Systematic, science-based conservation planning is a hallmark of the Conservancy. For biodiversity to thrive, habitats need to be protected, enhanced, or restored not just in the still wild places on the planet but also where people live and make their livelihoods. 

Multi-disciplinary planning can help elucidate where the highest priority places are and what needs to happen there – and inform tradeoffs between conservation and other societal values.

Science in Action

Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Economics

Wildfire and Communities

How can land protection and restoration help protect communities from wildfire?

Terrestrial | Marine | Economics | Science

TNC and FEMA

How do we increase climate resilience in ways that work for people and nature?

2006 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Global Deserts Outlook: United Nations Environment Programme

United Nations Environment Programme, chapters co-authored by Scott Morrison

For the International Year of Deserts and Desertification, 2006, a team of environmental and social scientists assembled to assess the state of the world’s deserts. This report is the product of…

2006 | Marine | Planning | Publications & Reports

Assessing gaps in marine conservation in California

Mary G. Gleason, Matt S. Merrifield, Chuck Cook, Audrey L. Davenport, Rebecca Shaw

This study is the first marine gap analysis for California. It quantifies what is protected and what is not and highlights conservation needs and opportunities. Less than 5% of marine habitats are…

2006 | Marine | Planning | Publications & Reports

Northern California Marine Ecoregional Assessment

Mary Gleason, Matt Merrifield, Chuck Cook, Miguel Hall

The Conservancy's science and planning staff in California prepared this assessment of the most important areas for conservation of marine biodiversity in the Northern California…

2005 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Cattle grazing can maintain diversity of vernal pool grasslands

Marty, Jaymee T.

Livestock grazing in the American West often conjures up images of cattle degrading riparian areas or spreading weeds throughout desert rangeland. But cattle grazing does not always or necessarily…

2004 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Annual survivorship of a sedentary sparrow: no effect of edge or rainfall

Scott A. Morrison, Douglas T. Bolger, T. Scott Sillett

Fragmentation-sensitive species – those that tend to disappear when their habitat is fragmented – pose particular challenges for conservation, in part because fragmentation ushers in such…

2004 | Marine | Planning | Publications & Reports

Southern California Marine Ecoregional Assessment

Mary Gleason, Matt Merrifield, Craig Mayer, Michelle McCutchan, Chuck Cook

The Conservancy's science and planning staff in California prepared this assessment of the most important areas for conservation of marine biodiversity in the Southern California Marine…

2002 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Variation in a sparrow’s reproductive success with rainfall: food and predator-mediated processes

Scott A. Morrison, Douglas T. Bolger

Reproductive success of many species in arid environments can be sensitive to rainfall patterns: rainfall events can produce a boom of primary productivity that fuels an ecological response from the…

2002 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Lack of an urban edge effect on reproduction in a fragmentation-sensitive sparrow

Scott A. Morrison, Douglas T. Bolger

Fragmentation-sensitive species – those that tend to disappear when their habitat is fragmented – pose particular challenges for conservation, in part because fragmentation ushers in such…

2000 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Arthropods in urban habitat fragments in southern California: area, age and edge effects

Douglas T. Bolger, Andrew V. Suarez, Kevin R. Crooks, Scott A. Morrison, Ted J. Case

Habitat fragmentation ushers in a wide array of ecological changes, and understanding the drivers and impacts of those changes is critical for conservation management. This study examines an often…