Technology is enabling conservation scientists to collect and analyze data with an efficiency unimagined just decades ago. Satellite and drone-based remote sensing allow rapid mapping and monitoring of environmental conditions; networked sensors such as camera traps and flow meters provide real-time data about the health and potential threats to important resources.
Data are fundamental to making science-based conservation decisions. By modernizing environmental data capture and analysis and streamlining the delivery of usable information to decision makers, we can unlock new opportunities for transformative change in resource management.
The Conservancy’s team of designers, engineers, and data scientists are continually applying new applications of technology to increase the pace and scale of conservation in California – and beyond.
Science in Action
Terrestrial | Planning | Technology
Wildfire and Communities
How can land protection and restoration help protect communities from wildfire?
Marine | Technology | Science
Closing the Abalone Data Gap
Can putting technology in the hands of citizen scientists transform how abalone are managed?
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2026 | Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Integrating multi-decadal satellite imagery and species distribution models for conservation planning in oak woodlands
M. Brooke Rose, Janet Franklin, H. Scott Butterfield, Paige Rohwer, Amelie Beck, Maria C. Viteri, Jeanette K. Howard, Zachary Principe, Andrea Craig, Daniel Sousa
Oaks are a foundational species, including across TNC preserves like Dye Creek and Randall. They support thousands of organisms. Drought, catastrophic wildfire, land conversion, and climate change are…
2026 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Potential impacts to biodiversity of rare and vulnerable species from proposed lithium extraction
Michael J. Clifford, Sophie S. Parker, Laurel Saito, Brian S. Cohen, Naomi S. Fraga, Kevin Heintz, Daniel Saftner
Demand for lithium is growing rapidly as the world transitions to cleaner energy technologies, but the environmental costs of lithium extraction remain poorly understood. Building on an earlier…
2026 | Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Regenerative agrivoltaics: challenges and opportunities in Southern California’s Inland Empire region
Kevin B. Grell, Sophie S. Parker
Regenerative agrivoltaics explores the co location of regenerative agriculture and solar energy development as a land sharing strategy to meet growing food, energy, and climate demands. Drawing on a…
2026 | Marine | Planning | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Scaling Seagrass Restoration: Applying lessons learned from international seed-based restoration efforts to California.
Racine, P., Grime, B., Aarreberg, A., DeAngelis, B. M., Eddy, N., Goodman, B., Govers, L. L., Hughes, A. R., Jackson, E. L., Lee, L., Lefcheck, J. S., Lusk, B., Merkel, K., Stachowicz, J., Teichberg, M., Ward, M. A., Weltz, A., Wilkins, E., van Zummeren, R., Bradley, D.
These proceedings detail the discussion topics and outcomes resulting from a two-day workshop — the Seagrass Seeding Workshop — held on May 23-24, 2024 in San Francisco, CA. Twenty…
2026 | Marine | Planning | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Scaling Seagrass Restoration: Key Challenges and Emerging Opportunities
Grime, B.C., Madan, Y., Orofino, S., DeAngelis, B.M., Eddy, N., Bradley, D.
Seagrasses provide the foundation for one of the most biodiverse and ecologically important ecosystems on Earth, but they are being rapidly destroyed by myriad human activities. To combat these…
2026 | Terrestrial | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Genomic Data Clarify Identities and Origins of Purported Hybrids and Anomalous Oaks on the Channel Islands of California
Ryan Buck, John Knapp, H. Scott Butterfield, Jeanette Howard, Victoria Sork
Hybridization is common among plant taxa and can lead to adaptive introgression, range expansion, and even island colonization. Patterns of hybridization in natural and disturbed populations can…
2026 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
The Future of Floodplains: Restoring Nature, Reducing Risk
Aryeh Cohen, Victoria Salgado, J.D. McLandrich, Nicholas Wellbrock, Deborah Glaser, Piper Wallingford, Charlotte Stanley
Across California, climate change is making floods more frequent, intense, and damaging. Powerful atmospheric rivers now deliver enormous volumes of rainfall over short periods, overwhelming rivers,…
2026 | Terrestrial | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Comparison of conservation strategies for California Channel Island Oak (Quercus tomentella) using climate suitability predicted from genomic data
Alayna Mead, Sorel Fitz-Gibbon, John Knapp, Victoria L. Sork
Oaks are a foundational species, supporting thousands of other species including California’s Channel Islands. Climate change threatens the persistence of oak species across the Channel Islands,…
2026 | Terrestrial | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Landscape genomic analyses of Quercus agrifolia Née predict patterns of adaptedness to future climate and provide guidance for conservation
Ryan C. Buck, H. Scott Butterfield, Elizabeth Hiroyasu, Jeanette Howard, John Knapp, Zachary Principe, Victoria L. Sork
Coast live oaks serve important foundational roles across California oak woodland ecosystems, including across The Nature Conservancy’s grassland and oak woodland preserves. In the most recent…
2026 | Terrestrial | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Applying both landscape genomic and ecological niche model predictions to inform conservation strategies of a California foundational oak species
Ryan C. Buck, H. Scott Butterfield, Elizabeth H. T. Hiroyasu, , Jeanette Howard, Zachary Principe, M. Brooke Rose, Victoria L. Sork
Oaks are a foundational species across the globe, supporting the survival of thousands of plant and animal species. In the last drought in California, there was significant oak dieback and, coupled…
2026 | Freshwater | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Pairing OpenET remotely sensed evapotranspiration with streamflow data to assess the effectiveness of irrigation curtailment for aquatic conservation
J. Eli Asarian, Bronwen Stanford, Nicholas P. Murphy, Michael M. Pollock
Monitoring water conservation can be challenging in locations without adequate metering. Here the authors use satellite-derived estimates of evapotranspiration (ET) to assess watershed-wide responses…
2026 | Freshwater | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Lagged streamflow depletion due to pumping-induced stream drying: Incorporation into analytical streamflow depletion estimation methods
Sam Zipper, Ian Gambill, Monty Schmitt (TNC), Claire Kouba, Leland Scantlebury, Thomas Harter, Nicholas Murphy
At regional management scales, streamflow depletion due to groundwater pumping cannot be measured directly. Analytical depletion functions (ADFs) are a low-cost, low-complexity modeling approach to…
2025 | Freshwater | Planning | Technology | Microsite
Functional Flows Calculator
Kirk Klausmeyer, Bronwen Stanford, Nathan Enerson, Steven Sonvisen, Falk Schuetzenmeister, and Jam Hamidi
To protect water for nature, we first need to understand current flow conditions in our rivers, and how that flow is altered from natural conditions. Under the California Environmental Flows Framework…
2025 | Freshwater | Planning | Technology | Microsite
California North Coast Water Availability Tool
Jennifer Carah, Ben Kerr, Mia van Docto, Anders Farr, Kirk Klausmeyer, Steven Sonvisen, Siena Testa, and Jam Hamidi
Water is essential for California’s people, economy, and environment, yet water availability for people and nature is not well understood. This tool efficiently assesses water availability in…
2025 | Terrestrial | Technology | Publications & Reports
Real-time island biosecurity surveillance: evaluating a wireless camera network for AI-assisted early detection of invasive mammals on Santa Cruz Island, CA
Lara J. Brenner, Nathaniel Rindlaub, Juliana Matos, Scott Meyler, Sue Pollock, Falk Schuetzenmeister, Nick D. Holmes
Invasive mammals like rats pose a major threat to island ecosystems and endemic species. This study tests a wireless camera network on Santa Cruz Island that uses AI to detect nonnative mammals in…
2025 | Terrestrial | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Phylosymbiosis and Elevated Cancer Risk in Genetically Depauperate Channel Island Foxes
Alexandra L. DeCandia, Jasmine Lu, Emily E. Hamblen, Lara J. Brenner, Julie L. King, Calypso N. Gagorik, Juliann T. Schamel, Stacy S. Baker, Francesca J. Ferrara, Melissa Booker, Andrew Bridges, Cesar Carrasco, Bridgett M. vonHoldt, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Jesús E. Maldonado
Isolated island species may be more susceptible to disease because of their lack of genetic diversity. Santa Catalina Island foxes have the highest rate of cancer ever measured in wildlife - over 50%…
2025 | Terrestrial | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
The gut microbiomes of Channel Island foxes and island spotted skunks exhibit fine-scale differentiation across host species and island populations
Samantha Pasciullo Boychuck, Lara J. Brenner, Calypso N. Gagorik, Juliann T. Schamel, Stacy Baker, Elton Tran, Bridgett M. vonHoldt, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Jesús E. Maldonado, Alexandra L. DeCandia
On California’s Channel Islands, two rare carnivores—the island fox and island spotted skunk—have coexisted for millennia despite competing for similar resources. This study explores…
2025 | Terrestrial | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Evaluating UAV LiDAR and Field Spectroscopy for Estimating Residual Dry Matter Across Conservation Grazing Lands
Bruce Markman, H. Scott Butterfield, Janet Franklin, Lloyd Coulter, Moses Katkowski, and Dan Sousa
Residual dry matter has been widely used to monitor grazing impacts across conservation grazing lands for more than 75 years, largely done with time-intensive, expensive, and hard-to-reproduce…
2025 | Marine | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Ship collision risk threatens whales across the world’s oceans
Nisi A, H Welch, S Brodie, C Liephardt, R Rhodes, E Hazen, JV Redfern, TA Branch, A S Barreto, J Calambokidis, T Clavelle, L Dares, A de Vos, S Gero, J A. Jackson, RD Kenney, D Kroodsma, R Leaper, DJ McCauley, SE Moore, E Ovsyanikova, S Panigada, CV Robinson, T White, JR Wilson, B Abrahms
Collisions between whales and ships are a leading cause of death for threatened whale species across the globe. In this paper, scientists identified high risk areas for whale-ship collisions by…
2023 | Marine | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
The CALFISH database: A century of California's non-confidential fisheries landings and participation data
Christopher M. Free, Camila Vargas Poulsen, Lyall F. Bellquist, Sophia N. Wassermann, Kiva L. Oken
Commercial and recreational fisheries in California influence a long and dynamic history of coastal economies, cultural heritage, and marine ecosystem health. Fisheries-dependent data sources are…