Wildlife Webinar: Bridging Science and Action

The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is hosting a series of webinars,  Indicators of Climate Change: Bridging Science and Action, as part of its efforts to track and report on climate change and its impacts on California. Each webinar will synthesize new science and data, and showcase state, local, Tribal or community actions on a selected climate change topic. OEHHA will co-convene each webinar with one or more state agency partners with responsibilities relating to the topic.

Webinar #4: Impacts on the Wildlife 

This webinar is the fourth in the series, co-convened with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. It addressed the impacts of climate change on California’s wildlife and the efforts underway to address them. 

Thursday, June 27, 2024 - 2:00pm to 3:30pm  

The webinar recording is available on OEHHA's YouTube channel.

Speakers Include:

Whitney Albright, Climate Change Specialist, California Department of Fish and Wildlife

Monitoring the Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity to Inform Conservation  
This talk will include an overview of the Climate-Biodiversity Sentinel Site Network, a network of survey plots for the long-term monitoring of both climate change and associated impacts to biodiversity. The talk will also discuss how these datasets will be utilized to inform conservation and land management planning efforts at the Department of Fish and Wildlife.  

Ben Saxon, Karuk Tribal member and Wildlife Supervisor, Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources

The changing climate and how it has affected wildlife in Karuk ancestral ecosystems  
This talk will address the impacts of extreme drought and mismanaged forests leading to devastating wildfires that kill large populations of wildlife species in Karuk Aboriginal Lands. The talk will discuss how some indicator/keystone species have been impacted by our changing climate and human (USFS.gov) actions and non-actions over the last century, and how the Karuk Tribe is managing the land to protect wildlife.

Monique Fountain, Director, Tidal Wetland Program, Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve 

Adapting Restoration for Climate Change in a California Coastal Salt Marsh  
This talk will look at impacts of sea level rise on a coastal marsh and how restoration efforts can be modified to ensure long term resilience of this habitat and the wildlife that depends on it. 

Dena Spatz, PhD, Biodiversity Coordinator, California Department of Fish and Wildlife

Climate, Biodiversity, and Community Science
This talk will cover how community science efforts have helped to inform our knowledge about biodiversity and shifts in species distributions under a changing climate. The talk will include ways in which the public can contribute to our knowledge of California’s biodiversity and why this is critical for achieving the state’s climate and biodiversity conservation initiatives, like California 30x30.