Mary Ellen Hannibal is a Bay Area writer and researcher focusing on science and culture. Her book The Spine of the Continent is about a social, geographical, and scientific effort to save nature along the Rocky Mountains. She is intimately acquainted with the landscapes that POST works to protect, and this conversation will focus preserving ?wildlife connectivity,? or the ability for animals to migrate across protected areas in order to respond to climate change and maintain genetic diversity. Mary Ellen is also a major proponent of the idea that ?citizen science? has the power to transform how we collect data and respond to our changing environment. Since its founding in 1977, POST has been responsible for saving more than 75,000 acres as permanent open space in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties.