Wednesday, May 14, 2025, 4:00 PM ET
Click Here to Register for Solar-Wildlife Webinar #2
Presented by REWI, this webinar will bring two speakers together – one from the USA, and from from Australia – to discuss biodiversity-related research in PV solar facilities.
Moderator: Josh Ennen, Senior Scientist, Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute (REWI)
Speakers:
- J.D. Willson, Department Vice-Chair and Graduate Studies Coordinator, University of Arkansas
- Eric Nordberg, Senior Lecturer – Applied Ecology and Landscape Management – School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England (Australia)
About the Speakers
J.D. Willson is a Professor of Biology at the University of Arkansas. He has over 20 years of experience in wildlife research and has published over 80 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. J.D. and his students use a combination of field, lab, and modeling approaches to understand wildlife population and community dynamics, with an emphasis on reptiles and amphibians. Much of his recent research uses large-scale occupancy studies to answer questions related to sustainability and conservation, including an active US DOE SolWeb award investigating factors influencing wildlife biodiversity across solar facilities in the south-central USA.
Eric Nordberg is a wildlife ecologist and Senior Lecturer of Applied Ecology and Landscape Management at the University of New England, Australia. His lab and students are interested in answering ecological questions about how wildlife communities respond to natural and human-mediated disturbances. Their research aims to identify best practices to minimize the impacts of landscape change on community ecology, species interactions, and natural history, with special interest in predator-prey dynamics, competition, and resource use. Much of his recent work has focused on identifying win-win land management strategies to increase habitat suitability for wildlife on large-scale solar farms in Australia.