California Native Grassland Association GRASS Award Speaker Series

Join us for the CNGA’s Virtual Speaker Series showcasing the amazing work undertaken in California Grasslands by some of our Grassland Research Awards for Student Scholarship Winners.

Talks are on Tuesdays from 6 PM - 7 PM PST featuring a one 40-minute talk, or one or two 20-minute talks, with time for Q&A. 

Members: Free      Non-Members: $10       Non-Member Students: Free with Student ID

Title: Centering Amah Mutsun voices in the analysis of a culturally important, fire-managed coastal grassland

Speaker: Annie Taylor, PhD, Spatial Data Scientist at the Nature Conservancy in California

October 29, 2024 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Abstract: Indigenous communities throughout California are increasingly advocating for and practicing cultural fire stewardship, leading to a host of social, cultural, and ecological benefits. Simultaneously, state agencies are recognizing the importance of controlled burning and cultural fire as a means of reducing the risk of severe wildfire while benefiting fire-adapted ecosystems. However, much of the current research on the impacts of controlled burning ignores the cultural importance of these ecosystems, and risks further marginalizing Indigenous knowledge systems. Our work adds a critical Indigenous perspective to the study of controlled burning in California's unique coastal grasslands, one of the most biodiverse and endangered ecosystems in the country. In this study, we partnered with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band to investigate how the abundance and occurrence of shrubs, cultural plants, and invasive plants differed among three adjacent coastal grasslands with varying fire histories. We used interviews with Amah Mutsun tribal members to contextualize the results of our vegetation survey and remote sensing analysis, and to investigate how cultural burning contrasts from typical Western fire management approaches in this region. Our study is a novel example of how interviews, field data, and satellite imagery can be combined to gain a deeper ecological and cultural understanding of fire in California's endangered coastal grasslands.

Bio: Annie recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a PhD in environmental science, in which she partnered with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of California's Central Coast to study how innovative geospatial tools could be applied to Indigenous cultural revitalization and ecological restoration. As the Oceans Spatial Data Scientist at the Nature Conservancy in California, Annie leads spatial analysis and modeling projects related to ocean ecosystems in California and beyond. She’s currently using satellite imagery analysis to track the health of kelp forests, to protect and monitor whales and other marine wildlife, and to tackle the issue of plastic pollution in our oceans.

Contact Justin Luong (jluong4@ucsc.edu) with any questions.

CNGA 2024 GRASS Award Speaker Series 2024 Schedule (Tuesdays, 6 - 7 pm)

• October 29 - Annie Taylor (The Nature Conservancy)
• November 12 - Jennifer Valadez (UCSC) & Ava-Rose Beech (UCD)
• November 19 - Carmen Ebel Watkins (U of Oregon)
• December 10 - Brooke Wainwright (UCD)
• January 14 - Jessica Solis (SFSU)
• January 21 - Mathew Wells (Santa Monica Mountains NPS)
• January 28 - Sabela Vasquez-Rey (UCD)

Help Support Student Research - Donate to the GRASS Program

CNGA's GRASS Program: 

• Focuses student research on important grassland-related questions. 
• Inspires students to become more involved in California Grassland Conservation and Restoration. 
• Trains future employees for your agency or company.
• Creates advocates for California Grasslands