New for Fall 2015, we'll be planning a series of field trips to visit local conservation organizations, both at their headquarters and in the field. These are designed to help build collaborations and networks across the incredible number of NGOs, academic units, and government agencies around central California. We'll meet with and observe different institutions in action, and participate in workshops designed to help teach field techniques and professional skills. Our first visit will be to The Nature Conservancy's San Francisco Office on October 9th. Sign up for our email list or contact us to receive more details!

We host an ongoing seminar series, "Meeting Conservation," that brings conservation professionals to campus to speak with students and faculty about conservation research, management, and activism outside of academia. Past guests include scientists from local NGOs (Point Blue, Conservation Biology Institute), environmental consultants (WRA Inc., Transcon Environmental), agency scientists (USFWS, USGS), activists and organizers (Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club), and academia-NGO partnerships (Natural Capital Project, Information Center for the Environment). These seminars are designed to be an informal mix of presentation and Q&A, coupled with dinner and drinks provided.

As an organization grounded in the practice of conservation science, we strive to foster science-driven dialogues and assessments of local conservation controversies. We've hosted several forums to both bring local experts in to speak their side and to have community members have a chance to have their voices heard and ask critical questions. Recent examples include a forum Q&A about the controversial FEMA fire mitigation plans to remove Eucalyptus from the East Bay hills, and providing a third party assessment to an Oakland City Council of the contested habitat mitigation plan for an expansion of the Oakland Zoo into endangered Alameda whipsnake habitat.

We have adopted a plot of land at Point Isabel Regional Shoreline in Richmond. This part of the bay has been heavily degraded by invasive non-native wetland species. East Bay Regional Parks has offered to let us adopt this piece of the shoreline to plan and execute its restoration. This fall, winter, and spring, we'll be weeding, mulching, and planting it back to health. We like to think of it as our own native wetland plant garden! We were featured in the Bay Leaf Newsletter for our Point Isabel restoration efforts--check us out on page 7!

The Berkeley Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology founded this one-day local conservation science conference in 1998, and has collaboratively hosted it on a rotating basis with other Bay Area schools ever since. The symposium provides a place for local students, faculty, agencies, NGOs, and consulting firms to meet and exchange ideas. For more information, including archived websites of past conferences, visit the Symposium page.