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Posted inEvents

Shaping the Next Era of...

Our close collaborators at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) recently hosted over a dozen conservation leaders, including Distinguished Scholar, Robert Bonnie.

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Register for 11/5 Webinar: The...

Join Stone Center Distinguished Scholar, Robert Bonnie, and Billy Pizer, President and CEO of Resources for the Future.

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Arthur Middleton
Posted inEvents Beyond Yellowstone Living Lab

Q&A with Professor Arthur Middleton:...

Our faculty co-director Arthur Middleton recently moderated a panel at the annual Wyoming Sportsperson Conservation Forum. WY Governor Gordon attended along with federal officials, scientists, sportspeople’s groups, ranchers, and academics to discuss the future of conservation in the state. 

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Posted inEvents

Biodiverse Cities, Resilient California

In partnership with the California Natural Resources Agency, we hosted an Urban Biodiversity Roundtable to explore how urban biodiversity contribute to California’s conservation goals.

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Madhavi Colton

she/her

Madhavi is the Executive Director of the Stone Center for Environmental Stewardship. She provides strategic leadership and operational oversight to the center in close collaboration with its faculty co-directors and advisory group.

Madhavi has spent her career at the intersection of science, community-centered conservation, and resource management. She has directed and implemented conservation projects around the world and worked in multiple ecosystems. Most recently, Madhavi served as the Vice President & Executive Director of Audubon California where she led state-wide conservation efforts to restore and protect habitat for birds across the state. Before Audubon, Madhavi served as Executive Director and Programs Director at the Coral Reef Alliance. She worked with communities in Indonesia, Fiji, Hawai‘i, Honduras, and Mexico to reduce overfishing, improve water quality, reforest streams, and protect biodiversity. She has led research into linked ecological and evolutionary responses to climate change, studied fishes in California and Southeastern Australia, and conducted research in Death Valley National Park. She earned a Ph.D. in marine ecology from the University of Melbourne, Australia; an M.Sc. in marine biology from San Francisco State University; and a B.A. in biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. When not at work, Madhavi can be found hiking in the Sierras with her family, baking pies, and making quilts.

Connect with me:

  • Madhavi.colton@berkeley.edu
  • LinkedIn

Dr. Sharon Zou

Dr. Sharon Zou is the Stone Center for Environmental Stewardship’s inaugural Visiting Scholar. Dr. Zou joins us while on sabbatical at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she is an assistant professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism. 

During her time at UC Berkeley, Dr. Zou is exploring how national park user fees can benefit conservation beyond park boundaries, particularly in the Greater Yellowstone area. Dr. Zou brings a wealth of expertise at the intersection of parks, people, and conservation. Her research focuses on visitor management, fee systems, and conservation finance in national parks and other protected places. She is driven to conduct research that has a strong, tangible impact and fosters interdisciplinary collaboration, which are deeply-held values at the Stone Center.

Robert Bonnie

Robert Bonnie is a former United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Undersecretary, and served under both the Biden and Obama administrations at USDA. At the Stone Center, Bonnie is leading a new, collaborative initiative focused on improving federal conservation policy. This effort aims to develop effective, collaborative, and durable US conservation strategies with UC Berkeley faculty and students in the Rausser College of Natural Resources and the School of Law, as well as with faculty and experts from other institutions.

Many bipartisan conservation advances in recent decades have produced multiple environmental benefits and garnered broad political support, and collaborative efforts between federal, state, Tribal, and local entities have restored degraded forests and rivers at scale. Building on these wins, Bonnie and partners will develop a conservation policy portfolio that builds a set of recommendations for federal policy that will address the conservation challenges we face, while building a broad bipartisan coalition that supports and propels it.

Raphaela Buzbee

Raphaela’s ongoing research investigates how recent dam removals on the Klamath River in Northern California affect or alter riparian vegetation and the quality of basketry materials for Karuk cultural practitioners. Karuk basket weavers use sandbar willow stems as foundation materials (warp) and willow roots are widely used as twining elements (weft) in many different kinds of baskets. Physical and hydrological changes to the Klamath River have altered the dynamic processes that create and maintain sandbars and channel margins where willows grow. These alterations have subsequently influenced the quality and availability of willow basketry materials. 

As a student contractor with the US Geological Survey, and in collaboration with the Karuk Department of Natural Resources, Raphaela’s research will fill information gaps of interest to the Karuk Tribe on sandbar willow including quantity, quality and access for gathering. The results of this collaborative research will be used to plan, implement and improve ongoing environmental stewardship by the Karuk Department of Natural Resources.

McKalee Steen

McKalee’s research employs data science, Indigenous Data Sovereignty, and geospatial analysis approaches in order to understand the landscape of where and how Tribes in the United States are reclaiming land within their traditional territories. Her work investigates acquisition mechanisms, land cover and use changes, long-term ethical data stewardship, and specific case studies. This can help Tribes understand regional and national trends in land return, informing strategic approaches for future acquisitions as well as management strategies post acquisition. 

Centering Tribal sovereignty, emphasizing accountability, and treating land not as a commodity but as a living system with cultural, ecological, and spiritual significance are central to her approach as an Indigenous scholar. Indigenous knowledge systems inform both her research questions and methodologies, particularly in how she thinks about long-term stewardship, intergenerational responsibility, and community benefit of projects. 

Amy Fingerle

Amy’s research addresses data gaps that are critical to the conservation of spring-run Chinook and environmental stewardship of the Klamath River basin.

Along with her collaborators, Amy seeks to determine the status of Klamath River spring-run Chinook and their distribution in key watersheds, including habitat that is newly accessible following Klamath River dam removal. They focus particularly on the Salmon River, which hosts the last viable population of wild spring-run Chinook in the Klamath River basin. Specifically, they are evaluating how the human modification of natural, low-flow barriers (e.g., cascades and waterfalls) that historically segregated spring-run and fall-run Chinook populations in the Salmon River may affect the distribution of Chinook run types and the persistence of spring-run Chinook.

Kristin Davis

she/her

 

Kristin is a conservation scientist and Working Lands Fellow with the Stone Center for Environmental Stewardship and the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment. Her current research focuses on private lands conservation, especially for working lands (e.g., agricultural or grazing lands), in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Kristin has over 15 years of experience conducting field work and applied conservation research in diverse ecosystems, ranging from temperate grasslands to tropical forests. Her love of understanding people and the environment has driven her to lead collaborative research projects that span social science, decision science, population ecology, and quantitative ecology. Her primary research interest is in private and working lands conservation, where she uses the combined powers of human connection – to each other and to land – and data and technology to inform conservation approaches that can support people and wildlife. She received her bachelor’s degree from The College of William and Mary and master’s degree and PhD from the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Colorado State University. In her free time, Kristin loves spending time with family and friends, listening to podcasts, reading, practicing amateur mixology, and enjoying terrestrial outdoor recreation. She works remotely from Fort Collins, Colorado, which she’s gratefully called home since 2015.

 

Connect with me:

  • kpdavis@berkeley.edu
  • LinkedIn
  • ORCID
  • Google Scholar
  • ResearchGate

Suzanne Spencer

she/her

Suzanne is the Communications Manager at the Stone Center for Environmental Stewardship. She works to translate the Center’s research and innovations into compelling materials that inspire and inform decision-makers and the general public.

Suzanne has 15 years of communications expertise in the nonprofit, philanthropic, and private sectors. She comes to the Stone Center from Full Court Press Communications where she led efforts with Tribal leaders, scientists, funders, and advocates to persuade federal officials to conserve public lands throughout the western US. This included President Biden’s recent expansions of two California National Monuments: Berryessa Snow Mountain and the San Gabriel Mountains. Suzanne holds a Master’s of Public Administration from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Willamette University. She loves spending time in Bay Area parks with her partner and their toddler and is an amateur ceramicist.

Connect with me:

  • suzannespencer@berkeley.edu
  • LinkedIn

Tucker Russell

he/him

Tucker serves as the Tribal Liaison for the Beyond Yellowstone Living Lab, where he focuses on conservation challenges within the Wind River Indian Reservation and the broader Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. His previous research focused on movement and disease ecology in the Wind River Basin. In his free time, Tucker enjoys exploring the outdoors by hunting, fishing, skiing, backpacking, mountain biking, and trail running.

Connect with me:

trussell307@berkeley.edu

Sean McMahon

Sean has been working at UC Berkeley since 2009. He has been the Wildlife Group Program Manager for Berkeley Wildlife and Stone Center since arriving to ESPM in 2023.

Sean has a BFA in Dance and has recently completed a certificate in graphic design, which he uses to create the Wildlife Group’s websites, seminar promotion, flyers and for faculty projects. He is excited to support the work of the Stone Center and Wildlife faculty.

Connect with me:

  • seanmc@berkeley.edu
  • Lab website
  • LinkedIn

Kristin Barker

She/her

Kristin is a wildlife ecologist and the Research Director of the Beyond Yellowstone Living Lab, where she leads and coordinates applied research supporting broad-scale conservation in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. 

Kristin brings both rigorous scientific training and deep field experience to her work, having spent the better part of two decades living and working in the Rocky Mountains. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Western State Colorado University, an M.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from UC Berkeley, where she studied ungulate migration and wolf-elk interactions in the Intermountain West. When she’s not on her computer, you’ll usually find her either hiking and adventuring with her partner and dogs or working on yet another unnecessary crochet project.

Connect with me:

  • kbarker@berkeley.edu
  • ORCID
  • Google Scholar
  • ResearchGate
  • Personal Website

Isa Woo

she/her

 

Isa is the Deputy Director of the Stone Center for Environmental Stewardship.  She will help the Center grow and sustain programmatic initiatives and ensure operational excellence.

Isa is passionate about bridging silos and gaps amongst science, practitioners, and management for on-the-ground action.  She has over 20 years of experience at the US Geological Survey where she provided leadership, strategic planning, and innovative ideas to help her team deliver quality and relevant science. She also built and sustained long-term programs with federal, tribal, state, local, and NGO partners based on a foundation of trust, shared values, communication, and co-production. Her research background was primarily focused on restoration monitoring and estuarine restoration benefits for invertebrates, fish, small mammals, and waterbirds, though she also co-led projects on topics such as blue carbon, ecosystem services, contaminants, and intertidal biofilms.  She received her M.S. in Botany (restoration emphasis) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and a B.A. in Integrative Biology and minor in Forestry from the University of California, Berkeley. When not at work, Isa enjoys hiking, camping, forest bathing, puzzles, and contributing to the social experiment of parenting.

 

Connect with me

  • Isa.woo@berkeley.edu
  • Google Scholar
  • LinkedIn

 

Arthur Middleton

he/him

Arthur Middleton is one of two faculty co-directors at the Stone Center for Environmental Stewardship and the Goertz Professor of Wildlife Management in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on how environmental change affects the behavioral, population, and community ecology of wide-ranging wildlife. He also contributes to a variety of habitat conservation and human-wildlife conflict reduction efforts with diverse partners including Tribes. Arthur previously advised the Biden Administration on its America the Beautiful conservation initiative, through an appointment as Senior Advisor for Wildlife Conservation at USDA.

Connect with me:

  • amiddleton@berkeley.edu

 

Stephanie Carlson

she/her

Stephanie is one of two faculty co-directors of the Stone Center for Environmental Stewardship and the A.S. Leopold Chair in Wildlife Biology at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on the ecology and conservation of ecologically and culturally important fish, including Pacific salmon, herring, and lamprey. Stephanie and team partner with agencies and Tribes to advance recovery of salmon and other eco-cultural fishes in California. Additionally, Stephanie serves as a science advisor for the Wild Salmon Center and a board member for California Trout.

 

Connect with me:

  • smcarlson@berkeley.edu