{"id":2,"date":"2016-02-26T18:48:49","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T18:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2026-10-01T15:35:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T22:35:45","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<br \/>\n<section id=\"builder-section-1457042268274\" class=\"row side-right gutter pad-top\">\n<div style=\"\" class=\"column one \">\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: medium\">An article based on an interview in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesunmagazine.org\/publications\/3\"> The Sun<\/a> just out, September 2026, &#8220;A Wing and a Prayer: Cheryl Schultz on Declining Butterfly Populations in North America&#8221; by Mark Leviton. \u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Our report, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/xerces.org\/publications\/scientific-reports\/state-of-butterflies-in-united-states\">State of the butterflies in the United States: a Roadmap for Butterfly Conservation in the 21st Century<\/a> <\/strong>is out! \u00a0The report is based on our March 2025 publication in <em>Science<\/em>\u00a0from our USGS-USFWS working group on the <a href=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vancouverlabs\/uploads\/sites\/1227\/2025\/03\/Edwards-et-al-2025.pdf\">Status of Butterflies in the US<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium\">A lot of interest in this story. Hear more in an interview on OPB&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opb.org\/article\/2025\/03\/20\/washington-state-university-led-study-reveals-20-year-loss-of-butterfly-populations-across-us\/\">Think Out Loud.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Listen to a story about our work to recover Fender&#8217;s blue on the Xerces podcast, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xerces.org\/bug-banter\/revival-of-fenders-blue-butterfly-conservation-story\">Bug Banter<\/a> as well as a recent essay on our work on Xerces&#8217; newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xerces.org\/publications\/wings-magazine\/wings-471-spring-2024-turning-tide\">WINGS<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: medium\">And take a look at our multi-authored study on the importance of on-the-ground actions to help our butterflies in Edwards, Schultz et al 2024 even in the context of climate change. Read more on the <a href=\"https:\/\/appliedecologistsblog.com\/2024\/09\/05\/using-management-interventions-to-help-at-risk-butterflies-in-a-changing-climate\/\">Applied Ecologists&#8217; Blog<\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h1><\/h1>\n<h1><span style=\"color: #800000\"><strong>Conservation Biology<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Human-caused changes in the earth\u2019s ecosystems are responsible for the decline and extinction of the world\u2019s biological diversity.\u00a0In the Conservation Biology Research Group, we study the ecology of at-risk species in response to key drivers: habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, habitat degradation, invasive species, alteration of ecosystem process, and global climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Using a population-ecology lens, we use field and quantitative methods to address pivotal ecological questions. We seek to understand the relative contributions of individual, population and landscape-level processes to the population viability of endangered species as these processes interface with realistic conservation interventions. Our work largely uses at-risk butterflies in Pacific Northwest Prairies as a model system to address fundamental ecological questions while simultaneously tackling focal questions to guide on-the-ground practice.<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>We have upcoming opportunities<\/h2>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/join-us\/\">Please review this page if you are interested in working with our lab!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"\" class=\"column two \">\n<h4><span style=\"color: #8f7e00\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-306\" src=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vancouverlabs\/uploads\/sites\/1227\/2016\/10\/Cheryl_Schultz-from-WSU-spectrum-square-396x397.jpg\" alt=\"cheryl_schultz-from-wsu-spectrum-square\" width=\"233\" height=\"234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vancouverlabs\/uploads\/sites\/1227\/2016\/10\/Cheryl_Schultz-from-WSU-spectrum-square-396x397.jpg 396w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vancouverlabs\/uploads\/sites\/1227\/2016\/10\/Cheryl_Schultz-from-WSU-spectrum-square-198x198.jpg 198w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vancouverlabs\/uploads\/sites\/1227\/2016\/10\/Cheryl_Schultz-from-WSU-spectrum-square.jpg 719w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #8f7e00\">Dr. Cheryl Schultz<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Professor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Departments:<br \/>\nArts and Sciences<br \/>\nBiological Sciences<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:schultzc@wsu.edu\">schultzc@wsu.edu<\/a><br \/>\nPhone: (360) 546-9525<br \/>\nFax: (360) 546-9064<br \/>\nOffice: VLSB 125F<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"builder-section-1467241335835\" class=\"row side-left gutter pad-top\">\n<div style=\"\" class=\"column one \"><\/div>\n<div style=\"\" class=\"column two \"><\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> <\/p>\n<h2>An article based on an interview in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesunmagazine.org\/publications\/3\"> The Sun<\/a> just out, September 2026, &#8220;A Wing and a Prayer: Cheryl Schultz on Declining Butterfly Populations in North America&#8221; by Mark Leviton. \u00a0<\/h2>\n<h2>Our report, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/xerces.org\/publications\/scientific-reports\/state-of-butterflies-in-united-states\">State of the butterflies in the United States: a Roadmap for Butterfly Conservation in the 21st Century<\/a> <\/strong>is out! \u00a0The report is based on our March 2025 publication in <em>Science<\/em>\u00a0from our USGS-USFWS working group on the <a href=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vancouverlabs\/uploads\/sites\/1227\/2025\/03\/Edwards-et-al-2025.pdf\">Status of Butterflies in the US<\/a>. \u00a0A lot of interest in this story. Hear more in an interview on OPB&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opb.org\/article\/2025\/03\/20\/washington-state-university-led-study-reveals-20-year-loss-of-butterfly-populations-across-us\/\">Think Out Loud.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n<h2>Listen to a story about our work &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/\" class=\"more-link\"><span class=\"more-default\">&raquo; More &#8230;<\/span><\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"author":2131,"featured_media":206,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-builder.php","meta":{"_wsuwp_accessibility_report":[]},"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1930,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/1930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=2"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vancouver.labs.wsu.edu\/conservation-biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}