The inaugural 2011 Mediterranean Reserve Managers International Cooperative Fellowships have been awarded to two scientists with extensive experience working in Mediterranean-type regions. Both proposals seek to improve the flow of knowledge and the establishment of cooperative projects in regions facing similar conservation problems.
Jeffrey Clary is a reserve manager at Quail Ridge, Stebbins Cold Canyon, and Jepson Prairie reserves. He plans to forge relationships between land managers in California and those in Catalonia, Spain by arranging on-the-ground meetings at the UC Natural Reserve System and Spain’s Parc Natural de Collserola. Seminars will be hosted at UC Davis and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona to engage the interest of wider audiences. Participating scientists will develop protocols for studying oak population dynamics in parallel at Parc de Collserola and the UC Davis Natural Reserves of Quail Ridge and Stebbins Cold Canyon.
Fiorenza Micheli is a professor of biology at Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University. With this award, Micheli aims to help devise science-based conservation and management measures for a marine sanctuary in the northern Tyrrenian Sea and a proposed sanctuary in the Adriatic Sea. Collaborators from Italy will travel to the United States to meet with scientists, government agencies, National Marine Sanctuary staff and others involved in managing Marine Protected Areas. Participants will visit California Marine Protected Areas within the UC Natural Reserve System at Bodega Marine, Landels-Hill Big Creek, and Scripps Coastal reserves, and meet with reserve staff to discuss current research and management issues.
Each Fellow was awarded $5,000 to carry out these proposals, with funds coming from the Kenneth S. Norris Endowment Fund for the California Environment, provided to the NRS by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Each project is being conducted with matching funds from participating international organizations.