Conservation Blogology

July 27, 2008 10:57 AM

Where do you go to read about (biological) conservation on-line? Web-sites, blogs, podcasts; policy, science, activism. Is anybody aggregating interesting stuff in the world of conservation?

And, if no such place exists, what would you name a good conservation blog?

posted by one_bean to computers & internet (8 comments total)

A lot of the professional organizations or journals have list servs. Conservation Biology is a good place to start looking as it's fairly broad and quite active. If you know what kind of conservation you're into (mammals, flowers, oceans) I can probably suggest a few more.

Most people in the field are under-paid and over-worked enough that they don't spend a lot of time online but there are often lively exchanges in the "Contributions" or Letters sections of most of the journals and these are generally free online at the various websites.

Finally every agency and lab puts out about a million technical reports a year. Some of these are available online, USGS Open Source papers, for example, and are a great way to stay in touch with notes, advances and problems in the field.
posted by fshgrl at 3:50 PM on July 27, 2008

Conservation Magazine, including their JournalWatch section, is designed for the busy conservation professional to keep up on the latest news and research.

The Invasive Species Weblog

Bootstrap Analysis is a great blog on the musings of an urban field ecologist

just to name a few that i read...
posted by buttercup at 4:26 PM on July 27, 2008

The Invasive Species Weblog is the link, sorry.
posted by buttercup at 4:30 PM on July 27, 2008

A lot of these are more "general environmental news" than cutting edge advances in conservation biology academics, but here are the blogs I have in my reader:

Gristmill
Gristmill - Endangered Species tag (to make sure I don't miss anything)
Environmental News Network
National Geographic
Wildlife Globe
World Wildlife News
Nature News
EcoEarth Aggregator
Forest Portal
Mongabay - Endangered Species blog
Plenty Magazine and their Extinction Blog
Unbossed
Enviroblog (public health focus)
Environmental Action
Triple Pundit
Red, Green, and Blue
Stop Extinction
Environmental Law Prof blog
ESA blawg
SF Gate - Environment
Indybay - Environment
California League of Conservation Voters blog
Sierra Club California blog
Carl Pope's blog
High Country News and their blog
Orion
Baykeeper
Bay Nature
posted by salvia at 4:30 PM on July 27, 2008

I want to clarify my disclaimer above, where I kinda imply that only science is "cutting edge." In fact, given the corruption at the top levels of most US government agencies, it seems to me that the frontlines of the conservation fight are in the political, legal, and media arenas, so I do consider smart tactics there to be at the "cutting edge" of conservation. (Eg, I don't think this is due to a lack of scientific knowledge.) I like science, too, but I want to make sure I didn't sound dismissive of blogs about advocacy, law, media, and politics.
posted by salvia at 4:56 PM on July 27, 2008

A lot of the professional organizations or journals have list servs. Conservation Biology is a good place to start

How does one go about subscribing to the consbio listserv? Even as a member, I'm having a hell of a time finding it.
posted by one_bean at 5:54 PM on July 27, 2008

The mailing lists are here.

It's been so long since I signed up that it was just one list, I think. You used to be able to access the archives online in practically real time but that doesn't appear to be the case anymore.

They have a religion and conservation one now! That should be interesting.
posted by fshgrl at 7:30 PM on July 27, 2008

Here's a few more for the list:

a Conservation Blog
ConservationBytes
ESABlawg
The Spatial Ecology Lab Journal Blog
posted by one_bean at 12:05 AM on September 9, 2008