UCLA scientists are leading a $10 million project to help California officials make ecologically wise decisions as the state continues to confront the effects of climate change.  The California Conservation Genomics Project, which is funded by the state, will involve conservation biologists, geneticists, ecologists and climate scientists from all 10 University of California campuses, the Lawrence...

Dr. Bradley Shaffer from UCLA talks $10 million California conservation project.

UCLA scientists are leading a $10 million project to help California officials make ecologically wise decisions as the state continues to confront the effects of climate change. The California Conservation Genomics Project, which is funded by the state, will involve conservation biologists, geneticists, ecologists and climate scientists from all 10 University of California campuses, the...

“This project has the potential to revolutionize how we manage our land,” said Bradley Shaffer, who leads the project and is a UCLA distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and director of UCLA’s La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science. “We will apply state-of-the-art techniques to California’s most pressing conservation problems and provide government agencies with the best scientific data to make informed decisions as California’s climate continues to undergo rapid change.”

In a newly published study, a team of UCLA researchers including La Kretz postdocs Justin Valliere and Gary Bucciarelli explores whether invasives show greater growth and reproductive responses to water availability compared with the native wildflowers they displace. The authors find that invasives may be more negatively impacted by drought compared with natives, but they...

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

California grasslands have been severely impacted by the invasion of nonnative annual grasses, which often limit restoration of this important ecosystem. La Kretz Postdoc Justin Valliere is lead author on a paper in the journal Restoration Ecology that explores the use of mowing as a restoration tool for native perennial grasslands at the Santa Rosa...

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