North Carolina Botanical Garden Virtual LUNCHBOX Talk: The Critical Importance of Plants in Conservation Decision-Making
with Regan Smyth, Director of Spatial Analysis, NatureServe, Arlington, VA
The registration period has closed for this event.
Date: Thursday, September 24, 2020
Time: 12:00 PM-1:00 PM
Fee: Free, preregistration required.
Join us to learn about the Map of Biodiversity Importance, a collaborative effort between NatureServe and other partners, to identify the places most important for conserving at-risk species.
Through the analysis of habitat for 2,216 of the nation's most imperiled plant and animal species, NatureServe and its strategic collaborators have created maps of areas of high biodiversity importance for the contiguous United States that serve as an invaluable input to guide effective conservation decision-making for the future. Regan Smyth of NatureServe will share some intriguing outcomes of the project related to plant conservation and valuable lessons about how including plants in the priority analysis changes the final conservation picture.
This Virtual LUNCHBOX Talk will be offered via Zoom Webinar. Information for accessing the event will be distributed with confirmation of registration.
Registration open through 9/24/2020 11:50 PM
Regan Smyth is the Director of NatureServe’s Spatial Analysis program, where she leads a team of scientists and GIS analysts working to provide the scientific information that supports biodiversity conservation across the Americas. Regan’s expertise lies in adapting spatial analysis tools to address diverse resource management needs, including modeling and mapping of ecosystems and species habitat, development of biodiversity indicators, and spatial threats assessment, including climate change vulnerability analyses. She currently is coordinator of NatureServe’s network-wide habitat suitability modeling initiative and led the Map of Biodiversity Importance project, a collaborative effort between NatureServe, state natural heritage programs, Esri, The Nature Conservancy, and Microsoft to map areas of importance for imperiled species . Regan earned both a B.S. in Environmental Science and Biology, and an M.E.M in Ecosystem Science and Management from Duke University.
