Sierra Checkerboard Initiative
The Trust for Public Land, the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, California Wilderness Coalition, and others, commissioned this Science Assessment to initiate development of a vision for a more sustainable landscape in the central Sierra Nevadas. (July 2005)
January 2008
The Sierra Nevada, John Muir's Range of Light, is a state and national treasure, valued for its scenic beauty, rich biodiversity, ancient forests, unparalleled recreational opportunities, and commercial timber and water resources. The Sierra Nevada supports over 60% of California's vertebrate species and over half of its plant species. For its size, it is the most floristically diverse area in North America. The Sierra supports 50 million recreational visitor days each year, and its watersheds deliver 65% of the water supply for California residents.
But human society's love affair with the Sierra is also threatening these same values, as a result of ownership patterns that challenge the effectiveness of regional land management efforts, ever expanding residential development, and the threat of catastrophic fires. These threats are particularly evident in the central Sierra Nevada, where the ownership pattern is a checkerboard of public and private lands. Land management practices often differ on public and private lands with respect to land use, public access, road construction and maintenance, fuel and fire management, and vegetation restoration. This results in fragmented habitats, irregular access for public recreation, and conflicts over timber harvest. The growing human population and continued expansion of residential development in the central Sierra will further diminish resource values and complicate sustainable resource management.
In recognition of these threats to the legacy of the Sierra Nevada, The Trust for Public Land (TPL) commissioned the Conservation Biology Institute to establish a scientific foundation for a their Sierra Checkerboard Initiative. The vision for the Sierra Checkerboard Initiative was established in the Science Assessment for the Sierra Checkerboard Initiative. The Conservation Strategy for the Sierra Checkerboard Initiative, developed in collaboration with Nancy Budge of QB Consulting, prioritized areas for TPL’s work in the study area, described desired future conditions for the resources in these areas, and presented a number of potential private landowner conservation incentives and funding mechanisms.
The Science Assessment identified areas of high biodiversity, mature forest connectivity, and passive recreation values, as well as areas threatened by development, unnatural fire regimes, and management incompatible with conservation of mature forests. The Science Assessment uses a systematic and transparent approach to integrating and analyzing the extensive amount of data available for the central Sierra (portions of El Dorado, Placer, Nevada, Sierra, and Yuba counties) and identifying candidate areas for developing conservation and management strategies. A modeling tool, developed from the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) System, allowed us to visualize, in an unbiased manner, the distribution of the various characteristics of the study area that contribute to resource values and threats. Links to the Technical Appendix to the Science Assessment, which explains the EMDS model developed for the project, and an online metadata catalog for the project can be found on this page.
The Conservation Strategy identified 17 priority resource areas that contributed to a number of distinct regional conservation themes, including river corridors, upper watersheds, mature forests, and recreational and visual resources. Private lands conservation strategies consisted of a combination of implementing mechanisms, including land acquisition or land exchange, conservation easements, management agreements, and other plans or agreements to minimize threats and enhance resource values. Twenty one potential categories of funding for implementing private lands conservation were presented.
CBI continues to serve as the science partner to TPL on the implementation of the Sierra Checkerboard Initiative. For more information, contact Mike White in the CBI San Diego office (760) 634-1590.
