La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science

John Benson is now an assistant professor with the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Ursula K. Heise is the Marcia H. Howard Chair in Literary Studies at the Department of English and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. Brad Shaffer is the UCLA La Kretz Center Director and Distinguished Professor. In this article: “Is the Urban Jungle the Answer to Helping Some Endangered Species?” Heise and Shaffer...

Seminar presented by Rachel V. Blakey, The Institute for Bird Populations and The University of Missouri

The UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science and the UC Natural Reserve System Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve are pleased to announce this year’s grant recipients for our competitive research awards. Our ten awardees, working on projects ranging from urban wildlife biodiversity to post-fire impacts on coastal lagoons, each contribute to our...

The structure was the cornerstone of a UCLA conservation science center.

Main building of La Kretz Center Field Station reduced to ash but second structure will remain a ‘foothold’ until rebuilding begins

Some ecologists believe our best chance to preserve biodiversity is to introduce non-native species to cities—but others warn of unintended consequences. Brad Shaffer and Ursula Heise argue for cities as biodiversity havens for endangered species.

New Malibu facility to improve wildlife researchers’ efforts

Brad Shaffer and Evan McCartney-Melstad are featured in the August 2018 podcast from the journal Heredity, which broadcasts interviews with the people behind the journal, the science and a digest of breaking news. The focus of the podcast is the application of new genomic methods to understudied organisms, including a recent study published by Shaffer and...

Research by La Kretz Postdoc Gary Bucciarelli and others finds that the crayfish disrupt native predators that eat mosquito larvae

"[W]hat if we deliberately offered sanctuary to endangered species in our cities—those that are native, of course, but also those that are not?" - Ursula Heise, in CityLab.

"Parrots are not uncommon around Los Angeles. More than a dozen different species have established wild populations in the area, descendants of pet birds that escaped at some point and managed to make a home for themselves in some part of the sprawling metropolis," Ursula Heise writes in Elemental.