Session Description: Interpretive trails are a popular way to teach visitors about the natural history of an area but they can be expensive to construct and maintain. Costly printed signs are quickly damaged by weather and vandalism and may require environmental and cultural review before placing them. Revisions may take years to implement. A virtual nature trail is quick and easy to implement. Minimal signage is required to tell trail users how to access the information. Descriptions can include hyperlinks to additional information, including videos, audio recordings, and other info that cannot be printed on a sign. The information can be updated with seasonal changes such as flowers in bloom or autumn leaf colors. Best of all, users can visit the trail from the comfort of their home, whether they’re planning a trip or just want to learn more about your area’s incredible natural diversity.

Virtual trails are easy to create with no programming experience and they can incorporate citizen science activities. Engaged users are more likely to respect the area and advocate for conservation measures and funding. During the workshop we will walk through the steps of creating a nature trail in the Google Earth web platform. Topics covered will include the basic setup, adding trail routes and stops, adding information via the basic template, and advanced editing with HTML. Registrants are welcome to create their own trail during the workshop and should bring their own photos, text descriptions, and trail routes, which can be edited after the workshop. Participants will need their own computer or tablet with wifi or a cellular data connection.

Session Description: Species distribution modeling (SDM) enables conservation scientists to make range estimates for species of concern, as well as predictions of potential range in unsampled areas and for different time periods. Since the field’s inception 20 or so years ago, modeling and methodological best practices continue to advance at a rapid pace, and cutting-edge techniques are increasingly accessible only to those with advanced programming knowledge. We developed the application Wallace to lower the barriers for modern species distribution modeling by offering access to the latest programmatic tools through an interactive graphical interface. Wallace implements a range of analysis functions from existing packages in the R programming language without necessitating any user programming knowledge. Additionally, Wallace offers extensive guidance text that explains methodological details and theory with literature references using simple language that benefits both new and experienced users. Each session can be exported as a readable, documented script that can be run to reproduce the analysis in R. The Wallace application is available in the R package wallace, with a single function that opens the interface. In this workshop, we will review the basics of SDM using Wallace, demonstrate key application functions, highlight some new features, and show applications to conservation science through a brief case study. Participants will use their own laptops to run Wallace for a hands-on learning experience, and will emerge more confident SDM users. Those with prior experience are encouraged to bring their own datasets for analysis. NOTE: This workshop is completely free, but all participants must bring fully charged laptops (there may be a lack of power outlets), as we will follow online materials (with provided free wifi) and run the application as part of the workshop.

Session Description: This workshop will provide a hands-on introduction to large-scale bioacoustics research, covering the entire process from data collection to analysis. If you are curious about implementing bioacoustic monitoring for your own species or study site but aren’t sure where to begin or how to go about implementing data collection and analysis, this workshop may be for you. In this workshop, participants will get hands-on experience with the AudioMoth open-source acoustic recorder: programming the devices with a recording schedule, collecting field recordings, and downloading and inspecting the data. Participants will then use the Python bioacoustics package OpenSoundscape to identify sounds from a target species in the recorded audio data using machine learning models. We will discuss how to interpret the results of machine learning analysis, and how to best leverage the automated methods to generate useful scientific information such as estimates of occupancy, detections of a rare species, or phenological patterns.

Session Description: A system can be defined as “a collection of related components that interact with one another toward a greater whole and a common goal.” While we easily picture Earth’s ecosystems fitting that definition, we often miss the fact that today’s ecosystems exist with various levels of change, and in overlap with human social and economic systems, where decisions by stakeholders are often conflicting, and where funding is also limited. This workshop aims to provide participants with the tools and skills to identify components of their systems of interest. Participants new to Systems Thinking will learn key terminologies, and will learn to develop and identify feedback loops while building Causal Loop Diagrams. The relationships between system components operate based on system archetypes while behaviors that shape human forces on natural systems are products of mental models. The workshop will use a common case study on conservation of marginal areas in working lands as a means of group learning and group Systems Map development. Workshop participants will, in the process, learn to use the software Mental Modeler. Participants with experience of Systems Thinking are welcome to attend the workshop as a refresher and to participate in the group system map building. (Participants are advised to bring their laptops/tablets to the workshop, particularly to be able to use the online software.)

Session Description: This short course will introduce participants to the overarching philosophy, underlying principles, and specific steps of effective conservation planning based on the globally-used Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation (Conservation Standards). The training will incorporate applied exercises along with presentations. We will explore identifying key and desired conservation and human well-being outcomes, developing socioeconomic and ecological models, constructing situation diagrams (models of the contributing factors from the human environment that influence conservation outcomes), incorporating empirical data and expert knowledge, integrating monitoring and adaptive management in conservation projects, and developing plans for changing and novel conditions. In addition to improving attendees’ effectiveness in the planning and practicing of conservation, the short course will provide valuable tools for preparing grant applications, evaluating project plans, and communicating with funding agencies, the scientific community, and laypersons.

Sunday, July 17
12:30pm – 4:30pm PDT
Registration fee: $20
Format: In-Person

Session Description: Community and Citizen Science (CCS) holds great potential for enhancing societal engagement and collaboration in conservation research. CCS is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur or nonprofessional scientists as well as professional scientists (Ballard et al., 2017). This term encompasses a wide range of approaches including public participation in scientific research, volunteer monitoring, crowd-sourced science, or participatory action research (Ballard et al., 2017; Haklay, 2013; e.g., Ottinger, 2017). Though lacking in formal training opportunities, CCS is a very powerful form of public engagement with the potential to address declining trust in science institutions, and the urgent need for engagement and mutual understanding in science related to global challenges such as climate change, mass extinction, invasive species, water scarcity, and transboundary threats to public health.

In this 4-hour short course, a team of professionals from the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science with expertise in research and practice will introduce attendees to the potential for and impacts of integrating CCS projects and programs in conservation research efforts. This session will include presentations of the conceptual foundations of CCS and how it complements and supports conservation research, considerations and strategies to authentically recruit and engage volunteer participants in CCS projects, and the steps, approaches, and tools involved in planning and designing a conservation-related CCS project or program. Attendees will also have the opportunity to engage with demonstrations of commonly used CCS tools and resources, explore case studies of CCS in conservation, and draft an outline of a potential CCS project that aligns with their own research interests and aims while crowdsourcing input and feedback from facilitators and fellow attendees.

Session Description: Have you ever felt worried, scared, or stressed about the environment, or questioned whether our conservation actions are enough? This 2-hour virtual workshop will teach you to recognize and address the newly described condition of ‘eco-anxiety,’ defined as fear based on environmental doom. You will leave the workshop with new tools for building mental resilience to strengthen your effectiveness as a conservation professional.

Details: The virtual workshop will provide an introduction to the common symptoms and impacts of eco-anxiety on our lives and profession. We will discuss how North American conservation leaders have described eco-anxiety and how it affects their work. We’ll then reflect on and share in small groups our experiences of eco-anxiety and the emotions associated (e.g., stress, compassion fatigue, burnout), while using evidence-based, trauma-sensitive practices for safely validating these experiences. We will practice a non-secular yoga nidra guided meditation to cultivate mindfulness through body and breath sensing. Finally, we will synthesize these exercises to review several simple, practical ways to address eco-anxiety in our daily lives.

Instructor: Dr. Jennie Miller, PhD and Certified iRest© Meditation Teacher, is a wildlife conservationist and meditation teacher dedicated to helping people connect mindfully with nature and themselves. She has 15 years of experience in the field of wildlife conservation, and has worked as a conservationist with non-profit and governmental organizations including Panthera, Defenders of Wildlife, the Wildlife Society, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She works as a program specialist on wildlife trafficking for the U.S. federal government and in her personal time freelances as a wellness meditation teacher.

Session Description: Habitat connectivity is a cornerstone of conservation, and in the past 15 years, modeling techniques have blossomed. Many of these techniques work to first map the important places on the landscape that need to be connected (cores), then map the swaths of land that connect them (linkages). Many tools quantify the value of each path within a linkage (e.g. Linkage Mapper’s Linkage Pathways Tool), and the portions of a linkage that get dangerously narrow (e.g. Linkage Mapper’s Pinchpoint Mapper). The newly released Linkage Mapper v3.0 does all this and more, including quantifying connectivity restoration opportunities, and modeling the relative priority of all the linkages of a given landscape. The included Linkage Priority Tool is based on weighted combinations among many factors, including a formalized process for including expert opinion. Analysts can also include climate-wise decision-making, giving higher priority to linkages that span a climate gradient, facilitating species range shifts over decades and centuries, or climate analogs, or a balanced blend. Analysts have the option of giving higher value to cores with higher amount of climate refugia, or giving added priority to linkages that link to a preferred micro-climate. This workshop briefly introduces you to the broad array of resistance-based connectivity modeling tools available, then does a “deep dive” into Linkage Mapper. As part of this, we teach you how to use the new Linkage Priority Tool, understand important nuances for application, and how to combine with all the other Linkage Mapper outputs (some of which call Circuitscape, a complementary tool). Linkage Mapper requires ArcGIS 10.3 or higher, or ArcPRO; and spatial analyst extension. We will provide time for hands on use and help, so bring your laptop with this software loaded if you can. We’ll load Linkage Mapper in the session. Otherwise, you can follow along on the projected screen.

Session Description: In this session you will get an overview of the skills, processes, and technology you need to effectively manage a conservation project from start to finish. You will gain an understanding of key concepts that are essential for planning, managing, and reporting on any type of conservation work. These concepts are from the Wildlife Conservation Professional Series of best practices, which have been used to train over 1,600 conservationists working for 424 organizations around the globe, including SCB, TNC, WCS, and WWF. During this session we will randomly select a participant to receive a free place (worth $255) on one of our online training workshops.