Conservation Science Program – Santa Lucia Conservancy

July 25, 2023

SLC Welcomes Conservation Ecologist Emma Levy

Photo by Alix Soliman. July 25, 2023 By Jamison Watts, Executive Director The Santa Lucia Conservancy is excited to welcome conservation ecologist Emma Levy, M.S., to our team. Levy is a biologist and environmental educator with experience in long-term population monitoring. Having grown up in Carmel Valley, she has an intimate knowledge of the wildlife and people that live here, […]

1 min read

July 19, 2023

Grazing as a Tool for California Grassland Conservation: SLC’s Eight-year Study Published in Journal of Applied Vegetation Science

Cattle graze in the foreground, Mesa study plot in the background on the right. Photo by Alix Soliman. July 19, 2023 By Alix Soliman, Communications & Outreach Coordinator We’re thrilled to announce that the Santa Lucia Conservancy’s eight-year study of livestock grazing as a tool for conservation in California’s coastal grasslands has been published in Applied Vegetation Science. Grasslands cover […]

2 min read

June 22, 2023

8 Bird Species Found in California Grasslands

A juvenile grasshopper sparrow perches on a twig. Photo by Matt Davis / Macaulay Library. By Alix Soliman, Communications & Outreach Coordinator The grass is reaching up to our hips, catching the morning dew, and dripping it down our pant legs into soggy boots. It’s 6:30 a.m. on a cloudy morning in late May. Wildlife Biologist Mike Stake has set […]

7 min read

January 17, 2023

What Happened to California’s Beavers?

An American coot skittering on the vernal pool in the Chicken Flats, an ephemeral wetland that once expanded into the San Francisquito Flats when beavers were common. Photo by Andrew Evans. January 17, 2023 By Andrew Evans, Conservation Grazing Associate Every major river in California, except the Smith, is dammed… but no longer by beavers. Towering walls of concrete contain [...]

5 min read

December 13, 2022

Six Years After the Soberanes Fire, How are Coast Redwood Forests Recovering?

Blackened redwoods stand among a cleared forest floor after the Soberanes Fire in 2016. Photo by Christy Wyckoff. December 13, 2022 By Dr. Brian Woodward, Conservation Ecologist The Soberanes Fire burned over three months in 2016, starting in Los Padres National Forest and spreading north through Big Sur and into the southwest edge of the Santa Lucia Preserve. On The [...]

3 min read

April 4, 2022

Sudden Oak Death on the Santa Lucia Preserve

A volunteer pins a sudden oak death (SOD) sampling tag to a tree. April 4, 2022 By Dr. Brian Woodward, Conservation Ecologist Sudden Oak Death (SOD) is a tree disease caused by the exotic plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum. Originally introduced with imported nursery plants, the pathogen has spread widely across coastal California and southwestern Oregon, where it has killed hundreds [...]

2 min read

February 28, 2022

What Does Applied Ecology Look Like on the Santa Lucia Preserve?

Conservation Ecologist Dr. Brian Woodward conducts a raptor survey on The Preserve. Photo by Alix Soliman. February 24, 2022 By Dr. Brian Woodward, Conservation Ecologist Driving through The Santa Lucia Preserve, you may see Conservancy staff wading through ponds, crouched in a field looking closely at budding flowers, or gazing through binoculars at soaring raptors. To manage biodiversity and ecosystem [...]