November 17 - 20, 2002: Washington, D.C. based organization, Defenders of Wildlife hosted their fourth bi-annual carnivore conservation conference held in beautiful Monterey, California.    It was a week filled with paper and poster presentations, field trips, and social gatherings. Steve Oliver was honored by being the featured artist at this year's conference. Scientists, researchers, conservationists and naturalists from all over North America attended the conference. Steve was accompanied by his wife, Lisa, to Monterey where they also enjoyed exploring the spectacular Pacific coast of California and seeing the many numerous marine mammals.

Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities. They focus their programs on what scientists consider two of the most serious environmental threats to the planet: the accelerating rate of extinction of species and the associated loss of biological diversity, and habitat alteration and destruction.