Greetings friends, collaborators and partners. In this time of uncertainty, we here at CURes wish to offer our gratitude for your continued support of our mission.
Our philosophy of resilience will help to carry us through and provide the services upon which you rely. Although we have had to postpone some of our in-person events, such as the Gottlieb Native Garden Green Earth Film Festival, guided tours of Ballona Discovery Park, and participation in the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, we have been quite busy and working diligently from our homes and in the field to meet the demands of our programs. In the past few days we have released the latest issue of Cities and the Environment (CATE) Journal, published a jointly authored paper of the human animal bond, continued to work on our podcast series More than Human, conducted field research on the management of coyotes, installed nature signage in Ballona Discovery Park, and met with partners to ensure continuity in our work toward increasing tree canopy in underserved neighborhoods. We’ve received major support from a committed anonymous foundation to establish a Southern California Restorative Justice Initiative and are gathering partners so that we are ready to launch when the conditions permit. We continue to work with the Wallis Annenberg Petspace Foundation to develop educational materials, and helped host the recent multi-day retreat to accelerate the collaborative research on domestic working dogs. Lastly, and by all means not least, we are on the verge of releasing a book about hummingbirds, published by G2 Books. This new publishing venture is the latest environmental initiative of Susan and Dan Gottlieb.
In the next few weeks, we endeavor to provide additional resources and experiences that you can share from your computer in the safety of your own home. This includes live wildlife cameras, virtual tours of Discovery Park (you can still go there on your own with your families) and updates on the projects that we are doing. The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying social upheaval will test the resilience in all of us. We are blessed to have this opportunity to remain active so that we can turn our philosophy into action, albeit from a safe distance to others. Finally, we wish you all and your families continued good health and the internal fortitude to bear whatever burdens lie ahead.
With humble sincerity,
The CURes team
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