Dr. Travis Longcore is Adjunct Professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Science Director of The Urban Wildlands Group, a Los Angeles-based conservation nonprofit, and an independent ecological design and environmental policy consultant.
He grew up in Orono, Maine, where he played ice hockey, soccer, and the trombone. After high school he spent a year as an AFS exchange student in Alingsås, Sweden, studying natural sciences, learning Swedish, and playing more music. He then attended the University of Delaware with a DuPont Scholarship, earning the first Honors B.A. degree in Geography. He won the Taylor Award for the outstanding senior man, was a Rhodes Scholarship nominee from the state, and won a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, with which he pursued his M.A. and Ph.D. in Geography from UCLA.
Dr. Longcore’s research is focused on nature in cities and makes use of diverse statistical tools, fieldwork, and geographic information systems. His landmark article “Ecological Light Pollution” (Longcore and Rich 2004) and 2006 co-edited book Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting (Island Press) have come to define a new and rapidly growing research area in ecology. In 2022, he received the Galileo Award from the International Dark-Sky Association “in recognition of outstanding achievements in research or academic work on light pollution over a multiple-year period.”
His service to the profession includes serving as Associate Editor of PLoS ONE and Urban Ecosystems. He is certified as a Senior Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America and as a GIS Professional (GISP).
Dr. Longcore is an accomplished environmental policy consultant, having provided extensive expert commentary and analysis in dozens of environmental cases for local, regional, and national organizations on issues as diverse as “towerkill” of migratory birds at communications towers, the proposed delisting of the Yellowstone population of grizzly bears, the ecological impacts of pesticides on birds, and numerous residential, recreational, and commercial development projects.
Longcore has served as President of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Audubon Society (2010-2015, 2020-present) and on the Board of the Bel Air-Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council, where he represents custodians of open space and also serves as President (2021–present).
Among his accomplishments in the nonprofit, educational, and consulting sectors, Dr. Longcore co-developed science-based habitat restoration program and native plant nursery for coastal dune habitats and transferred operation to nonprofit training at-risk youth and young adults; directed the growth of a yearlong senior practicum problems course for a B.S. program in environmental science with competitive selection of student group projects for off-campus clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to local nonprofits; and managed a successful captive breeding program for endangered California butterflies, which he continues to oversee.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1039-2613
Travis Longcore 
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