Point Blue Conservation Science

📢 Just Published in CalMatters! 🌿 California’s mountain meadows are nature’s quiet climate heroes—storing carbon, improving water quality, and supporting diverse wildlife. But they’re at risk and need restoration. Our new op-ed highlights the opportunity with the 2024 $10BN Climate Bond to invest critical funding to restore mountain meadows and the incredible impact it could have. Check out the article now at: https://buff.ly/3DITZnN 🙏 We’re grateful to the California Wildlife Conservation Board for their recent support of meadow restoration efforts. Let's keep up the momentum with this new funding! #ClimateAction #NatureBasedSolutions #WildlifeConservation #CaliforniaMeadows @calmatters @wildlife-conservation-board

🎄 Holiday Cheer from the Farallones! 🦭 A huge thank you to SF Gate for sharing the incredible story of Northern fur seals making a triumphant return to the Farallon Islands after centuries of absence! 🏝️ We are so grateful for our partnership with the @USFWS and for superstar conservationists like Gerry McChesney and Point Blue biologist Jim Tietz for their tireless work in protecting and studying these amazing creatures. Your dedication inspires us all! 🙌💚 This heartwarming comeback is a perfect reminder of what we can achieve when we work together to protect our planet. A feel-good story for the holiday week—and a hopeful sign for the future. 🌍✨ #WildlifeWins #FurSeals #HolidayHope #FarallonIslands #PointBlueConservation #USFWS #NationalWildlifeRefuges

🌍✨ What a year! In 2024, we made incredible strides for conservation, from launching global initiatives like MSP+ to celebrating 143 new restoration projects to engaging with biodiversity leaders at international events. As we plan for our 60th anniversary in 2025, we’re excited to connect with all of you more to continue building a sustainable future for wildlife and people! 🌿🐦 Check out all our 2024 highlights and get inspired: https://buff.ly/3ZSZDLK #2024 #thatsawrap #lookingbacklookingahead #conservation #community #science #partnership

Wishing you Weddell this winter and hope it is filled with joy, cheer, and nature! With gratitude for your community and support, The Point Blue Team 📷 : Weddell seal resting in the Antarctic snow, credit: Grant Ballard.

🎉 Congratulations to Rep. Jared Huffman! 🎉 Point Blue is proud to celebrate Rep. Huffman’s appointment as the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee! 🌿 His tireless advocacy for science-based solutions, climate resilience, and natural resource management has made a lasting impact. From balancing habitat conservation with infrastructure needs like Highway 37 to advancing collaborative conservation, we’re grateful for his leadership. And we're thankful for his partnership for over a decade. We look forward to continuing our work together for a healthier, more resilient planet! 🌎💚 #LeadershipForNature #ClimateAction #NaturalResources #Congratulations

Jackie, Adlai, and Ariana arrived at our Palomarin Field Station in August and have been working hard this fall season to learn our methods and maintain our long-term dataset. Help us bid them farewell as they continue their journeys as early-career biologists! In addition to serving as a hub for bird science and outreach, a very important part of the work we do at Point Blue’s Palomarin Field Station is training early-career scientists on avian conservation and bird banding best practices. Each season, we have a new crew of apprentices that complete a rigorous training program and run the banding station. This sets them up with a solid foundation to progress on their career trajectories. Keep an eye on our careers web page (buff.ly/3Ct3Mf8) for rolling seasonal opportunities! We love welcoming new people and new perspectives to Point Blue. It makes out work stronger. Here's a little more about our fall Palomarin crew: Jackie (she/her) grew up in New Jersey and found her love for birds and the natural world in college. Since graduating in 2022, fieldwork has allowed her to support a number of bird species and see a variety of landscapes across the country. Her highlight at Palo was banding a Northern Flicker, her favorite bird species! She has loved her time at the station and hopes to use the skills she has gained here to pursue her interests in migratory bird research. Adlai (she/her) is from Tulare, CA and has always loved wildlife. During her undergraduate studies, she fell in love with birds through various internships. Post graduation she grew to love research through working in a genetics lab. She came to Palomarin to further learn bird banding. She plans on combining her love for birds and genetics to pursue a career in how bird populations are adapting to diseases. This season, she loved seeing migrating birds with high fat stores, a sign that they were bulking up for their long journeys! Ariana (she/her) is from Cuenca, Ecuador and grew up going on adventures in the Andes and surrounding rainforests. After graduating from university with a degree in Biology, she worked on hummingbird pollination research. She came to Palomarin to learn bird banding, and she plans on bringing what she has learned here back to Ecuador. Her favorite moment this season was catching and banding a Varied Thrush, a bird that is surprisingly very large in hand! 📷 credits: group shot and Ariana by Kaare Iverson; Jackie portrait by Ariana Vélez; Adlai portrait by Jackie Quinones

Please join Point Blue Director of Innovation Liz Chamberlin and Director of Ecoinformatics and Climate Solutions Sam Veloz, along with many others for a virtual California Biodiversity Network Town Hall meeting on On January 22, 2025, from 1–2:30 pm Pacific Time. Learn about actions in 2024, and join in identifying priority actions for biodiversity conservation for the next 5 years to help meet our California 30×30 targets. Register at https://buff.ly/3OTkLw7

Winter is a time to rest and reflect for many and our mountain meadows are no different! Blankets of snow now cover these high elevation ecosystem powerhouses, and as they rest we plan for an even more impactful 2025 season with our many partners. Read our latest blog post to reflect with us on the impact we had this year and get pumped for more connection an resilience-building in the new year: https://buff.ly/3ZBYl7y. 📷 Van Norden Meadow in winter. Credit: Alecia Weisman, South Yuba River Citizens League. #sierra #mountainmeadows #restoration #winter #partnership #connectedconservation #SMP #SierraMeadowsPartnership

Happy #FarallonFriday! Here's a view of the brilliant sunrise 🌄 our biologists witnessed yesterday morning. Enjoy the weekend! 📷 Jim Tietz

Our last post on X is today. Connect with us on Bluesky at @pointblue.bsky.social (https://buff.ly/3AZeNGY). We look forward to seeing you there! 📷 Beach sky reflections after the 2021 King Tides in Pacifica, CA. Credit: Jenny Erbes