In the Center for Conservation Innovation, we lead and collaborate on original science; develop technologies such as web apps; and imagine the next generation of policy, all with a focus on improving conservation outcomes. Here you can search and filter our papers, reports, apps, maps, and other products.
An Analysis of Ten National Biodiversity Strategies to Advise a Potential U.S. Strategy
The biodiversity crisis in the United States continues to become more dire each year, with threats …
Designated critical habitats for U.S. imperiled species are not protected from climate and land-use change
Designation of critical habitat is an important conservation tool for species listed as threatened …
Lights Out, Texas!
Lights Out, Texas! is a statewide campaign to reduce the mortality rates of migratory birds that fly …
Agreeing that maps can disagree: Moving away from map confusion in conservation
Deciding where to implement actions for biodiversity conservation remains challenging for many …
National Wildlife Refuges and Climate Change: An Assessment of Climate in Comprehensive Conservation Planning
The National Wildlife Refuge System is the nation’s only system of public lands dedicated …
Protecting the Disappearing Sagebrush Sea
Sagebrush once stretched across almost 500,000 square miles from the Dakotas to California. Known …
The Endangered Species Act Beyond 50
For 50 years, the Endangered Species Act (ESA or Act) has worked to keep species from falling off …
Imperiled Species Dashboard
This dashboard allows you to examine linkages between the five main drivers of global biodiversity …
Biodiversity in Crisis: Exploring Threats To America's Most Imperiled Species
Scientists are documenting an unprecedented decline in global biodiversity, mainly driven by …
The U.S. needs a National Biodiversity Strategy
The U.S. needs a National Biodiversity Strategy (hereafter Strategy). As anation that places a high …
WALT: Wildlife and Land Trusts
The WALT: Wildlife and Land Trusts tool is a one-stop-shop for land trusts to navigate federal …
The Impact of climate change on endangered plants and lichen
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was a landmark protection for rare organisms in the United States. …
Agency management plans also fail to address threatened species vulnerability to climate change in the US
Despite widespread evidence of climate change as a threat to biodiversity, multiple studies have …
The Tongass National Forest
Decades of old-growth forest logging in the Tongass National Forest have significantly reduced …
Four Challenges to an Effective National Nature Assessment
Comprehensive biodiversity assessments play an essential role in strengthening global and national …
Funding Needs for the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species Programs
The FY 2024 update on the funding needs for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) endangered …
From Leasing to Land Protections
When you hear the name, National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska (NPR-A, or Reserve), you might think of …
Comments on FWS's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Concerning Compensatory Mitigation Mechanisms
Mitigation means steps taken to avoid, minimize, or offset the impacts of human activities on the …
Spatiotemporal patterns in Golden-cheeked Warbler breeding habitat quantity and suitability
The Golden-cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia) is a Neotropical migratory songbird that is …
Climate Sensitivity and Management of Threatened Animals Dashboard
This small dashboard examines the sensitivity of U.S. threatened animals to climate change and at …
Protecting One to Benefit Many
The Intermountain West is home to the smoky blue Pinyon Jay, a small member of the corvid family. A …
A Systematic Review Demonstrated How Surrogate Populations Help Inform Conservation and Management of an Endangered Species - The Case of Cook Inlet, Alaska Belugas
The genetically and geographically isolated Cook Inlet beluga whale (CIB) was listed as endangered …
Northwest Florida Sentinel Landscape
The Interactive Northwest Florida Sentinel Landscape Map was developed by Defenders of Wildlife in …
Targeting current species ranges and carbon stocks fails to conserve biodiversity in a changing climate: opportunities to support climate adaptation under 30x30
Protecting areas for climate adaptation will be essential to ensuring greater opportunity for …
Pumas (Puma concolor) as ecological brokers: a review of their basic relationships
The puma Puma concolor is the fourth largest wild felid and the most wide-spread native terrestrial …
Coproduce conservation technology with law and policy experts to increase its impact
Addressing the biodiversity crisis will mean developing and adopting new resources and methods that …
Identifying key federal, state, and private lands strategies for achieving 30x30 in the United States
Achieving ambitious goals to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 will require a …
Status of the Recovery Mandate Under Section 7(a)(1) of the U.S. Endangered Species Act
The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) is widely considered to be one of the strongest laws for …
Options for prioritizing sites for biodiversity conservation with implications for '30 by 30'
International and national initiatives aim to conserve at least 30% of lands and waters by 2030. To …
Linking mountaintop removal mining to water quality for imperiled species using satellite data
Environmental laws need sound data to protect species and ecosystems. In 1996, a proliferation of …
Envisioning a Future for Wolves
Wolves play an essential role in maintaining ecosystem health and their presence or absence can have …
Growing the National Wildlife Refuge System
The National Wildlife Refuge System is the only federal lands management system with a focus on …
A Database of Habitat Conservation Plans and Related Documents Developed Under the U.S. Endangered Species Act
Under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, non-federal parties may be permitted to take, or harm, listed …
Status of the recovery mandate under section 7(a)(1) of the U.S. Endangered Species Act
The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) is widely considered to be one of the strongest laws for …
Consequences of Resource Limitations on ESA Implementation
The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) is widely considered the strongest wildlife protection law in …
Comments on NOAA's Draft Mitigation Policy for Trust Resources
In biodiversity conservation, mitigation means steps taken to avoid, minimize, or offset the impacts …
A Season Independent U-net Model for Robust Mapping of Solar Arrays Using Sentinel-2 Imagery
We have an unprecedented ability to map the Earth’s surface as deep learning technologies are …
Tracking Species Recovery Status to Improve Endangered Species Act Decisions
The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) protects over 2,000 species, but no concise, standardized …
Castor Mapper
The Castor Mapper is a web map that allows users to explore data collected by community scientists …
The Wetlands of California's Central Valley
A wetland is an area of land that is either covered or saturated with water for all or part of the …
Better representation is needed in Endangered Species Act implementation
In the United States, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses the concepts of resilience, …
Climate Mitigation in California: The Importance of Conserving Carbon in Deserts
As climate change continues to accelerate, it is essential to protect natural habitats that act as …
Wonders of the Warbler
The Golden-cheeked Warbler (GCWA) is a migratory songbird that breeds in only 32 counties in Texas …
A definition of “protect” or “conserve” under 30x30
A clear and consistent definition of “protected” or “conserved” is needed to establish priority …
Identifying key federal, state, and private lands strategies for achieving 30x30 in the US
Addressing the current biodiversity crisis will require transformative changes to social, political, …
Degradation of visible autumn icons and conservation opportunities: trends in deciduous forest loss in the contiguous US
Temperate deciduous forests are one of the most visible biomes on Earth because of their autumn …
States and 30x30 Dashboard
This small dashboard illustrates which states have started 30x30 initiatives. We are tracking …
Getting to 30x30: A roadmap for states
The Earth is facing environmental crisis. A 2019 global assessment by the Intergovernmental …
Saving Habitat... One Solar Panel at a Time
It is no secret that tackling the climate crisis requires all hands on deck, including a rapid …
Chesapeake Solar Fields AI Output
The growth of renewable energy is critical to slowing climate change, and the number of solar energy …
Update to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species program FY 2022 request
The FY 2022 update on the funding needs for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) endangered …
Imagining a New Future for the Lower Snake River
Rivers shape the Pacific Northwest, flowing from snow-capped mountains and carving through rugged …
Lesser prairie-chicken habitat changes since court delisting
The conservation status of the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicintus) is being assessed …
Ocelot Range and Human Impacts
The ocelot is a medium-sized wild cat found throughout the Americas from Argentina to the …
A Monitoring Policy Framework for the United States Endangered Species Act
Biodiversity is deteriorating at a global level as human actions like development, overexploitation, …
Benchmark for the ESA: Having a Backbone is Good for Recovery
To combat the extinction crisis, we need to identify strategies that ensure the long-term protection …
NWR Spending Dashboard
This small dashboard illustrates funding across National Wildlife Refuges in the U.S. and is based …
Supporting habitat conservation with automated change detection in Google Earth Engine
A significant limitation in biodiversity conservation has been the effective implementation of laws …
Finding Refuge: Imperiled Species and the National Wildlife Refuge System
As the first nation to develop a formal network of protected areas, the U.S. has led the way in …
Defending Our Nation's Wildlife
Defenders of Wildlife is committed to a future where North American wildlife and habitats are secure …
The Extraordinary Sea Otter
Southern sea otters play a critical role as a keystone species, which means they have a profound …
Defending Cook Inlet Belugas
With their charming smile and white coloration, beluga whales are among the most iconic marine …
FWS Eagle Mortality Model
This project contains data and code used to analyze the behavior of the collision risk model used by …
Be Mindful of Beaver
Beaver are the classic keystone species. Their remarkable dam building creates deep ponds which are …
Beaver Habitat Mapper
The Beaver Habitat Mapper is an interactive map application that allows users to overlay geographic …
Unpacking the eagle collision risk model: practical guidance for wind energy
Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing biodiversity, and solutions to reduce carbon …
Getting to 30x30: Guidelines for Decision-Makers
Addressing the current biodiversity crisis will require transformative changes to social, political …
Desert National Wildlife Refuge and the Nevada Test and Training Range
CCI has produced this map to remind Congress why it established protections for the Desert National …
Where (Endangered) Wildlife Come First
Imperiled species rely on National Wildlife Refuges to shelter them from threats underlying the …
The Okefenokee Swamp
Deep in the heart of southern Georgia lies one of the most outstanding examples of an ecologically …
Defining habitat to promote conservation under the ESA
The Supreme Court’s opinion in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 139 S. …
Limited patterns among ESA 4(b)(2) critical habitat exclusions
Areas can be excluded from critical habitat (CH) designations for economic, national security, or …
Habitat Patrol
Laws and regulations that protect imperiled species and their habitats are often limited by …
EarthEnticate
EarthEnticate is under construction but will eventually become a mobile friendly web app that lets …
Wild Jeopardy
Join Defenders for a fun-filled game of Wild Jeopardy! You can also check out other fun videos and …
Effective, low-cost methods of applying computer vision to public Earth observation data
We have an unprecedented ability to analyze and map the Earth’s surface, as deep learning …
An ecological framework for contextualizing carnivore-livestock conflict
Carnivore predation on livestock is a complex management and policy challenge, yet it is also …
Field Guide to Climate Change
This is a field guide to climate change impacts to wildlife across North America. You can click the …
Impacts to Wildlife Along the U.S.-Mexico Border: March 2020 Waivers
The Trump Administration has continued to advance work on the border wall between the U.S. and …
California 30x30 Viewer
This interactive web map facilitates a spatial comparison between California’s protected areas …
A Monitoring Policy Framework for the United States Endangered Species Act
Biodiversity is deteriorating at a global level as human actions like development, overexploitation, …
Promise the Pod: Saving the Southern Resident Orcas
Off the west coast of North America lives the most endangered orca population in the world: the …
Patterns of coyote predation on sheep in California: A socio-ecological approach to mapping risk of livestock-predator conflict
Conflict between livestock producers and wild predators is a central driver of large predator …
California's Desert Tortoise
After existing for millions of years in the California desert, the desert tortoise is experiencing …
Same law, diverging practice: Comparative analysis of Endangered Species Act consultations by two federal agencies
Evaluating how wildlife conservation laws are implemented is critical for safeguarding biodiversity. …
Blood in the Water: Shark Feeding, Tourism, and the Law
Shark tourism has become a significant driver of tourist dollars both in the United States and …
Update to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species program FY 2021 request
This document serves as an update of CCI’s funding analysis in 2019 , where we found that the …
Recovery units under the Endangered Species Act could be used more widely
Recovering species is one of the main goals of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In the face of …
US imperiled species are most vulnerable to habitat loss on private lands
To stem the ongoing loss of biodiversity, conservation practitioners must distinguish between …
Recovery plans need better science to support decisions that allow species to decline in abundance but be recovered
The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) is widely considered the strongest biodiversity conservation …
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: The People and Wildlife of the Coastal Plain
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge harbors the greatest biodiversity of any protected area north of the …
FY 2021 Testimony of Jacob Malcom, Ph.D.
The science marshalled in recent months and years shows with unrivaled clarity that this is a …
U.S. action lowers barriers to invasive species
Invasive species can cause harm to a broad spectrum of critical needs ranging from economic, food, …
Eagle Permitting Costs
This app helps users understand the costs associated with obtaining a permit for the incidental take …
ESA Listings Dashboard
The Endangered Species Act protects species in danger of extinction (Endangered) or likely to become …
The Year of Coexistence Story Map Series
Coexisting with wildlife is integral to Defenders’ mission to protect all native animals and plants …
ESA Recovery Plans Dashboard
The Endangered Species Act requires the creation of plans for recovering listed species. Long-term …
Timeliness of Five Year Reviews under the Endangered Species Act
The U.S. Endangered Species Act requires a review of the status of listed species once every five …
ESA Listed Species Found in a Single State
Proposals have been put forward to remove U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from species …
Counties of Occurrence of ESA-Listed Species
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provides tables of the counties of occurrence of each ESA-listed …
Computer Vision for Renewable Energy
Defenders of Wildlife supports the development of renewable energy sources and works to ensure that …
The Endangered Species Act 101
Learn how the Endangered Species Act (ESA) works in our new series! Meg Evansen, our Conservation …
A definition of 'habitat' under the ESA
The Supreme Court’s opinion in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 139 S. …
Agency plans are inadequate to conserve US endangered species under climate change
Despite widespread evidence of climate change as a threat to biodiversity, it is unclear whether …
Bison Restoration on the Great Plains
Over the last decade, the conservation community has partnered with tribes, national parks and …
Border Wall: Map of August 30, 2019 DHS Waiver
The Trump Administration has continued to advance work on the border wall between the U.S. and …
Solve the biodiversity crisis with funding
The recent Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) …
Climate change fact sheets from Landscape Conservation
The Heat Is On fact sheets describe the current, deleterious effects of climate change on species …
Comments on EPA's proposed revised pesticide risk assessment
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released its Draft Revised Method for National …
The Endangered Species Act: Trump Administration Regulations
Disregarding more than 800,000 public comments opposing its proposal to weaken implementation of the …
Monitoring Policy for the ESA
The Endangered Species Act is considered one of the strongest acts in the world for protecting …
Defend the Roadless Rule in Utah
The Center for Conservation Innovation has produced a static map and story map to accompany a report …
Novel data show expert wildlife agencies are important to endangered species protection
To protect biodiversity, conservation laws should be evaluated and improved using data. We provide a …
PACT Summary
The Partnership for Action on Conservation Technology (PACT) 2019 was a workshop held on 12 June …
conservationist.io
Conservationists need a platform with tools tailored to our needs, like Microsoft Office and …
Golden cheeked warbler at risk from liquefied natural gas pipelines in Texas Hill Country
The Kinder Morgan Pipeline will destroy Golden cheeked warbler habitat in the Hill Country. This …
Landscape of fear and human-predator coexistence: Applying spatial predator-prey interaction theory to understand and reduce carnivore-livestock conflict
In recent decades the ‘landscape of fear’ has grown in popularity to become a central …
Testimony to House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, 22 May 2019
In May 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services …
ESA Listings by Taxonomic Group
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has been developing a new web service to make their data more …
ESA Funding Infographic
The goals of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) are to prevent extinction and recover species, but …
Thunder Basin National Grasslands - U.S. Forest Service's Plan Amendment
The Forest Service released a federal proposed action for amending the Thunder Basin Land and …
Potential Impacts of Proposed Liquefied Natural Gas Facilities On Ocelot Recovery in Texas
This report was produced by Defenders of Wildlife, with the support of CCI, to detail the effects …
Border Wall: Map of April 23, 2019 DHS Waivers
The Trump Administration has continued to advance work on the border wall between the U.S. and …
Border Wall: Map of February 2019 DHS-DOD Request
The Trump Administration has continued to advance work on the border wall between the U.S. and …
Prince of Wales Island Logging
Deforestation can be monitored from space using Earth observation satellites. For this interactive, …
Missing, delayed, and old: The status of ESA recovery plans
Recovery planning is an essential part of implementing the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), but …
Automated habitat change detection methods using satellite data to improve conservation law implementation.
A significant limitation in biodiversity conservation has been the effective implementation of laws …
Section 7 Explorer
-OBSOLETE-
A Shiny app to explore section 7 consultation data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife …
Win-Win: The Endangered Species Act and Our National Parks
This report, produced in collaboration between Defenders of Wildlife and National Parks Conservation …
Washington Boat Disposal
CCI provides mapping support throughout Defenders for informational handouts, such as this boat …
The Border Wall and the Rio Grande
An interactive story map detailing how border wall construction would impact the people, places and …
30 years of satellite data show imperiled species are most vulnerable to habitat loss on private lands
To stem the ongoing loss of biodiversity, there is an urgent need to distinguish effective and …
Endangered Species Act Funding
An analysis of the funding needed for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to properly implement the US …
State ESAs
Under the North American model of wildlife management, states take the lead on managing many …
Smart from the Start: Renewable Energy in the West
Helping ensure that renewable energy projects are built close to existing transmission, on already …
Recovery Units Map
A map showing recovery units designated for threatened and endangered species, which allow more …
Protecting Habitat on Federal Lands
Over 1/4 of lands in the U.S. are federally owned and are essential to protecting wildlife. This …
Panther Recovery in South Florida
A web map app showing recovery zones for the Florida panther.
NMFS West Coast Salmon Range (BETA)
-OBSOLETE-
An alpha-stage app to view the areas occupied by Pacific Coast salmon listed under the …
Lesser Prairie Chicken Recovery in the Great Plains
The Lesser Prairie-Chicken is an imperiled species that was formerly listed as a threatened species, …
Jaguar Recovery on the U.S. Border
The jaguar is an important keystone predator whose range extends from South America through the …
In the Shadow of the Wall: Wildlife on the Line in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
Provided is Defenders’ comprehensive report on border wall impacts to wildlife, which was …
Grizzly Bear Electric Fence Incentive Projects
Defenders of Wildlife maintains the Electric Fence Incentive Program in the Rockies and Plains …
ESAdocs Search
Thousands of pages of ESA-related documents are created every year, each containing important and …
Summary of Proposed Road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
Map depicting proposed road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
Coastal Habitat Loss from Hurricane Michael
Hurricane Michael damaged countless communities along the gulf coast - an area that is also home to …
Nature divided, scientists united: US-Mexico border wall threatens biodiversity and binational conservation
Fences and walls erected along international boundaries in the name of national security have …
Desert Tortoise Report
CCI has helped support spatial analyses and mapping to protect desert tortoises, a project led by …
Carnivore conservation needs evidence-based livestock protection
Carnivore predation on livestock often leads people to retaliate. Persecution by humans has …
ESA Listing Workplan Explorer
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released a 7-year workplan used to prioritize ongoing …
ESA Counties
Knowing where ESA-listed species live is the first step to avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating …
Dynamic recovery: Web-based ESA recovery plans
The U.S. Endangered Species Act directs the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine …
The Texas Conservation Plan has not slowed oil and gas well development in dunes sagebrush lizard habitat
Background: The dunes sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus) is an imperiled species that is …
Petition to List the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard as a Threatened or Endangered Species and Designate Critical Habitat
The dunes sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus; hereafter, DSL) is a narrow-ranging habitat …
Texas imperiled species prioritization
Any prioritization system must first establish the overall objective for the program. This requires …
Refining ESA ranges with placenames and GBIF
Historically, the range maps used in implementing the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have been only …
ESA Listings
-OBSOLETE-
Since 1973, over 2,000 species have been listed as 'Threatened' or 'Endangered' under the …
Dunes Sagebrush Lizard: The Cautionary Tale of a Candidate Species Denied
This white paper explains the problems with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s recent …
Sand mines destroying Dunes Sagebrush Lizard habitat
Sand mines can be even more disruptive than oil and gas development, removing very large swaths of …
Same law, different results: comparative analysis of Endangered Species Act consultations by two federal agencies
Evaluating how wildlife conservation laws are implemented is critical to determining how best to …
Free aerial imagery as a resource to monitor compliance with the Endangered Species Act
Compliance monitoring is an integral part of law and policy implementation. A lack of compliance …
Sand Mines Destroying Dunes Sagebrush Lizard Habitat
At Defenders’ Center for Conservation Innovation, we are using satellite images to track the …
The Importance of Properly Funding the ESA
A brief overview of Congressional appropriations and agency expenditures on the Endangered Species …
At Risk Species
-OBSOLETE-
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Southeast Region assembled a small Microsoft Access …
Monitoring Habitat Loss for Endangered Species Using Satellite Data
Implementing automated habitat change detection over the range of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken.
ESA Section 7 Incidental Take (FWS)
An analysis of incidental take data authorized and recorded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in …
Working Lands for Wildlife
The Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW) program ‘…systematically target[s] conservation …
Changes in designated critical habitat, 2001-2011: Working paper
Critical habitat occupies a contentious position in endangered species policy (see, e.g., James and …
A simple, sufficient, and consistent method to score the status of threats and demography of imperiled species
Managers of large, complex wildlife conservation programs need information on the conservation …
Southeast U.S. imperiled species planning
Imperiled species are threatened by a variety of factors, many of which stem from human population …
Data contradict common perceptions about a controversial provision of the US Endangered Species Act
Analysis of FWS section 7 consultations.
