Next Steps: Wildlife and Ecology from the Piedmont to the Appalachia will take place over Zoom on Thursday, June 4th, from 9 AM to 2 PM ET (with a break for lunch). This workshop is focused on bringing together academics, policymakers, and members of the nonprofit sector who are actively working on wildlife conservation efforts with the goal of establishing big-picture plans for biodiversity and conservation research in the region while identifying strategies to bolster established projects. This workshop is a stepping stone for a larger conference to be held late this coming Fall. The plan is to form some coalitions, begin initial steps toward new working projects, and formulate white papers to outline the urgent needs in wildlife conservation across the Southeast. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me (Jenny McGuire) at jmcguire@gatech.edu. 

Prior to the conference, we encourage you to consider a few questions to facilitate discussions:

1. What are critical scientific and conservation questions that need to be addressed in the southeastern U.S.?
2. What partner coalitions are necessary to address these challenges?
3. What are some concrete outcomes that could result from these projects (this could include papers, policy changes, etc.)?
4. What resources are needed to achieve success?

Please review the results from the surveys:

• Results from the data survey, where you told us about your restoration, monitoring, and data collection efforts
• Results from the collaboration survey, where you outlined projects that you'd like to partner with students or academic researchers