Duke Forest Executive Director Sara Childs recently gave a keynote address at the Carolina Biodiversity Collaborative (CBC) Annual Symposium, hosted at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. The CBC’s mission is to address the biodiversity crisis by advocating for biodiversity research, promoting education in biodiversity-related careers, and engaging in public outreach. The CBC was formed by Biology Department faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and includes partnerships with NC State University, the NC Botanical Garden and Herbarium, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, and the NC State University Insect Museum. The Duke Forest recently became a formal partner of the Collaborative.
Sara’s presentation described the numerous biodiversity initiatives of the Duke Forest, including our community science herpetofauna monitoring, graduate student research on wildlife using camera traps and acoustic monitoring, and the ongoing work of the Triangle Connectivity Collaborative to promote and protect wildlife corridors in the Neuse and Cape Fear watersheds. Dr. Allen Hurlbert, Professor of Biology at UNC-Chapel Hill, also gave a keynote address discussing the use of community science data to better understand patterns of biodiversity across local and global scales. Attendees included biodiversity scientists and practitioners from across North Carolina. The meeting provided an invaluable opportunity for experts from many disciplines and organizations to connect and collaborate. Learn more about the CBC and ways you can support the important work of protecting biodiversity by visiting their website.