The San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park has received a grant of nearly $800,000 from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to launch a statewide nature alliance.
The grant will back the three-year effort to coordinate and enhance biodiversity and environmental equity research in San Diego, Los Angeles and the Bay Area, while also supporting San Diego-based community science in urban canyons.
In addition to the Nat, the California Urban Nature Alliance includes three institutions, the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley.
The gift will fund the Nat’s coordination of the alliance, including a post-doctoral position based at UC Berkeley, and its own research here in San Diego.
“At the Nat, we are ready to provide leadership for the alliance,” explained Judy Gradwohl, president and CEO. “Together, the four participating institutions will have a meaningful impact on California’s major urban centers by increasing the understanding of urban ecology and working with community scientists and policymakers to study and enhance nature in our cities.”
The focus in San Diego will be assessing local canyons, the city and county’s dominant urban green space.
In the city of San Diego, 80% of residents live within a 10-minute walk from a park or open space. There are hundreds of canyons across the county. Despite their predominance in the landscape, there is still much unknown about these canyons, including the extent of natural habitat, how they contribute to conserving regional wildlife, the ecological services they provide to people and how to mitigate threats to their survival.
“Currently, there is no comprehensive map of urban canyons for San Diego County, which hinders opportunities for researchers looking to study them and local people who want to use them,” explained Dr. Michelle Thompson, the Nat’s director of conservation biology, who will lead the initiative. “The strategy we plan to use could be replicated in other cities.”
The Nat and the other organizations are building the alliance in partnership with the Schell Lab at UC Berkeley to elevate community involvement in assessing and preserving urban nature. The aim is to provide a model for collaboration for other cities in California and across the U.S.
“Natural history museums, and particularly the members of this alliance, are uniquely suited to lead this type of work. We are committed to conservation in our local regions, and independently have designed urban green space initiatives,” Gradwohl said.
The alliance will seek to rally support for green spaces, canyons and wildlife as part of neighborhoods in each metro area, including under-resourced communities. Residents will be invited to participate in scientific data collection and analysis, broadening and diversifying the network of California community scientists.