Symposium Overview

The symposium was held on Thursday, November 15, 2007 in Berkeley California. The symposium was sponsored by California State Parks, the California Center for Environmental Law & Policy, with the assistance of the Resources Legacy Fund and The Nature Conservancy.

Symposium Purpose

Provide a fact-based understanding of the future impact of global warming on California as it pertains to policy and decisions and the nearly three(3) billion dollars California will spend over the next five (5) years on:

• Conservation Projects

• Stewardship

• Restoration

• Acquisition Expenditures

Formulate actionable policy recommendations, in light of the expected effects of climate change and the adaptation needs of species and habitats, on how public land managers should modify their :
 

• Management strategies

• Acquisition priorities

• Restoration practices

Speakers Notes: The purpose of the symposium was to address the critical question: On what basis will over the next several years, decisions will be made to spend the hundreds of millions of public and private dollars available for on the acquisition and restoration of conservation lands in California.

Symposium Attendees

• Policymakers

• Academicians

• Public land managers

• Land trust leaders

• Conservationists

• Interested donors

Topics Covered

The Symposium covered the impacts of global warming on the California landscape and the future success of conservation projects and large expenditures for natural resource stewardship, restoration and acquisition, and briefly touched on green technologies and their impact on economic growth.

Speakers presented state-of-the-art information on what science can tell us about the effects of climate change on California’s public conservation lands. Panelists will considered those presentations and related them to specific acquisition and restoration policies. Attendees engaged the panelists and speakers in active discussions. Speakers included Daniel M. Kammen, Professor, Energy and Resources Group, Director, Public Policy, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Victoria Sork, Chair and Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles and Michael White, PhD of the Conservation Biology Institute.

An exploration of current research on evolutionary hotspots:

Climates change effects on California’s Public Lands and methods for dynamically modeling these changes to assist in:

• California Valley Oak Genetics and Reforestation

• Land use redevelopment

• Coastal wetland restoration and acquisition

• Large landscape reserve planning

Expert representatives from various organizations described the effects of climate on conservation planning procedures, practices, and their priorities for the future

• California departments of Fish and Game

• State Parks

• The Nature Conservancy

• National Park Service

A new process for tracking conservation and climate change research-related practices over the next ten years was unveiled.

Meet the Speakers