 I'm Anu Hitul, host of Climate Change Beyond Outrage, where we discuss solutions to climate problems facing people, nations, and the world. Today, I want to talk about climate change in natural areas. Plants move. Did you know that? They move to find the best situation possible, water, nutrients, temperature. And with climate change, we're seeing more of that movement. One of the trickiest things for natural areas managers is, how to deal with such changes in species distributions. What to do when your fave plant moves out and something else moves in? The Natural Areas Conference held last week at the University of California, Davis, with over 600 attendees may have been a little smaller than the 10,000 people World Conservation Congress held in Honolulu last month, but it was every bit as important to conservation. But before we get into the guts of what happened at the conference, a word on what is a natural area. According to the Board of the Natural Areas Association, it is a geographical area having an individuality developed through natural growth rather than design or planning and representing some value in terms of biodiversity. What this means in the age of the Anthropocene is still under discussion, or up in the air when it comes to climate change. The Anthropocene defines the Earth's most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced or anthropogenic based on overwhelming global evidence that Earth's system processes are now altered by humans. So what impact does human-induced climate change have on natural areas? And more importantly, what do we do about them? Turning words into action, that was the theme of the conference. Field scientists are definitely seeing changes that can be attributed to increased warming or changing environmental conditions, summarized Dominique Bachelet, senior climate change scientist at Conservation Biology Institute. She hoped to see more managers using available information to inform their practices, something that has always been a bottleneck and conferences like this one attempt to address that issue. So who attended the conference? People who look after natural areas, natural lands managers, land trust staff and volunteers, biologists, ecologists, researchers, policy specialists, educators, students and anyone with an active interest in environmental conservation and natural area stewardship, and this time one member of the media. While conferences like this one do not get much media attention, they certainly could benefit from a strong social media presence to archive lively and critical discussions that form the basis of on-the-ground management. The conference provided a venue for many disciplines to come together. One such example was a panel on climate change communication with academics, managers and educators. A half day of sessions in a small group format allowed participants and speakers to interact freely. No cavernous conference room for this event. A group out of UC Berkeley with Adina Merilander presenting is attempting to create climate stewards in California. Others are working with tribal governments and groups to address climate change adaptation. There was lively exchange around the issues of restoration and the complications associated with global change. Even top scientists addressed challenges faced today. Ecologist Don Falk emphasized experimental methods and long-term monitoring to map uncharted territories that lie ahead. One of the best events was the poster session. It was a hubbub of activity with students and senior scientists presenting their work. Birds, bugs and computer conservation tools all geared towards climate change adaptation. And that is exactly what the conference aimed to do, help managers deal with the onslaught of climate change. According to Lisa Smith, Executive Director of the Association, we've done this thoughtfully and deliberately so that practitioners could leave the conference with firm ideas of how to take action when they return home to their work. For more information, follow me on Twitter at Anu underscore hittle or on Facebook climate change beyond outrage.