Marea Gabriel of The Nature Conservancy describes a network of resilient sites that will sustain these species in a changing climate. Climate change is creating an increasingly dynamic natural world by shifting plant and animal distributions and rearranging habitats. Consequently, conservationists need a way to prioritize land protection to conserve native species despite these changes. Marea will discuss The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient & Connected Landscape analysis, which identifies a network of resilient sites that will sustain these species in a changing climate - she will demonstrate the concepts and data supporting this vision, discuss their applications to conservation decisions, and give some examples, including here along the Assabet River.
Marea Gabriel is the Conservation Projects Manager with the MA Chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). She works with TNC’s Landscape Conservation Program addressing global climate change through science-based conservation strategies including land protection, ecological restoration, nature-based solutions, and advancing a low-carbon economy. Prior to joining TNC in 2012, Marea served for 15 years as a Conservation Biologist and Aquatic Ecologist with MassWildlife’s Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, focusing on freshwater mussel and vernal pool conservation, endangered species regulatory review, and land protection - in doing so, she’s snorkeled hundreds of rivers/streams in MA/NH in search of rare mussels. Marea received an M.S. in Environmental Biology from Antioch New England Graduate School. She lives in Sudbury with her husband and two children and aside from attending her kids’ sporting events, can usually be found hiking conservation trails in the Sudbury area with her dog Halle.