2021 Distinguished Landscape Practitioner Award
Participants at the December Migratory Shorebird Project workshop in Guatemala. Credit: Migratory Shorebird Project. Photo Courtesy of Matt Reiter/Point Blue.
Point Blue Conservation Science
Point Blue Conservation Science, a non-profit organization based in California, has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 Distinguished Landscape Practitioner Award by the North American Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE-NA) at their annual meeting, which was held virtually in April 2021. This honor is bestowed to individuals or organizations who have made outstanding contributions over a period of years to the application of the principles of landscape ecology to real-world problems.
Point Blue (originally the Point Reyes Bird Observatory or PRBO), has been putting landscape-scale conservation into practice for over 40 years. Point Blue has over 160 people working in diverse areas of climate-smart conservation, including ecological restoration, ocean monitoring, wildlife monitoring, wetlands studies, soil science, climate change modelling, education and outreach, and early career development through its internship program. Its mission is “to conserve birds, other wildlife and ecosystems through science, partnerships and outreach”. Its partners include state and federal agencies, farmers and ranchers, land trusts, and other NGOs. In 2017, Point Blue’s diverse contributions were recognized when it was accepted as an NGO Observer Organization for the United Nationals Framework Convention on Climate Change. Employees of Point Blue have received numerous accolades; for example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recognized it as “Partner of the Year” in 2014.
Research at Point Blue has recently been published in such high-profile journals as Diversity and Distributions, Ecosphere, Ecological Applications, and Restoration Ecology. One of the nominators noted that Point Blue is “an outstanding example of practitioners of landscape ecology… they interact with local landowners, K-12 schools, and local, state, and federal government agencies to collect data, educate the public, and to develop tools that help stakeholders make informed management and policy decisions”. Point Blue’s landscape-scale projects include: the Migratory Shorebird Project, a collaborative effort to survey shorebirds and conserve wetlands along the 13 countries of the Pacific Flyway; Our Coast Our Future, a user-friendly mapping tool to help coastal planners prepare for sea-level rise; the Rangeland Monitoring Network, which collects plant, soil, and wildlife data from ranches around California and offers landowners data they can use to make management decisions; and the Water Tracker, which uses satellite imagery to capture the availability of surface water to share with water managers to help create wildlife habitat.
For more information about Point Blue, please visit https://www.pointblue.org.
Point Blue Conservation Science, a non-profit organization based in California, has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 Distinguished Landscape Practitioner Award by the North American Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE-NA) at their annual meeting, which was held virtually in April 2021. This honor is bestowed to individuals or organizations who have made outstanding contributions over a period of years to the application of the principles of landscape ecology to real-world problems.
Point Blue (originally the Point Reyes Bird Observatory or PRBO), has been putting landscape-scale conservation into practice for over 40 years. Point Blue has over 160 people working in diverse areas of climate-smart conservation, including ecological restoration, ocean monitoring, wildlife monitoring, wetlands studies, soil science, climate change modelling, education and outreach, and early career development through its internship program. Its mission is “to conserve birds, other wildlife and ecosystems through science, partnerships and outreach”. Its partners include state and federal agencies, farmers and ranchers, land trusts, and other NGOs. In 2017, Point Blue’s diverse contributions were recognized when it was accepted as an NGO Observer Organization for the United Nationals Framework Convention on Climate Change. Employees of Point Blue have received numerous accolades; for example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recognized it as “Partner of the Year” in 2014.
Research at Point Blue has recently been published in such high-profile journals as Diversity and Distributions, Ecosphere, Ecological Applications, and Restoration Ecology. One of the nominators noted that Point Blue is “an outstanding example of practitioners of landscape ecology… they interact with local landowners, K-12 schools, and local, state, and federal government agencies to collect data, educate the public, and to develop tools that help stakeholders make informed management and policy decisions”. Point Blue’s landscape-scale projects include: the Migratory Shorebird Project, a collaborative effort to survey shorebirds and conserve wetlands along the 13 countries of the Pacific Flyway; Our Coast Our Future, a user-friendly mapping tool to help coastal planners prepare for sea-level rise; the Rangeland Monitoring Network, which collects plant, soil, and wildlife data from ranches around California and offers landowners data they can use to make management decisions; and the Water Tracker, which uses satellite imagery to capture the availability of surface water to share with water managers to help create wildlife habitat.
For more information about Point Blue, please visit https://www.pointblue.org.