Conservation Science

We notice changes in the landscape that are a part of our everyday lives – a freshly cleared building site, highway construction, storm damage or a new row of trees planted along a city street. But when we look at changes at a regional, state or global level, it’s more difficult to notice.

Development, disease, climate change and natural change in the landscape are all challenges to our conservation work at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Increasingly, we consider these challenges as part of our work in land and water conservation. We’re always looking for strategies to deal with these changes.

We also apply our scientific approach to issues like climate change and energy development, asking the same basic questions in trying to understand if there is change, what kind and how much. Long-term success in our conservation mission will depend upon how well we and the species we are conserving can adapt to changing landscapes.