The wilderness cemetery: a new approach to funding land conservation

Click to read more ...

Coalition calls for people to 'speak up for National Forests'

The U.S. Forest Service has announced a series of events to allow public discussion on the development of a new Planning Rule. This is actually a big deal, because it will set the future management direction of the 193-million National Forest System in the United States...

Click to read more ...

Interview with a native plant pioneer: revegetating levees in the Delta

In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta of California, there are few investments more precious - and more fought over - than levees. Over the last two decades, Jeff Hart has been challenging conventional wisdom about levees and native vegetation. K. Gregg Elliot interviewed Jeff about his innovative work...

Click to read more ...

Profiting from invasive plants: the challenge of controlling the horticultural industry

Click to read more ...

The paradoxes of the Endangered Species Act (and how to fix them)

In a recent article in the journal Environmental Management, conservation biologist George Wilhere argues that the Endangered Species Act and its provision for habitat conservation plans are hampered by three main paradoxes: the Train Wreck Paradox, the Jeopardy Paradox, and the Maximum Mitigation Paradox. We interview George Wilhere and ask him how we can fix the problem...

Click to read more ...

Can animal rights activists and conservationists find common ground?

When the staff of the Point Reyes National Seashore in California started reflecting on how to deal with the proliferating non-native deer in the park, it knew it was tackling a sensitive issue. It was concerned about the exotic deer damaging soils and vegetation, competing for food with native tule elk and black-tailed deer, and contaminating them with fatal disease. Yet visitors had grown fond of those endearing park fixtures...

Click to read more ...

Hopes for 2010: a conservation policy wish list

As a follow up to our piece, Grading Obama: a 2009 conservation policy review, we asked five leading conservation organizations about their hopes for 2010. Each organization gave us a list of policy achievements that they would like to see. We compiled some of their responses in a 2010 conservation policy wish list...

Click to read more ...

Grading Obama on conservation: a review of 2009 policy accomplishments

When Obama and the Democrats won big in 2008, the conservation movement emerged from the dark ages of the Bush Era with hopes for a policy renaissance. Now that 2009 has passed, we consult with 6 leading conservation groups about their view of the past year. Each organization gave input on what they saw as 2009 policy achievements and shortcomings...

Click to read more ...

Highlights from the State of the Estuary conference

At the end of September, I attended the highly anticipated State of the Estuary held in Oakland, California. The conference has been presenting research on the health of the San Francisco Bay estuary for the past 18 years, and is now a leading regional ecological conference in the US...read more

Click to read more ...

Fed up conservation workers organize

In California, conservation workers are venturing into new territory: labor organizing. In the aftermath of a 7+ month state bond freeze that left the industry reeling: a group of conservationists has launched the Association of Conservation Contractors and Workers (ACCW) - an organization that aspires to be a mix between a trade association and a union...read more

Click to read more ...