Autumn Iverson receives the Central Valley Joint Venture’s Special Recognition Award.  Autumn’s dedicated work on the  CVJV Science and Knowledge Needs Plan for 2024-2034 was truly an extraordinary effort, requiring a look into the past, present and possible future of the CVJV. Her work began with a review of previous scientific studies and the CVJV’s 2010 Monitoring and Evaluation Plans for the region to define no longer relevant or incomplete areas, then she reviewed emerging needs and new tools which helped her develop a process to identify and refine current information needs for the monitoring and evaluation of our work.

The updated CVJV Implementation Plan (2020) included additional bird groups and considered several aspects of human dimensions and other multiple benefits. As such, updating the science needs plan required a comprehensive process to consider both biological and social sciences.  Autumn eloquently and efficiently spearheaded the process, holding multiple meetings with existing bird working groups and forming a Human Dimensions Task Force. The resulting document is a comprehensive guide for future research and monitoring efforts for the entire CVJV area of operations.

To pull it all together, Autumn created a Science Needs Library, a bibliography and literature sharing site to make recent relevant science available to partners and the public.