Senior Environmental Scientist, Department of Fish and Game

VIEW: BIOTOP

MARC's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. California’s climate is already rapidly changing.

2. Expect greater stress on species and habitats.

3. Species/habitats will respond in different, perhaps surprising, ways.

4. We can take action now to help them adapt and survive.

Marc is an ecologist with degrees in biology and geology. He has worked with the California
Department of Fish and Game since 1986.

During that time, he has coordinated the Department’s statewide Significant Natural Areas (SNA) Program, helped develop and staff the California Biodiversity Council and the California Legacy Project, served as an advisor for several statewide reports on the state’s biodiversity, Co-authored California’s state wildlife plan, and co-edited Invasive Plants of California Wildlands.

He currently provides state-level policy guidance for several regional conservation plans (Natural Community Conservation Plans) throughout California. Marc is developing a statewide effort to assess habitat connectivity, in conjunction with Caltrans, State Parks, University of California, and others.

His involvement in climate change includes serving as the DFG representative on the Joint Agency Climate Team from 2001-2003, ensuring that the state wildlife plan included climate change, developing this presentation for California’s natural resource professionals to raise their awareness of ecological impacts from climate change.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

Executive Director, San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission

VIEW: BIOTOP

WILL's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. Projected Sea Level Rise and Response.

2. Impact of California Climate Change.

Will Travis, who is the executive director of BCDC––the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission––received Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Regional Planning degrees from Penn State University.

Will began his professional career as an assistant planner and urban designer at BCDC between 1970 and 1972. He then spent a year as a consultant on the master plan for the East Bay Regional Park District. In 1973, he joined the staff of the newly-established California Coastal Commission where, between  1973 and 1985, he held a number of positions including heading the coastal agency’s offshore oil drilling permit staff, directing its public access program, and overseeing its budget and administrative functions. He returned to BCDC in 1985 and spent the next ten years as the Commission’s deputy director. He has been BCDC’s executive director since 1995.

He served as the chairman of a trustee committee which managed a multi-million dollar oil spill settlement fund set up by Shell Oil Company after a 1988 oil spill in San Francisco Bay. In that capacity, he spearheaded the public acquisition of 10,000 acres of privately-owned salt ponds along the northern shoreline of San Francisco Bay so the ponds can be restored to coastal wetlands.

Will has been a lecturer at universities throughout North America, has written many articles, and has provided professional advice to other states and nations. He has served on the boards of directors of a number of professional and civic organizations, served on the Berkeley city planning commission, and is currently chairman of a special committee that is working with the University of California to formulate a new plan for downtown Berkeley.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

Executive Officer, State Coastal Conservancy

VIEW: BIOTOP

SAMUEL's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. We need to restore sooner, rather than later.

2. We need coordinated regional efforts.

3. We need a web-based clearinghouse for information about managing the effects of climate change on wetland restoration.

4. Emerging Green Technology and Economic Growth: A Landscape of Action?

Samuel P. Schuchat became Executive Officer of the Coastal Conservancy in July 2001. He was previously the Executive Director of the Federation of State Conservation Voter Leagues, the trade association of 26 environmental Political Action Committees (PAC) in as many states. For six years he also served as the Executive Director of the California League of Conservation Voters, the nation's largest and oldest state environmental PAC with 25,000 members.

Mr. Schuchat was the vice-president of the California Fish and Game Commission, on which he served from 1999 to 2003. He has an extensive background in fund-raising and management of not-for-profit organizations. He has worked as a community and union organizer, has raised money for community art projects, and was the deputy director of Sacramento AIDS foundation in the late 1980s.

He received his BA in Political Science at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1983, and his MA in Public Administration at San Francisco State University in 1989. He is an avid birdwatcher and has backpacked all over the Eastern and Western United States. He resides in Oakland with his wife and daughter.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

Professor, Energy and Resources Group, Director, Public Policy, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley

VIEW: BIOTOP

DANIEL's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. Feedstock-to-fuel choices have profound impacts far beyond the energy sector.

2. Carbon is a start, but sustainable fuel standards are needed.

3. Markets provide a key tool.

4. The poor are the most at risk, but have much to gain if biofuels are made tools to achieve sustainable societies.

5. Biofuel research and demonstration must be integrated with policy development.

6. Biofuels link energy and globalization.

Dan Kammen has intensive research interest studies in Science and Technology Policy focused on energy, development and environmental management. Technology and policy questions in developing nations, particularly involving: the linkages between energy, health, and the environment; technology transfer and diffusion; household energy management; renewable energy; women; minority groups. Global environmental change including deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption. Other focus: Environmental and technological risk. Management of innovation and energy R&D policy. Geographic expertise: Africa; Latin America.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

PhD, Director, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Professor, Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley

VIEW: BIOTOP

CRAIG's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. Rates of diversification are not randomly distributed - cold & hotspots.

2. Common environmental theme is gradients/ecotones, geological complexity.

3. Location & extent of hotspots likely to shift with climate.

4. Protection of EHs requires large-scale and coordinated planning to protect connectivity across gradients, and large, heterogeneous areas.

5. Protected areas are not immune from effects of climate change, but offer the greatest potential for resilience.

Craig Moritz is a long-time leader in the study of molecular evolution and molecular systematics. His studies include work on beetles, birds, bats, nematodes, and mollusks but have concentrated on reptiles and amphibians. He has been Professor of Integrative Biology and Director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California at Berkeley since 2001, and at various times, Chair of the Berkeley Natural History Museums. He was elected a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences in 2002.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

Chair and Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles

VIEW: BIOTOP

Victoria's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. Geographical genetic patterns & areas of evolutionary interest.

2. California oak reserve design in the face of climate change.

3. Recommendations about regions of high priority.

My research examines contemporary and historical gene flow in plant populations from both an evolutionary and conservation perspective. This focus stems from an interest in the interaction between gene flow and natural selection on the genetic structure of tree populations from an evolutionary and conservation perspective. Over the years, I have been interested in plant mating systems, seed dispersal, and demography of plants in tropical and temperate ecosystems.The scale of my research has ranged from the local site to landscape.

One big thrust of my research program is the study of pollen and seed movement at a landscape scale. Using molecular markers and novel statistical approaches, we have shown that contemporary gene movement results in a much more restricted local neighborhood than previously thought, which accounts for the great extent of local adaptation in plant populations and also calls into question the risk of genetic drift. For the past five years, through two awards from the National Science Foundation to first study pollen movement and now to assess seed movement in California valley oak (Quercus lobata), a species threatened by human disturbance and
population decline.

We have been involved in the development of new statistical approach to the study of contemporary gene movement that can be applied to many temperate, tropical, pristine and disturbed study  systems. A second area of interest is landscape genetics and phylogeography. We have a statewide study of historical gene flow in several oak species. Another major project involves the phylogeography of the epiphytic lace lichen, Ramalina menziesii, which uses oaks as host trees where they overlap but has a broader distribution from Baja California to Alaska. We apply many of our findings to conservation topics, including landscape fragmentation and design of reserve networks.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

PhD, Research Scientist, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara

VIEW: BIOTOP

Lydia's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. Species Distribution Modeling.

2. Reducing uncertainty, predicting potential niches, building and validating individual species in model development.

3. Couple outputs with spatially explicit demographic models

4. Predict climate driven shifts for future scenarios.

5. Continue incorporating competition, disturbance and use change into models.

6. Improve projections for the implications for management strategies, and conservation allocation.

Lydia Ries received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Sciences in 2007 while working with Hank Shugart. Her dissertation research explored nutrient and light limitations on vegetation in the savannas of southern Africa. She spent part of her graduate career in Zambia, Botswana and South Africa collecting field measurements and collaborating with the University of Botswana and the South African National Biodiversity Institute. Currently, Lydia is a postdoctoral research scientist at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara. She is working with Lee Hannah and Frank Davis on predicting shifts in species’ ranges under various climate change scenarios. She most recently presented her modeling work on climate change impacts on California tree species at the 4th annual California Climate Change Conference.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

PhD, Superintendent, Colorado Desert, California State Parks

VIEW: BIOTOP

MICHAEL's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. Climate or ecosystem changes in an unanticipated direction.

2. Monitor climate, ecosystem and species response.

3. Assess model performance.

4. Periodically reevaluate assumptions.

5. Be committed to taking a reiterative approach

.

Mike Wells was appointed in February 2006 as the District Superintendent for Colorado Desert District, capping a long and varied State Parks career. Mike began as a State Park Ranger in 1975 and worked in seven different State Parks over the next ten years. These assignments included the beaches and deserts of southern California as well as western Sierra Nevada foothills. In 1984 Mike became a State Park Resource Ecologist and accepted a job as manager of a watershed restoration project at Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The following year he assumed leadership of the State Parks fire management program for southern California. In this assignment he directed prescribed fire operations in State Parks and acted as the State Park representative for fire suppression activities. In 1992 he became District Ecologist for San Diego Coast District and managed several natural resource restoration projects. In 2002 he became Superintendent of South Sector, San Diego Coast District which included acting as Reserve Manager for the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve in Imperial Beach. He was promoted in November of 2004 to the position of District Superintendent for Mendocino District along the Northern California coast.

Mike received a BA in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Barbara in 1974, an MA in Physical Geography from San Diego State University in 1994, and a Ph.D. in Biogeography in a joint program from UCSB and SDSU in 2001. His original research in the area of fire ecology has been published in the journals Hydrobiologia, The Journal of Plant Ecology and The Journal of Landscape Ecology.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

PhD, Conservation Biology Institute

VIEW: BIOTOP

MICHAEL's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. Manage reserves AND matrix lands to accommodate changes.

2. Collaborate on research and monitoring to inform land management.

3. Recognize that new species assemblages will develop under altered climates.

4. New management regimes may be necessary to accommodate changing ecosystem processes.

5. Conservation trade-offs are real.

6. Keep future options open with today’s decision-making.

7. Science must inform conservation actions.

Dr. Michael White is a Senior Ecologist with the Conservation Biology Institute. He has over 20 years of project experience throughout the southwestern U.S. and the Pacific Rim. He received his Ph.D. from the San Diego State University and U.C. Davis Ecology Joint Doctoral Program. Mike is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Biology Department at San Diego State University. He serves on the Science Advisory Panel of the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project, the County of San Diego’s Biological Advisory Panel, and the Scientific Advisory Group for the San Diego Tracking Team, a volunteer-based non-governmental organization. Mike regularly consults with a variety of conservation organizations throughout California.

Mike worked for 10 years in the private-sector environmental consulting industry and the last 9 years at the non-profit Conservation Biology Institute. His academic training is in limnology and community ecology, and his project experience includes multiple species conservation planning, watershed management, riparian and stream assessments and restoration planning, environmental impact analyses, resource management planning, ecological risk assessments, and regulatory compliance for wetlands and endangered species. Mike is currently working on landscape-scale conservation planning and assessment projects─ranging in size from nearly 300,000 acres to over 6 million acres─in the northern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi Mountains, California-Baja California border region, and Colorado Desert.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

PhD, Chief of Science and Planning, The Nature Conservancy

VIEW: BIOTOP

REBECCA's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. Refine methodology - test on array of targets, services, and management systems include habitat fragmentations.

2. Define impacts, redefine management goals, strategies and geographic priorities for 2020-2049

3. Identify goals that are achievable, which are not, and how they need to change.

4. Define impacts, redefine management goals, strategies and geographic priorities for 2070-2099.

5. Evaluate policy and regulatory barriers.

6. Evaluate partnership opportunities.

7. Manage for change at relevant temporal and spatial scales.

Dr. Rebecca Shaw is a conservation biologist who focuses impacts of global environmental change on ecological systems, ecological processes and human well-being. Dr. Shaw received a master’s degree in environmental policy and a doctorate in energy and resources from the University of California at Berkeley. Rebecca Shaw has conducted climate change research on the impacts of climate change on natural systems for 16 years, including projects focused on changes in biodiversity and ecosystem function, climate change adaptation and vulnerability, and incorporating climate change into natural resource and conservation planning.

Dr. Shaw has published widely on the impacts of climate change in leading journals including Science and Nature. As Director of Conservation Science at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) of California, she is responsible for managing an interdisciplinary team of scientific and technical experts for incorporating the best available scientific information into the full array of TNC programs.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

Superintendent, Point Reyes National Seashore, National Park Service
 

VIEW: BIOTOP

DONALD's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. Enhanced ecological monitoring

2. Forecasting at relevant scales

3. Integrated assessment of impacts.

4. Communication and education.

5. Guidelines for implementing adaptive management principles.

6. Enhance partnerships.

Don Neubacher began his tenure as Superintendent at Point Reyes National Seashore in February 1995. Point Reyes has a budget of approximately $14 million, serves over 2.0 million visitors annually, and has a staff of 150 during peak visitation periods. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, the park has 1200 volunteers and over 60 partner organizations helping fulfill the mission of the National Park Service.

Mr. Neubacher's 20 plus year career in the National Park Service (NPS) has included appointments at Glacier Bay National Park, Denver Service Center, Golden Gate National Recreation Area and serving as the Deputy General Manager for the Presidio of San Francisco from January 1992 until February, 1995. Formerly, Don was a lecturer at California’s Humboldt State University in northern California.

Mr. Neubacher's professional history includes interpretive, recreational, and park planning; exhibit design; park and land use management; and park partner/partnership development. During his career, he has developed expertise in strategic planning, partnerships, science-based management, and cooperative conservation. He served as the Co-Chair of the Natural Resource Challenge Council that was successful in generating $75 million in Congressional funding forenhancement of NPS resource management activities.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

PhD, Executive Director, California Council of Science and Technology

VIEW: BIOTOP

SUSAN's KEY POINTS:  
 

1. Use the network of experts and researchers to bridge the gap between research community and state/federal land managing agencies and the larger land trusts as it relates addressing climate change and land acquisition and stewardship.

2. Create Executive Project Committee to establish scope and to review findings and create annual reports.

3. Attain Staff to Collect data and plan report.

4. Develop an interactive information website that will make the reports and relevant information publicly available.

Susan Hackwood is currently Executive Director of the California Council on Science and Technology, and Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Riverside. CCST is a not-for-profit corporation comprised of 150 top science and technology leaders sponsored by the key academic and federal research institutions in the California, which advises the state on all aspects of science and technology including nanotechnology, stem cell research, intellectual property, climate change, energy, information technology, biotechnology, technical workforce development and education.

Dr. Hackwood received a Ph.D. in Solid State Ionics in 1979 from DeMontfort University, UK. Before joining academia, she was Department Head of Device Robotics Technology Research at AT&T Bell Labs. In 1984 she joined the University of California, Santa Barbara as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and was founder and Director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Robotic Systems in Microelectronics.

Dr. Hackwood has worked extensively with industry, academic and government partnerships to identify policy issues of importance to the country’s citizens. She is also an active participant in regional and state economic development. With a strong interest in science and technology policy,

Dr. Hackwood is currently involved with science and technology
development in California, the U.S., Mexico, Ireland, Taiwan and Costa Rica. She has been appointed as an Honorary Member of the Comision Asesora en Alta Tecnologia for Costa Rica and the California-Mexico Commission on Education, Science and Technology. In 2003 she was appointed a member of the AAAS Committee on Science Engineering and Public Policy and is the 2007-8 Chair. From 2000-2 she was a member of the AAAS Engineering Delegate and is currently Chair of the Section on Societal Impacts of Science and Engineering. She is a member of the IEEE Spectrum Editorial Board. She has also served on the Board of Directors and consults on new product development for several electronics companies.

BACK

LOAD PRESENTATION BELOW: (View in: NEW WINDOW)   BACK / TOP

TOP