Outreach and Extension

We are launching the UC California Naturalist Program to create a committed corps of volunteer naturalists and citizen scientists trained and ready to take an active role in natural resource conservation, education, and restoration. This program utilizes a science curriculum, hands-on learning, communication training, and community service to engage adults in interactive learning and provides them with scientific literacy and critical thinking skills.  Please visit the UC California Naturalist Program web site.

Over the past fifteen years we have been working with decision-makers to couple conservation and land use planning using spatially-explicit decision-support systems.  Work in extension provides us with opportunities to develop participatory research and the ability to influence natural resource policy and management.  This ensures that our scientific investigations address emerging environmental issues that are important to stakeholders and decision-makers.

Through extension publications, presentations, and collaborative projects we provide scientific information to assist with environmental problem solving at the local level.  This information is based on applied research done by the Merenlender lab, collaborative work with other UC academics, and our familiarity with scholarship in landscape ecology, conservation biology, watershed science, and planning.  We work collaboratively with UC County extension academics, local, state, and federal resource agencies, as well as private interest groups.