, and cooperative research agreements. Connections between ecological research and conservation science are strengthening with conservation science benefiting from advances, both theoretical and methodological, in ecology as well as contributing new questions for ecological research. This session addresses a broad range of research topics, including ecosystem function in novel plant communities, rangeland restoration, trophic cascades, water management and freshwater conservation, citizen science, and endangered species management. In fitting with the theme of the meeting, this session stresses the diversity of landscapes that constitute California from offshore islands and marine ecosystems to the agriculturally-oriented Central Valley, the high country east of the Sierra Nevada, the Mojave Desert, and major urban centers such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. Although the research topics vary, each speaker will place his or her study within the unique context of their organization’s mission and/or decision-making process. Thus, the connection between science and its application will be a unifying theme running through the diverse talks included in this session.