CRCS

UNITED STATES·DIVISION OF THE NATURE CONSERVANCY·crcs.tnc.org

The Center for Resilient Conservation Science (CRCS) is the scientific and spatial-analysis division of The Nature Conservancy, providing science, data and tools for continental-scale land and water conservation.

Overview

The Center for Resilient Conservation Science (CRCS) is a group of scientists and spatial analysts operating within The Nature Conservancy (TNC) who work on regional and national-scale issues related to biodiversity conservation and climate change. The team, whose members hold a combined total of more than 100 years of conservation experience, provides the science, data and tools used to inform TNC's own priority planning and conservation actions across all 50 U.S. states, and its data products and reports are also used for natural resource planning by hundreds of outside land trusts, conservation organizations, and state and federal agencies.

History

CRCS grew out of a team originally organized as the Eastern U.S. Division Conservation Program, also referred to as the Eastern Conservation Science team, a group of TNC scientists and policy experts conducting large-scale regional conservation science across 22 eastern states within four TNC divisions, based out of TNC's Eastern Regional Office in Boston, Massachusetts. The team's work has since expanded to a continental scale and now operates under the Center for Resilient Conservation Science name, informing TNC's conservation planning nationwide.

Ecologist Mark Anderson, who holds a Ph.D. in Plant Ecology from the University of New Hampshire, founded and directed the group, leading large-scale ecological assessments in eastern North America focused on landscape resilience, ecosystem and disturbance processes, geophysical diversity and habitat modeling. Anderson has since retired from TNC; according to the Center's own current team page, he "founded this group to address regional and national scale conservation science needs." Melissa Clark, who joined the team as a spatial ecologist and later earned a Ph.D., now serves as the Center's director, with Marta Ribera, Ph.D., serving as deputy director.

Notable works

In 2021, Mark Anderson received the Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award and Fellowship from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy — an award named for the Boston lawyer and former Lincoln Institute fellow whose work led to the creation of the Land Trust Alliance — in recognition of his leadership in developing TNC's Resilient and Connected Network, a nationwide map of linked landscapes identified as uniquely suited to preserve biodiversity and withstand the impacts of climate change. CRCS also produces the Freshwater Resilient and Connected Network, developed with input from 60 freshwater conservationists who assessed river networks across the contiguous United States for climate resilience, and maintains the Resilient Land Mapping Tool, an interactive platform that lets conservationists, community leaders and land trusts visualize and analyze climate-resilient conservation sites and wildlife migration corridors.

Key personnel

• Director Melissa Clark, PhD

• Deputy Director Marta Ribera, PhD

• Landscape Ecologist Analie Barnett

• Freshwater Ecologist Mary Khoury

• Web App Developer Erik Martin

• Spatial Ecologist Arlene Olivero

• Founder (retired) Mark Anderson, PhD

Audience

CRCS's core audience is internal: its analysis directly informs The Nature Conservancy's priority planning and conservation actions across all 50 states. Beyond TNC, the Center's data products, maps and reports are used for natural resource planning by hundreds of external land trusts, conservation organizations, and state and federal agencies.

Location and contact info

Parent OrganizationThe Nature Conservancy

Global HQ (TNC)4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100
Arlington, VA 22203