Informing Science Policy

Our support for sound policy supported by science continued unabated in 2021, and we even expanded some of our work. ESA members continued to show their commitment to engaging in scientific policy, while the leadership made sure that ESA was always part of the discussion in federal decision-making.

Key to our work, as always, was our biweekly newsletter to the membership, as well as advocacy letters signed by the ESA president. But we took things a step further in 2021 by including a record number of participants in the Graduate Student Policy Award (all activities held virtually), and therefore a record number of meetings with Congressional offices.

Members heard Brenda Mallory, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality for President Joe Biden, give an overview of federal environmental policy during the Opening Plenary of the 2021 Annual Meeting. ESA awarded California Department of Natural Resources Secretary Crowfoot with the 2021 ESA Regional Policy Award Winner for his sound use of science in decision making and  preserving California’s world-renowned biodiversity of plants and animals.