Mission: PRBO's 120 scientists study birds and ecosystems to advance conservation from Alaska to Antarctica. Founded in 1965, our mission is to conserve birds, other wildlife and ecosystems through innovative scientific research and outreach. Using birds as indicators of environmental health, we work with public and private habitat and wildlife managers to improve conservation outcomes in the face of rapid climate, land use and oceanographic change. We strive to ensure that every conservation dollar yields the most, ecologically and economically.
Geographic areas served: California, western North America, northeastern Pacific Ocean, Antarctica, Alaska, Central America
Programs: Pacific coast and central valley groupconducts ecological studies and provides conservation science training opportunities to both support the development of active conservation scientists and advance our understanding of environmental change in order to formulate strategies that ensure thriving ecosystems, diverse wildlife populations and maximize benefits to wildlife and humans in the context of climate adaptation and land use change.
informatics and climate change groupis composed of two major teams. The informatics and information technology team develops tools, frameworks and techniques for managing the wealth of scientific data compiled by the organization and its partners, transforming those data into successful conservation outcomes and ecosystem knowledge, to improve conservation decisions throughout california and around the world. This team is also responsible for managing point blues websites, computer hardware and network infrastructure. The climate change and quantitative ecology team uses cutting-edge climate models and analytical approaches to increase understanding of the effects of climate change and the effects of management responses to climate change on ecosystems, with an overarching goal of improving the resilience of ecosystems and human communities to accelerating change. This team also ensures that point blues scientific study designs and analyses continue to be rigorous, innovative, and respected by the scientific and conservation communities.
emerging projects and partnerships groupdevelops and manages programs that are either across the organizations groups or outside of current priority geographies. This includes the rangeland watershed initiative, the grassland bird conservation plan and point blues desert, shrub steppe, department of defense and bureau of reclamation related programs in southern california. The emerging programs and partnerships group also provides scientific guidance to major conservation initiatives including federal resource management plans, state planning efforts, federally and state funded joint ventures, the landscape conservation cooperatives (lccs), the north american bird conservation initiative, partners in flight and other partnerships.
Nils Warnock
Professional with expertise in this field
12/29/2008
Rating: 5
12/29/2008
If you are interested in birds and science and helping conserve birds and their habitats then PRBO is the place for you. I worked there as a biologist and can attest that most of each dollar donated to PRBO is spent on research or education that will benefit wild birds. This organization has a 40 year history in doing applied bird conservation science within the western United States and beyond and the bird data sets they have invested in are among the longest in North America and beyond. These data are helping us better understand things like how climate change is impacting our environment, how habitat change is affecting bird populations, and what the true state of bird populations are in the west. Your dollars will support a great organization and a very inspired, dedicated staff.
