Cheryl Schultz is at conservation biologist and professor at Washington State University and is currently a scholar-in-residence with US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Center for Pollinator Conservation. She has been leading efforts to advance science to recover at-risk butterflies for over 30 years.  Her leadership played a key role leading in the downlisting Fender’s blue butterfly, the first butterfly to achieve this milestone in the history of the Endangered Species Act. She hopes the combined efforts of the Status of Butterflies Working Group and species-based teams she is working with (monarch butterfly, Oregon silverspot and others) will follow this model of integrating science with local and regional partnerships to enable recovery of butterfly species across the country.

Eliza Grames is a conservation biologist at Binghamton University. She uses quantitative methods, evidence synthesis, and data integration to understand the effects of rapid environmental change on biodiversity, with a special emphasis on disentangling the drivers of insect biodiversity loss and consequences of insect decline for ecosystem function.

The seminar will be recorded; email powellcenter@usgs.gov after April 18th for access.