H. Scott Butterfield, T. Rodd Kelsey, and Abigail K. Hart, Editors
As the world population grows, so does the demand for food, putting unprecedented pressure on agricultural lands. At the same time, climate change, soil degradation, and water scarcity mean that productivity of many of these lands is deteriorating. In many desert dryland regions, drinking wells are drying up and the land above them is sinking, soil salinity is increasing, and poor air quality is contributing to health problems in farm communities. "Rewilding" the least productive of these cultivated landscapes offers a sensible way to reverse the damage from intensive agriculture. These ecological restoration efforts can recover natural diversity while guaranteeing the long-term sustainability of the remaining farms and the communities they support. Rewilding Agricultural Landscapes, a new book from Island Press and edited by TNC staff, examines what it would take to retire eligible farmland and restore functioning natural ecosystems. Rewilding Agricultural Landscapes uses the southern Central Valley of California, which is one of the most productive and important agricultural regions in the world, as a case study for returning a balance to agricultural lands and natural ecosystems. The lessons in Rewilding Agricultural Landscapes will be useful to conservation leaders, policymakers, groundwater agencies, and water mangers looking for inspiration and practical advice solving the complicated issues of agricultural sustainability and water management.
Visit Island Press to learn more and for ordering information.
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Adam H. Love, Andy Zdon, Naomi S. Fraga, Brian Cohen, Maura Palacios Mejia, Rachel Maxwell, Sophie Parker
This paper presents results from the Mojave Desert Springs research project. The authors present a comprehensive statistical analysis of similarities between California desert springs. An observed lack of correlation between the springs’ hydrologic and ecological parameters suggests that each spring represents a somewhat unique…
Michele Romolini, Sophie S. Parker, Gregory B. Pauly, Eric M. Wood
This editorial introduces a group of 11 articles published as part of an organized research topic in the Urban Greening section of the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Cities. In contrast with the abundance of literature that describes the negative impacts of humans and anthropogenic change,…
Christopher M. Free, Lyall F. Bellquist, Karin A. Forney, Jenn Humberstone, Kate Kauer, Qui Lee, Owen R. Liu, Jameal F. Samhouri, Jono R. Wilson, Darcy Bradley
Dynamic ocean management frameworks can be a useful approach to fisheries management under climate change. In the oceans, marine heatwaves are increasingly common symptoms of climate change that can impact ecosystems, economies, and communities. The recent 2014-2016 marine heatwave in the NE Pacific resulted in…
Suman Jumani, Lucy Andrews, Theodore E. Grantham, S. Kyle McKay, Jeffrey Duda, Jeanette Howard
California has a dam problem. Since the start of the 20th century, the state has built thousands of dams on its rivers and streams. Now, more than 75% of the largest dams are greater than 50 years old. This means that a significant proportion of…
Kristen N. Wilson, Patricia N. Manley
Climate change, high-severity wildfire, and drought threaten the resilience of forests and communities in the Sierra Nevada. The Tahoe–Central Sierra Initiative (TCSI) is a partnership of state and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, the timber industry, and researchers that was established to improve resilience to climate…
Kristen Wilson, Dale W. Johnson, Douglas F. Ryan, ed.
Authored by TNC staff and colleague, Chapter 8 of this report synthesizes environmental monitoring and studies performed at Sagehen Experimental Forest that are relevant to water quality regulatory agencies. Water quality in the basin is mainly controlled by groundwater emerging in springs, but wildland fires,…
Patricia N. Manley, Nicholas A. Povak, Kristen Wilson, Kristen Wilson, Mary Lou Fairweather, Vivian Griffey
The Blueprint is a set of strategy maps that identify opportunities for forest protection and adaptation across a 2.4-million-acre region of the central Sierra Nevada. It uses a novel application of the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) tool to evaluate spatial data layers against target…
James W. Roche, Kristen N. Wilson, Qin Ma, Roger C. Bales
This study evaluated the water balance components of precipitation, evapotranspiration, discharge, and change in storage compared to measured streamflow and unregulated streamflow estimates in the central Sierra Nevada. The fifty-two watersheds varied in size and in elevation. This study found that the evapotranspiration estimates plus gridded…
Benjamin P. Bryant, Tessa Maurer, Phillip C. Saksa, John D. Herman, Kristen N. Wilson, Edward Smith
The authors of this study analyzed how wildfires and forest restoration, specifically thinning and prescribed fire being implemented in the French Meadows Project in the central Sierra Nevada, could impact streamflow, hydropower generation, and ecological flows for a threatened frog (Foothill yellow legged frogs). By…
Mark G. Anderson, Melissa Clark, Arlene P. Olivero, and D. Richard Cameron
In response to biodiversity loss, scientists have called for the protection of well-connected systems of protected areas covering 30 to 50% of the planet. However, as climate change drives shifts in species, conservation plans based on current biodiversity patterns will become less effective. The authors…
Michael C. Melnychuk, Charmane E. Ashbrook, Richard J. Bell, Lyall Bellquist, Kate Kauer, Jono R. Wilson, Ray Hilborn, Jay Odell
America’s fisheries provide nearly two million jobs and contribute $117 billion to the national GDP. Although state and territory fisheries account for 40% of the commercial value of U.S. marine fisheries overall, there has not been a nationwide synthesis of the performance of state/territory fisheries…
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 critical for monitoring these trends over time, but even public data sources are often difficult to access. This slows down…
Lyall Bellquist, William J. Harford, Frank Hurd, Alexis Jackson, Jeremy D. Prince, Jan Freiwald, Anna Neumann, Jack Likins, Jono Wilson
Conventional fisheries management relies largely on professional sources of scientific data collection, typically from academic or government institutions. Development of community-led data sources (i.e., citizen/community science) has been slow, partially due to data quality concerns. Accelerating stressors to marine ecosystems and the dynamic nature of…
Nicholas C. Wegner, Elan J. Portner, Drew T. Nguyen, Lyall Bellquist, Andrew P. Nosal, Alena L. Pribyl, Kevin L. Stierhoff, Paul Fischer, Ken Franke, Russell D. Vetter, Philip A. Hastings, Brice X. Semmens, and John R. Hyde
Historical overfishing led to depletion of several groundfish species on the US west coast. Two of these species, Cowcod and Bocaccio, heavily influenced the expansion of groundfish regulations to rebuild multiple stocks. However, the effects of fishing-induced barotrauma, and the effectiveness of descending devices as…
Christopher M. Free, Sean C. Anderson, Elizabeth A. Hellmers, Barbara A. Muhling, Michael O. Navarro, Kate Richerson, Lauren A. Rogers, William H. Satterthwaite, Andrew R. Thompson, Jenn M. Burt, Steven D. Gaines, Kristin N. Marshall, J. Wilson White, Lyall F. Bellquist
As symptoms of climate change, extreme environmental events (e.g., marine heatwaves) now represent the greatest global threat to the oceans, causing profound ecosystem and socioeconomic impacts. The recent marine heatwave on the North America west coast was the largest ever recorded, but the extent of…
Lindsay Bonito, Lyall Bellquist, Alexis M. Jackson, Kate Kauer, Mary G. Gleason, Jono Wilson, Stuart Sandin
Experimentation supports adaptive and climate-ready fisheries management in numerous contexts. Exempted Fishing Permits (EFPs) enable fisheries participants, scientists, and managers to collaboratively test new fishing regulations and/or gear types that might advance fishery sustainability, although no evaluation of federal EFP performance had ever been conducted.…
Scott A. Aalbers, Michael Wang, Lyall Bellquist, Kate Kauer, Alexis Jackson, Chugey A. Sepulveda
An emerging recreational fishery for swordfish has recently developed in California, outpacing existing fisheries monitoring programs, which prevents accurate estimation of swordfish catch and effort as well as any potential bycatch. The study documents a sharp increase in swordfish catch relative to previous decades, and…
Kristina Kreter, Shona Ganguly, Rowan Roderick-Jones, and Kelsey Jessup
New strategies to address urban runoff management with nature-based approaches offer promising solutions to alleviating climate change impacts—like urban heat, water shortages, and floods—and environmental pollution and the loss of natural green space that diminish the quality of life for vulnerable communities. Vegetated…
Mario Zuliani, Nargol Ghazian, Malory Owen, Michael F. Westphal, H. Scott Butterfield, Christopher J. Lortie
As The Nature Conservancy embarks on restoration planning for its Strategic Restoration Strategy, it needs detailed information on the importance of shrubs to a suite of conservation targets, including the endangered blunt-nosed leopard lizard. Previous collaborative work between TNC and partners revealed a threshold of…
