Adina Merenlender: Building a new mode of extension for biodiversity conservation

Abstract

Profile Adina Merenlender: Building a new mode of extension for biodiversity conservation W “Success to me,” Merenlender said on an af- ternoon walk through the oak woodlands of the Hopland Research and Extension Center (REC), “is when the public connects directly with what UC has to offer and will go to bat for UC gardens, reserves and presses, and call for more faculty to study and teach natural history.” Today, the program is blossoming. More than 1,500 participants have completed a California Naturalist course. The program now has a full-time academic coordinator, Greg Ira, and has received grant funding from the National Science Foundation and the California Wildlife The California Naturalist Conservation Board, and in 2015 was honored as program encourages the program of the year by the national Alliance of participants to engage in Natural Resource Outreach and Service Programs. research, environmental monitoring and restoration The second statewide California Naturalist confer- work. Here, California ence is scheduled for September 9–11 at the Pali Naturalists explore trace Mountain Center in the San Bernardino Mountains. fossils with geologist Ed Through partnerships with more than 30 sci- Clifton at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve in ence and environmental education organizations Brooke Gamble Monterey County. Julie Sparenberg hen UC ANR conservation biologist Adina Merenlender launched the California Naturalist program in 2012, she was looking to do more than just educate people. She wanted to build a community — inspired to be stewards of the natural world and to push for the resources and policies needed to defend the state’s threatened biodiversity. Adina Merenlender, founder and director of the UC ANR California Naturalist program, is a UC ANR Cooperative Extension specialist in conservation biology based at the Hopland Research and Extension Center and an adjunct professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. around the state, the California Naturalist program provides 40-hour certification courses focused on natural history as well as stewardship and com- munication. The training encourages California Naturalists to volunteer around the state with natu- ral resource agencies and nonprofit organizations, and participants are encouraged to engage in re- search, environmental monitoring, restoration work and education and outreach. “The desire to learn about natural history is insa- tiable,” Merenlender said. “We’re giving motivated people a way to help out.” The mix of science and action that characterizes the California Naturalist program mirrors the 20- year UC ANR career of Merenlender, a Cooperative Extension (UCCE) specialist based at Hopland REC and an adjunct professor of environmental science, policy and management at UC Berkeley. The threat that development poses to intact natural landscapes has driven Merenlender’s work since her early years with UC ANR. In the late 1990s, Merenlender and her collaborators used satellite land-cover data to track and project the rapid expansion of vineyards in Sonoma County (Merenlender 2000). In calling out this agricultural growth as a threat to habitat and biodiversity, the work put Merenlender at odds with the powerful wine industry. http://californiaagriculture.ucanr.edu • APRIL–JUNE 2016 57