← Work & Research

03 / Conservation · Workflow tools

Miradi Converter

Less time moving work between files. More time for conservation.

My role
Workflow design and application development
Context
Conservation Project Design and Evaluation, Middlebury Institute
Status / reviewed September 29, 2026
Working tool, in development; import and extraction work, placement validation next
The Conservation Standards cycle: Assess, Plan, Implement, Analyze & Adapt, Share
Project interface / illustrative view; features may change as development continues.

The decision

How does an existing plan become a conservation project?

Miradi is open-source adaptive management software that conservation practitioners use to design, manage, monitor, and learn from projects. Moving existing work into a structured project can involve a lot of repeated data entry: translating a plan’s content and entering it in the right places.

The idea started with my own coursework. Working through the Arroyo Hondo Watershed assignment for Conservation Project Design and Evaluation made the repeated entry hard to ignore.

A cactus wren perched among sunlit cactus branches
01 / DesertLife among the cacti
Red and orange sea stars nestled among tidepool rocks
02 / IntertidalA closer look at the shore
Sunlight filtering through a canopy of tall redwoods
03 / ForestLooking up through the redwoods

What I built

A converter that starts with the plan.

  1. 01 / Bring in existing informationStart with a management plan, or an assignment worksheet, and extract the relevant conservation information.
  2. 02 / Organize the structurePlace the extracted information in the project, then check the relationships between its parts.
  3. 03 / Check the resultReview the content, relationships, and output before it goes into Miradi.
  4. 04 / ExportProduce a project file that can be opened and refined in Miradi.
A sandy path winding through coastal marsh beside blue water
04 / WetlandWhere land meets water
An adult quail and chicks sheltering beneath green branches
05 / WildlifeA little cover for the next generation

The design principle

Extraction suggests. The practitioner decides.

AI-assisted extraction can identify information in a management plan, but it does not establish that a placement is right. The workflow keeps a review step between what was extracted and what enters the project.

Current status / reviewed September 29, 2026

The converter works. Placement comes next.

  • Working: Assignment 1 import.
  • Working: AI-assisted extraction, tested live on management-plan content.
  • Next: validate automatic placement against a disposable sample project, checking extraction quality, placement, and export behavior.
  • Then: refine the management-plan workflow and write instructions classmates can follow.
  • Open: MiradiShare check-in is still being worked out, and the checked-out project workflow is on hold.

See the conservation project behind it on the Arroyo Hondo Watershed page ↗.

Explore further

See the tool. Bring a question.

Open Miradi Converter ↗Discuss a similar project ↗

Next case study: Arroyo Hondo Watershed ↗