Agenda
Friday, October 7 - click here for Granlibakken map
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12:30 PM |
Pre-Conference Workshops (times vary) |
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4:00 PM |
Registration & Check-In |
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5:30 PM |
Opening Ceremony - Ballroom Welcome - Greg Ira, Director, UC California Naturalist |
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5:40 PM |
Rhiana Jones, Director, Washoe Environmental Protection Department |
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6:00 PM |
Dinner - Garden Deck |
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7:15 PM |
California’s 30x30 Initiative - Jennifer Norris, Deputy Secretary for Biodiversity and Habitat, California Natural Resources Agency In October 2020, Governor Newsom issued his Nature-Based Solutions Executive Order N-82-20, advancing biodiversity conservation as an administration priority and elevating the role of nature in the fight against climate change. As part of this Executive Order, California committed to conserving 30% of our lands and coastal waters by 2030 (30x30) to protect biodiversity, increase access to nature, and advance climate action. Come hear about our progress to date and how you can help us reach our goal! |
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8:00 PM |
Closing - Sarah-Mae Nelson, UC California Naturalist
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8:30 PM |
Washoe History, Culture, & Stewardship - Herman Fillmore, Culture/Language Resources Director, Washoe Tribe of Nevada & California Please join Herman Fillmore, at the Garden Deck, to talk about the original people from here, the Waší·šiw or as they are known today the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. This talk will touch on the history of the Washoe Tribe, their culture, language, and traditions as relevant to this conference while also exploring the impacts of western expansion and colonization on many Indigenous Peoples and Cultures. It is important that while western society has much to learn from Indigenous Peoples, that knowledge itself will not stop climate change – we must also understand that these knowledge systems entail an entire way of life. |
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Campfire Circle - Garden Deck - click here for song book Night Owl Activities
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Saturday, October 8
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7:00 AM |
Early Bird Activities - Meet at the Garden Deck |
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7:30 |
Breakfast - at Cedar House Pub |
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Concurrent Session A |
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Location |
Ballroom |
Granhall |
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Track 1: Sierra Natural History |
Track 2: Environmental Education & Participatory Science |
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8:30 |
Ecosystem Restoration in the Sierra Nevada - Patricia Maloney, Forest and Conservation Biologist, Tahoe Environmental Research Center, UC Davis Over the last decade catastrophic wildfires, widespread and unprecedented pest outbreaks, and severe and prolonged drought have devastated California’s wildlands. Given the scale and extent of habitat loss due to these threats, the development of resilient approaches that integrate genetic considerations are needed to improve ecosystem restoration outcomes, secure biodiversity, and maintain and promote local adaptation in wild populations. Novel restoration strategies guided by a better understanding of how native plants evolve in response to selective pressures such as drought, pest outbreaks, and wildfire can amplify population resiliency to contemporary pressures and stressors. We can also foster a diverse and equitable workforce around forestry and restoration initiatives throughout the State while increasing the scope and scale of ecosystem restoration using both traditional and innovative approaches. |
Measuring and Monitoring Community and Ecosystem Resilience - Sara Ludwick, Geography Graduate Group, UC Davis UC Climate Stewards is a certification course through the UC California Naturalists Program that improves climate change literacy and civic engagement for community and ecosystem resilience throughout California. As part of the course curriculum, Climate Stewards participants used the Climate Resilience Assessment (CRA) tool, developed by Community Resilience Organizations (CRO), as a way to rate their own communities’ resilience to climate change. This talk will present an analysis of the first round of assessments completed at Climate Stewards sites across the state. We will review the challenges and the potential value of such assessments at the community scale, situated in a broader discussion of how participatory science activities can support the UC Climate Stewards mission to increase climate resilience. |
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9:00 |
Climate Change Impacts on CA Biodiversity: Are There ‘Good’ and 'Bad’ Responses? - David Ackerly, Department of Integrative Biology and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley
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City Nature Challenge (CNC) - Alison Young, Co-Director, Center for Biodiversity and Community Science, California Academy of Sciences Started in 2016 as a competition between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the City Nature Challenge (CNC) has grown into one of the largest international community science events, motivating people around the world to find and document wildlife in and around their cities, using biodiversity recording apps and platforms like iNaturalist. In California, 17 of the 20 largest cities by population currently participate, and over the 7 years of the CNC, 24,000 California residents and visitors have made more than 563,000 observations of California biodiversity, documenting 11,000 species. In the momentum to protect and steward biodiversity through initiatives like 30x30, community science and events like the CNC are not only an important source of species occurrence records that can inform science, management, and policy, but are also connecting people to the nature around them and building a community of appreciators, observers, and stewards. |
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Traditions of Indigenous Stewardship: Shaping the Landscape Through Time - Don Hankins, Professor, Geography and Planning, Chico State University
Indigenous fire stewardship created ecosystem resistance and resilience to fire. The impacts of policy, land use, and genocide drastically reduced this stewardship. Now wildfires are reshaping these ecosystems with sometimes devastating outcomes such as type conversion. To restore and conserve ecosystems, ancient traditions of stewardship are being sought. Learn how cultural practitioners are working with diverse partners to revitalize these traditions. |
Conversation with iNaturalist Co-Founder - Ken-ichi Ueda, Co-Founder and the Co-Director iNaturalist, California Academy of Sciences Ken-ichi will try to answer as many questions as people have about iNaturalist, from how it began, the challenges it faces, and why Seek thinks every plant is a dicot. Ken-ichi has been working on iNat from the beginning and can comment on most aspects of the platform, though maybe in less detail on how our computer vision system works. |
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10:00 |
Break |
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Concurrent Session B |
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Location |
Ballroom |
Granhall |
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Track 1: California Ecosystems & Biodiversity |
Track 2: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Justice in Conservation |
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10:30 |
Lakes and Ponds of the Sierra Nevada, Major Threats and Environmental Responses - Steven Sadro, Professor, Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) and Environmental Science & Policy, UC Davis There are tens of thousands of lakes and ponds in the Sierra Nevada that span steep environmental gradients associated with elevation and land cover. This session discusses fundamental aspects of their limnology and ecology, and explores how they are responding to ongoing environmental threats associated with climate change. The session draws on long term research that has been carried out at Emerald Lake in Sequoia National Park since the early 1980’s, and more recent work from the California Mountain Lake Network (CaMoLaN), a network of instrumented lakes spanning the mountains of California. |
Embracing DEIB the CCC Way - Bruce Saito, Director, California Conservation Corp. The CCC is an icon of inclusiveness – embracing diversity around ethnicity, culture, gender, and individuals with developmental challenges. Learn from Director Saito how the CCC is dedicated to representing and working towards increasing the inclusion and belonging of the youth we serve through blended academic and job skills training with personal growth opportunities. This unique mix helps the CCC enhance and develop productive youth who can make substantial contributions as California workers and citizens. The session will explain our cultural humility approach that encourages our staff and Corpsmembers to move away from simply thinking they know what to expect from an individual because of their culture and move toward an approach to interaction based on an interest in learning about the other. The session will round out with some highlights on how the CCC is bringing conservation education and environmental stewardship to the diverse population of CCC Corpsmembers through UCANR’s California Naturalist (CalNat) program. |
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11:00 |
Natural History of the California Current: Why it Matters - Christopher Pincetich, Instructor, California Naturalist at Point Reyes National Seashore Association The session will present the Natural History of the California Current publication, which augments the growing California Naturalist publication series. Much of California's biodiversity is linked to the amazing productivity of the offshore habitat beyond our favorite beaches, in the California Current marine ecosystem. Gain an understanding of the physical and atmospheric processes that create the California Current, fundamentals of its ecology, and of threats to marine wildlife and the protections in place off the coast of California. There will be a close look at California's most prolific marine biodiversity hotspot, the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge. |
Building Community Through In-Person Education and Outreach Programs at Jasper Ridge Biological - Jorge Ramos, Environmental Education at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve of Stanford University Stanford University’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve has focused on building a “sense of belonging in a community” as a pillar of the education and outreach efforts with neighboring universities, community colleges, K-12 institutions, non-profits, among others. We will share details of the best practices from our education program such as supporting a full-time education staff position, intentional and inclusive recruitment and retention practices and collaborative partnerships in research, education, and conservation practices. We will also present examples of community-building case studies such as: STEAM Program for Latina Girls, MERO Program, ESA SEEDS Student Chapter with REAL, SACNAS Student Chapter with Latino Outdoors, and the Student Opportunities in Avian Research network.
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11:30 |
Climate-wise Connectivity for Resilient Landscapes - Adina Merenlender, Co-Founder, California Naturalist; Professor, Cooperative Extension, Conservation Sciences, UC Berkeley Scientists predict significant shifts in species distributions in response to climate change. Wildlife corridors have been shown to enable species movement in fragmented landscapes and are the go-to solution to enhance climate resilient landscapes, in the hopes that they will facilitate species range shifts. Approaches to design climate-wise connectivity as well as opportunities to implement corridor conservation will be shared. |
Supporting Nature in Cities for Ecosystem and Community Health - Sabrina Drill, Emeritus Advisor, UC Cooperative Extension, Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, UC ANR Urban socio-ecological systems have critical and wide-ranging influence on the health of people (Marselle et al.,2019) and on biodiversity at a global scale (McDonald et al., 2018; Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2021). While attention to nature conservation is focused on “natural” areas, the role of urban habitat should not be overlooked. There are 422 major cities located in biodiversity hotspots, and 383 of these are predicted to sprawl into ecologically significant areas (Weller et al., 2019). Although cities account for just 2% of the earth’s surface area, they are home to over half of the human population. For many urban dwellers, especially those most vulnerable to environmental change, urban nature may be what is most accessible, and these communities deserve and can be supported by the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health nature provides. In addition, vulnerable communities make use of urban nature in recreational and extractive ways. Most prominent among these is fishing. We’ll explore the novel nature of urban ecosystems, and who is/should be engaged in setting goals for, stewarding, studying, and sourcing the species found in the Los Angeles River.
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12 Noon |
Lunch at the Garden Deck |
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Concurrent Session C |
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Location |
Ballroom |
Granhall |
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Track 1: Resilience to Climate Change |
Track 2: Culture and Environment/Co-Design |
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1:30 PM
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Prescribed Burning on Private Land in California - Susie Kocher, Forestry/Natural Resources Advisor, UC Cooperative Extension, Central Sierra, UC ANR There’s been a groundswell in California of private landowners wanting to use prescribed burning as a tool to manage their landscape. This presentation will cover the history and recent developments in the use of good fire on the land and the rise of local prescribed burn associations. |
California's True Gold: Water - Samuel Sandoval Solis, Professor and UC ANR CE Specialist, Dept. of Water Resources, UC Davis Water is a key resource in California, it is used in cities, agricultural fields, recreation and more. Scarce water resources are stretched out throughout the state. This presentation will cover the natural hydrology of California, and some examples of the co-design and modification of culturally appropriate water programs: 4-H Water Wizards, California Naturalist Water Chapter, and more. |
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2:00 |
Every Job is a Climate Job: Integrating the UC Climate Stewards Certificate into Climate Corps Training - Cyane Dandridge, Executive Director, SEI\ In hearts and minds around the world, climate change conjures images of death, destruction, and imminent peril. That state of fear and helplessness challenges our collective ability to create a future where both people and the planet thrive. Thankfully, the UC Climate Stewards Certificate offers a framework for climate solutions that are ready to be implemented today. Join us in a discussion about how the environmental nonprofit, SEI, is integrating the Certificate into Climate Corps trainings for Fellow across six states to inspire climate hope and action. |
Co-stewardship between The Washoe Tribe and USFS for the Mayala Wata Restoration Project - Watch the InstaGram Live Video Here! [PDF Presentation] The Máyala Wáta Restoration Project and stewardship agreement between the Washoe Tribe and the US Forest Service is an agreement in which the Washoe Tribe is allowed to conduct traditional land management practices on Forest Service Land. The agreement allows the Washoe Tribe to tend the land in Meeks Meadow, a traditional home site for the Washoe People, as they had done before the Comstock Era. The goal is to thin 300 acres of invasive conifers, use culturally guided prescribed burning to restore the meadow, and then use TEK to replant and manage the meadow with cultural and native plants. We will also touch on our Resilience Garden and reforestation plans for the Pine Nut Mtn Range. |
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2:30 |
A Changing Climate Changes Pests: UC IPM Tools for California Naturalists - Jim Farrar, Director, Integrated Pest Management Program, UC ANR Most pests are highly dependent on temperature and moisture for development and reproduction. Because of this, climate change is shifting pest distributions and phenology. Effective pest management requires proper pest identification, understanding pest biology, and selecting effective methods to manage pest populations with the least environmental impact. The UC IPM website contains useful information for California Naturalists on pest identification, biology, and management methods in natural areas. |
Decolonizing a Conservation Movement: How Can We Build Trust, Stay Accountable to our Community, and Work for a Big Green Organization? - Marcos Trinidad, Director, Audubon Center at Debs Park Watch the InstaGram Live Video Here! Learn how an Audubon nature center in Los Angeles gained support from the community and its own organization to change programming to be more culturally relevant. |
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3:00 |
Break |
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Special Session I |
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Location |
Ballroom |
Granhall |
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3:30 |
Community of Practice Strategy - Greg Ira, Director, California Naturalist
Visit booths: Cheerleader for Community of Practice - Chris Cameron, CalNat Coastal Institute at Camp Pines, Emerald Cove Outdoor Science Institute Golden State Naturalist Podcast - Michelle Fullner, Effie Yeaw Nature Center "Call to Action" Monthly Alumni Meetings - Kathi King, Community Environmental Council Watershed Round-up Reunion - Ashley Terry, Conservation Society of California, Oakland Zoo Alumni Reunion - Chris Pincetich, Point Reyes National Seashore Association Community Science Work - Colin Barrows, UC Riverside Palm Desert Center Engagement with No Budget? No Problem! - Diana Rohini LaVigne, Jepson Herbarium Pulling it Together - Erin Snyder, Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District Cal Naturalist Meet Ups - Hannah Cunningham, Grassroots ecology
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Lightning talks are a low-pressure review of important highlights of your California Naturalist and Climate Steward experience: in just 5 minutes, share an interpretive technique, an overview of your capstone project, a creative endeavor, a volunteer opportunity, a project your organization could use help with, an interesting community resilience project or just something that ignites and energizes you that’s worth sharing with the rest of us! 3:30 - Engaging Students in Naturalism with Online Participatory Science Projects - Laci Gerhart-Barley, UC Davis 3:35 - PARTNERSHIPS are the way to go! - Jeanne Knapp, Four Rivers Natural History Association 3:40 - California Naturalists Program with the California Conservation Corps - Jennifer Riddel, UC ANR Hopland REC 3:45 - Nuestro Desierto: Building Outdoor Equity? - Sendy Hernandez Orellana Barrows, Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas (COFEM) 3:50 - Making online, in-person, and field classes accessible for students who are deaf/hard of hearing - Liese Murphree, Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History 3:55 - Transition - Restoration and Volunteer Action 4:00 - Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program - Paige DeCino, Preserve Calavera 4:05 - Trail Tending, Stewardship, and Wellness - Marcus Padilla, California Naturalist 4:10 - Restoration of Coastal Dunes as a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy - Suzie Fortner, Friends of the Dunes 4:15 - Introducing Your California Weather and Climate Guide - William Selby, Santa Monica College 4:20 - Opportunities to volunteer at Effie Yeaw Nature Center - Brena Seck, Effie Yeaw Nature Center 4:25 - Transition - Sense of Place 4:30 - Why have a watershed perspective? Exploring and honoring our sense of place - David Berman, Dutch Bill Creek Watershed Group 4:35 Traditional Ecological Knowledge - Brenda Kyle, California Naturalist 4:40 Creating Better Access for Undeserved Communities - Araceli Hernandez, Nature for All 4:45 Wakamatsu Farm - Melissa Lobach, American River Conservancy 4:50 Redo Your Lawn.. Garden as if life depends on it! - Marie Kay Hansen, Certified Climate Steward from Sonoma Ecology Center |
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5:00 |
Dinner on the Garden Deck
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Special Session II |
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Location |
Ballroom |
Granhall |
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7:00 |
The Activity and Skill Share Marketplace
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A Silent Auction If you'd like to donate items to the Silent Auction, please complete the online form! Book Corner
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8:30 |
Campfire Circle - Garden Deck click here for song book Night Owl Activities |
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Sunday, October 9
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7:30 |
Participants check-out |
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8:30 |
Closing Ceremony - Ballroom |
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10:00 AM |
Post-Conference Field Tours (times vary) |
*Attention Instructors!* Click to see more information on your post-conference meeting.