The Western Section’s Conservation Affairs Committee (CAC) tracks and responds to policies that may affect the conservation of wildlife and their habitats within the Section’s geographical scope, which includes the Hawaii chapter, Nevada chapter, and 6 California chapters, as well as at least 5 active student chapters. The Western Section CAC operates under the framework of the Conservation Affairs Network, which engages and unifies the efforts of The Wildlife Society to advance wildlife conservation policy issues at the national, regional, and local levels. Through a lens that focuses on the efforts of the Western Section CAC from 2017 to present, we will explore the ways that TWS chapters and sections can engage in federal policy. Case studies will include Section-wide comment letters and actions that focused on issues that either (1) touched each of the Section’s 8 chapters (such as ESA and MBTA policies), or (2) affected only some of the Section’s chapter geographies (such as proposed changes to National Monuments). Further, we will touch on examples where Section-to-Section collaboration has proven beneficial to add our active voice for science advocacy, including collaborating with other Sections on comments on the border wall or on ESA species listings. We will explore the operationalized processes, approaches, and opportunities for responding to federal policy from a Section perspective.

Kelly Holland is a senior wildlife biologist and environmental compliance expert, who leads GEI’s Biological Resources Team. She is a Certified Wildlife Biologist, who has served as the Section's Conservation Affairs Committee Chair since 2017 and is also the Section’s representative to the TWS Certification Review Board. She has over 27 years of experience in ecological research, program management, environmental regulation and compliance, and terrestrial ecosystem monitoring. Much of her career and her involvement with TWS has focused on the intersection of science and policy, and particularly engaging scientists to participate in shaping policy that affects the wildlife and habitats that we all care about.