FAQs

The  Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) Network  is a national consortium of federal agencies, tribes, academic institutions, state and local governments, nongovernmental conservation organizations, and other partners working together to support informed public trust resource stewardship.

The CESU Network is well positioned as a platform to support research, technical assistance, education and capacity building that is responsive to long-standing and contemporary science and resource management priorities.  There are 17 regional CESUs that represent different biogeographic areas throughout the country. 

The CESU network was first established in 1998, as a result of federal legislation. The network was created to connect academic institutions and other nonfederal partners to provide research, technical assistance, and education related to the resources of the National Park Service units and their larger regions. In 1999, federal agency administrators signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishing the CESU Council and initiating the selection process for the first five CESUs. The Californian Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CA-CESU) was established at the University of California, Berkeley in 2003. Today, the national CESU network includes 17 regional CESUs.

The mission of the CA-CESU is to provide research, technical assistance and education across the biological, physical, social, and cultural sciences to address natural and cultural resource management issues at multiple scales and in an ecosystem context in California and nationally as appropriate.

The CA-CESU is a cooperative network of 14 federal and state agencies and 46 educational institutions and non-governmental organizations in California. The administrative University Host for the CA-CESU is located in the  Rausser College of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley campus.

For more information on becoming a partner, click here.

Each regional CESU has a host campus, and UC Berkeley fills that role for the CA-CESU. More specifically, the CA-CESU is housed in the UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management in the Rausser College of Natural Resources. As the host campus, UC Berkeley manages administrative tasks for the network, communicates with partners, and helps create future plans. The host campus also carries out research projects led by our Science Advisor. Additionally, UC Berkeley provides various student opportunities within the CA-CESU. To learn more about the research and people involved at the host campus, click here.