For much of my career I seem to have bypassed working with high school-aged students. This wasn’t intentional on my part, it just kind of happened. I starting working with elementary school-aged kids and jumped to adults. So, when planning began for the Conservation Science Intensive (CSI), ACR’s summer program for high school-aged young women, I was both nervous and eager for this new opportunity.

Yet, I was not alone in my new undertaking. CSI is built on the foundation of collaborative female leadership. Jacqueline Levy, Education Program Manager at the Bouverie Preserve, has 11 years of teaching high schoolers under her belt and Julianne Bradbury, Resource Ecologist at the Modini Preserve, co-led CSI in 2018 and spent many years as an educator across age levels....

11/1/19: Update from our Modini Preserve staff on the impact of the Kincade Fire:

ACR staff, including resident biologist Michelle Cooper and land stewards Tomas Ruiz and Kyle Doron were able to return to the preserve earlier this week and found the Modini ranch house, outbuildings and barn still standing. Our relief was magnified tenfold with gratitude to CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit and the thousands of state and local firefighters determined to thwart infrastructure loss within the burn zone. In our case, the efforts to save these structures were significant: hand lines, back burning, bulldozer lines and even retardant drops. Of our 3,000 acres, roughly 2,850 burned. In the vicinity of the residential compound, the land itself appears moderately burned, not scorched. We...

Our plan to conduct a 9.5 acre controlled burn at Martin Griffin Preserve looks favorable for this Sunday, October 20, 2019. If weather conditions permit, ACR will be joined by more than 20 firefighters from partner organizations, county & local fire agencies and our volunteer wildland firefighting team to burn understory growth located midway up the Bourne Ridge.

We anticipate running a test ignition at 9:00 a.m.; if within the parameters of our permit from CAL FIRE and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the controlled burn will commence, with ignitions expected through 4:00 p.m. The team will continue to monitor the site throughout the night. Because smoke will be visible from the Bolinas and Stinson Beach areas, we are working closely with traffic, fire and...

In late August Sarah Warnock—who returned to live in West Marin in 2018 when her husband Nils was appointed director of conservation science at ACR—was combing the Tomales Bay shoreline near Cypress Grove Research Center. Although trained as an ornithologist, Sarah has a passion for fossils and was on a mission. She was rewarded beyond all expectation when she found the roots of a mammoth molar sticking up through the rocky shore, as if to wave hello. Having lived for many years in Alaska, where mammoth fossils are not uncommon, Sarah recognized it right away.

Since the discovery, Sarah has been working with regional experts to confirm the identity of the fossil and to devise a plan to carefully remove the molar for future analysis. Bobby Boessenecker, paleontologist and adjunct...