Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 70.14
Liaison Lindsey Kalkbrenner
Submission Date May 3, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Santa Clara University
OP-11: Biodiversity

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Michelle Bezanson
Associate Professor
Anthropology Department
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Does the institution own or manage land that includes or is adjacent to legally protected areas, internationally recognized areas, priority sites for biodiversity, and/or regions of conservation importance?:
No

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A brief description of any legally protected areas, internationally recognized areas, priority sites for biodiversity, and/or regions of conservation importance on institution owned or managed land:
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Has the institution conducted an assessment or assessments to identify endangered and vulnerable species with habitats on institution-owned or –managed land?:
Yes

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Has the institution conducted an assessment or assessments to identify environmentally sensitive areas on institution-owned or –managed land?:
No

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The methodology(-ies) used to identify endangered and vulnerable species and/or environmentally sensitive areas and any ongoing assessment and monitoring mechanisms:
Santa Clara University's citizen science project, SCU Gone Wild, focuses on campus naturalism. The program's website serves as a database to document observations on campus, field trips, and field courses. SCU gone Wild is documenting and highlighting these natural opportunities for the SCU community and integrate longitudinal data collection for students and faculty through a website and observation platform powered by iNaturalist. SCU Gone Wild hopes that this citizen science project will educate and engage the campus community in their natural surroundings promoting more sustainable behavior and conservation. The project is ongoing.

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A brief description of identified species, habitats and/or environmentally sensitive areas:
SCU Gone Wild participants have observed salamanders, a burrowing owl, a peregrine falcon, flocks of cedar waxwings, killdeers, and an increasingly diverse plant ecology on campus grounds. In addition, several SCU courses integrate field station visits and wildlife observation both on and off campus. They are currently identifying spots on campus that serve as wildlife refuges.

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A brief description of plans or programs in place to protect or positively affect identified species, habitats and/or environmentally sensitive areas:
SLURP and Bird Habitat: The Sustainable Living Undergraduate Research Project of CyPhi RLC has initiated an applied research project (as part of ENVS 195) to investigate establishing the SCU Campus record of observations in order to measure the health of the site as a bird habitat.

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The website URL where information about the institution’s biodiversity policies and programs(s) is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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