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Eli Bernstein
M.S. Candidate in Environmental Sciences and Policy
I have a B.A. in Environmental Science from the University of California at Santa Cruz with an emphasis in Agroecology. I also have a degree in Ecological Horticulture from the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food system's Farm and Garden Program.
I am an advocate for the importance of wild biodiversity, specifically its bi-directional benefits, within agro-pastoral landscapes. The interactions between agro-pastoral systems and wild landscapes have been increasingly shown to provide the "ecosystem services" that sustain our food systems (pollination, pest control, filtration, and so on). Recently, the importance of agro-pastoral systems acting as potential refugia and corridors for conserving wild biodiversity amidst the escalating Biodiversity Crisis has gained greater respect. From an acknowledgment that the management of human food systems could (and does) significant affect the fate of wild biodiversity as a whole arises the interest in reconciling habitat modification for food production on the one hand and habitat restoration for biodiversity within food systems on the other hand.
My research takes place within a public lands ranching landscape in northern Arizona. In collaboration with the Grand Canyon Trust, a local conservation organization working on diverse issues across the Colorado Plateau and recent permitee for grazing rights on the 900,000 acre Kane Two Mile ranches, I am conducting a plot-based experiment testing the effectiveness of various re-seeding treatments in the House Rock Valley on the Arizona Strip. Principal to my ecological research is addressing the question, "is it possible to graze cattle in this ecosystem while simultaneously carrying out landscape-scale ecological restoration?" I am also keen to explore an emerging policy arena in which conservation organizations are using public lands grazing permits to carry out ecological restoration and protect biodiversity. How can the Kane Two Mile serve as a case study to analyze the success of this strategy to protecting biodiversity on public lands? Have such efforts demonstrated a successful method for reconciling the demands of agro-pastoral systems with the goal of biodiversity conservation across a landscape scale?
Eli J. Bernstein
3723 N. Grandview Dr
Flagstaff, AZ 86004
Email: ejb66@nau.edu
Phone: (928) 523-2237 or (831) 238-0862
Dr. Tom Sisk of our Landscape Ecology and Conservation Biology Lab and Ethan Aumack of Grand Canyon Trust getting to know the Kane Two Mile ranches.
