Point Blue

Update from the Field: Fire Management in the Illilouette Creek Basin, Yosemite

Our days in the Illilouette Creek Basin began in early twilight, crawling out of a sleeping bag to start bird surveys. Mornings involved 3 to 4 miles of route-finding off trail through a gauntlet of fallen logs, thorny shrubs, steep slopes, and the otherwise unpredictable.

Hope is Green and Soggy in the Sierra Nevada

It was July 28, 2021, I was sitting in my living room overlooking Lake Almanor in the Northern Sierra Nevada, having spent the morning raking fir needles and covering attic vents, I was hunched over the air purifier sucking in as much fresh air as I could get. It was 3 weeks into the Dixie Fire, and the sky, much like what the San Francisco Bay Area experienced in the fall of 2020, had looked an eerie orange for weeks from wildfire smoke with little relief. I was alone, having sent my family out of harm’s way the week before.

Science News: Guiding Renewable Energy, Celebrating Climate Legislation, and much more

Biden Signs Landmark Climate Bill On August 16th, 2022 President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. Although it’s not perfect, it is the biggest, most important piece of federal climate legislation to date. It encompasses clear and actionable policy to drive the needed investment to decarbonize our economy emissions. Importantly, the bill clearly prioritizes

Una Mujer con Mucha Fuerza en Buena Compañía /A Powerful Woman in Good Company

I didn’t expect to be moved to tears when I sat down to interview Diana Eusse. Diana is the South American Lead of our Migratory Shorebird Project partnership and Biologist with Asociación Calidris. I met with her in early March 2022 during one of her visits to the United States. Her perspective and approach to collaboration is palpable.

Science News: Major advance in whale protection and much more…

Encouraging News for Whales We’re thrilled to report a major advance in our collaboration to protect whales. For over a decade, reducing deadly collisions between cargo ships and whales has been a priority for the Point Blue Oceans team. In 2017, we published a seminal paper showing that the actual number of whale deaths from

Planning for Change: New Tools to Support Bird Habitat in the Central Valley

How can water managers in California’s Central Valley make sure enough water is allocated to birds as the region faces changing climate patterns while still helping the state reach its ambitious 30×30 conservation goals? New planning tools are here to help.

Ecological restoration works for urban birds in San Francisco’s Presidio

While cities and towns have not historically been considered priorities for ecological restoration projects, the UN Decade effort explicitly calls for urban restoration. The Presidio Trust, the National Park Service, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy were visionary in their pursuit of restoration in San Francisco’s Presidio, and since 2001 they have restored 78 acres.

Carving Out Support for Conservation

By Lishka Arata, Senior Communications Coordinator When Melinda Whipplesmith Plank reached out to Point Blue last spring to ask if we were interested in an artist collaboration that would support our conservation work, our immediate answer was an enthusiastic, “Yes!” Millie, as she prefers to be called, is a woodblock print artist based out of

Science News: Guatemala, Spain, A Record Capture, and more

Building Capacity in Guatemala We are excited to welcome Guatemala as the 13th and most recent country to join the Migratory Shorebird Project! Initiated in 2011, the Migratory Shorebird Project is the largest ongoing coordinated survey of wintering shorebirds on the Pacific Coast of the Americas, and is a cooperative effort of conservation science organizations and

New Technology Uncovers New Connections for Conservation

The technology to track songbird migration is getting better all the time. We’re taking advantage of that here at Point Blue to make conservation even better. Read on to learn about some surprising results from a recent investigation.

Science Tags: birds