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Measuring Conservation Success
Applied research to establish a set of measures that
Triangle Land Conservancy
and other land trusts can use to answer the question,
"Is our land meeting the conservation goals for which it was protected?"
I am currently (fall 2009) on off-campus assignment with Triangle Land Conservancy
designing a State of the Triangle's Environment 2010 report and further
refining the organization's vision and goals.
This work has a strong service-learning component at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Initial work was performed with a graduate class,
Measuring Conservation Success,
during the Fall 2008 semester, and continued with my
undergraduate measurements course
during the Spring 2009 semester. The State of the Triangle's Environment report
will be developed largely through
another graduate course in Spring 2010.
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Wake Nature Preserves Partnership
The mission of the Wake Nature Preserves Partnership
is to organize and provide resources to identify ecologically valuable protected open spaces within Wake County and to build capacity for appropriate, long-term stewardship of those areas.
This work has a strong service-learning component, to engage NCSU graduate and undergraduate
student through coursework and graduate research.
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Greenways for Wildlife
Developing recommendations on how forest corridor width,
adjacent development intensity, and other greenway attributes can be managed
to attract a variety of wildlife. We have examined the use of
greenways of Raleigh and Cary, North Carolina, by breeding and migrating birds,
mammalian bird-nest predators, and aquatic salamanders. An examiniation of use by snakes
is in progress (2009).
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Patterns of Biodiversity
Conservation planning for biodiversity is often hindered by
lack of data. Protection of suitable indicator taxa is a
popular way to deal with this problem: planning is focused
on a small number of taxa expected to represent many others.
I've been exploring this issue through a number of collaborative
research courses ...
Surrogate Species Planning (2003)
Regional Biodiversity Priorities (2004)
Examining Biodiveristy Patters (2005)
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Where is Conservation Science in Local Planning
Working to understand how conservation science is used in local planning.
Toddi Steelman and I have been exploring this issue through special topics graduate courses ...
Creating Open Space Plans that Work (2006)
Where is Conservation Science in Local Planning? (2007)
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Triangle GreenPrint
Working with a partnership among Triangle Land Conservancy,
Triangle J Council of Governments, and
NC Divison of Parks Million Acre Initiative
to faciliate development of a regional vision for open spaces in the Triangle Region of North Carolina.
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