Megan EvansenDefenders of Wildlife · Center for Conservation Innovation
Megan Evansen
Master of Science
About
10
Publications
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Introduction
Publications
Publications (10)
The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) is widely considered to be one of the strongest laws for protecting imperiled wildlife, with nearly all species protected under the law still existing today. Among the ESA's strongest provisions, at least as written, is the requirement under section 7(a)(1) that federal agencies use their authorities to help re...
The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) is widely considered to be one of the strongest laws for protecting imperiled wildlife, with nearly all species protected under the law still existing today. Among the ESA’s strongest provisions, at least as written, is the requirement under section 7(a)(1) that federal agencies use their authorities to help re...
The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) protects over 2,000 species, but no concise, standardized metrics exist for assessing changes in species recovery status. Tracking these changes is crucial to understanding species status, adjusting conservation strategies, and assessing the performance of the ESA. We helped develop and test novel metrics that...
Biodiversity is deteriorating at a global level as human actions like development, overexploitation, climate change, pollution, and other factors have led to a dramatic increase in the rate of extinction. The U.S. Endangered Species Act is considered one of the strongest laws in the world for protecting wildlife, but its effectiveness depends on pr...
The Supreme Court in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that “critical habitat” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) must first be “habitat,” but it did not attempt to define exactly what habitat is or how much deference the federal wildlife agencies should get on what is both a biological and policy question. The C...
Evaluating how wildlife conservation laws are implemented is critical for safeguarding biodiversity. Two agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service (FWS and NMFS; Services collectively), are responsible for implementing the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), which requires federal protection for threatened an...
As scientists, we call on the U.S. Congress to fully fund wildlife conservation programs to protect biodiversity from severe and growing threats. The effort to conserve threatened and endangered species must be prioritized to protect our national heritage and safeguard human well-being. In light of the unprecedented global biodiversity crisis ident...
In order to facilitate the routine NWP assimilation of operational advanced infrared sounder data (IASI on MetOp and CrIS on NPOESS) over high latitude land regions of the globe, we demonstrate a method for preparing the input to 1-D var data assimilation. The method involves the identification of clear sounder fields of view over snow/ice in winte...
Projects
Projects (3)
The Endangered Species Act currently has no legislative or regulatory definition of habitat, but a definition is required following the dusky gopher frog decision from the Supreme Court. Our goal is to synthesize science, law, and policy to develop an operational definition of habitat that reflects the protective goals of the ESA.
The U.S. Endangered Species Act is arguably the strongest law in the world for protecting imperiled species. Unfortunately, there is no policy guidance on how implementation is monitored - from species status to compliance monitoring to effectiveness monitoring - which leaves practitioners short on essential information to guide performance. Our goal is to develop a framework to guide the development of a monitoring policy under the ESA by federal agencies tasked to conserve our most at-risk species.
The effectiveness of conservation laws and policies is only as good as people's compliance. Unfortunately, we have very little information about the frequency and degree of compliance, from local projects to landscape-scale views. Our goal is to develop science, technology, and policies to improve compliance monitoring so that everyone, from government agencies to civil society groups to everyday people can help improve outcomes for wildlife and their habitats.
