BRI’s mission is to assess emerging threats to wildlife and ecosystems through collaborative research and to use scientific findings to advance environmental awareness and inform decision-makers.

From the moment he captured his first loon on Michigan’s Seney National Wildlife Refuge, David Evers has been a champion of wildlife conservation, incorporating innovative approaches to traditional research methods. As the founder, executive director, and chief scientist of BRI, Dr. Evers has made great strides in bringing critical ecological issues to the forefront of our nation’s and the world’s consciousness.

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Why It Matters — The Value of BRI’s Work

• By bridging scientific research + policy relevance + public education, BRI helps transform scientific evidence into actions—supporting conservation, sustainable development, and protection of wildlife and ecosystems.

• Our global reach (in over 50 countries and 5 continents) gives us a broad perspective—making our findings relevant globally, not just locally.

• Through work on contaminants in the environment (like mercury and PFAS), impacts of offshore wind development, climate effects on biodiversity—BRI addresses emerging environmental challenges that affect ecosystems, human health, and long-term sustainability.

• Multidisciplinary Science + Outreach + Leadership—BRI is combining field ecology, quantitative modeling, and new technological techniques with ecotoxicology, renewable-energy risk assessment, and biodiversity monitoring—while producing peer-reviewed science, influencing policy, and engaging public/media.

• Our commitment to transparency and public engagement helps raise environmental awareness and encourages informed decision-making among stakeholders and builds capacity with indigenous and local communities around the world.

At BRI we understand that science is not just about data collection—it is about connection. As long time field biologist and author, Jeff Fair so eloquently expresses:

“What’s so different, so enticing about the backcountry experience to me? I like the solitude, the silence, the quiet joy of equal-minded camaraderie among a very small society in a wild expanse, and when I get out of earshot, that primeval white-noise soundtrack of wind and river and wilderness. I like the musical inspiration of that voice that narrates my life when I’m in a place where it feels like the dawn of creation. A good biologist—a studier and recorder of life—has clearer insight and does much better at observation and mindfulness when they are working, participating, in the landscape they love. And I like the existential magic that can occur out there when I escape the busy, clattering, and cluttered downtown world. Yes, magic.”