CBI staff worked on a comprehensive analysis of inventoried roadless areas within six ecoregions of the Pacific Northwest encompassing the range of the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) east and west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington, Oregon, and northern California revealed that roadless areas contributed to:

This document is a synthesis of the literature on roadless importance, drawing primarily on the published studies presented in the bibliography and available from the World Wildlife Fund and the Conservation Biology Institute. The authors of this document have spent nearly a decade compiling databases and conducting satellite imagery and computer mapping assessments that document the importance of roadless areas and the extent of forest fragmentation across the nation. This document provides a scientific foundation in support of lasting protections for roadless areas.

The primary objective of this study was to perform an enduring features conservation gap analysis for a pilot region within the U.S. (northern Rocky Mountains) that applied the same methodology as WWF Canada, resulting in a consistent crossboundary conservation assessment for the region for the first time. The Rocky Mountains were chosen over other crossboundary areas because this region is under increasing pressure from human enterprise on both sides of the border, yet it still maintains a full compliment of species including large carnivores. The conservation actions taken over the next decade will largely determine whether this portion of the Rocky Mountains continues to function in a way that supports the many species and natural processes which have made it world famous: there is much at stake.

The greater study area as taken from the Carnivore Strategy included the Rocky Mountains in BC and Alberta and the U.S. northern Rocky Mountains (approximately 690,000 square kilometers). This GIS-based research project concentrated mostly on the U.S. side of the border, as we attempted to duplicate the Canadian methodology on similar, but different, electronic datasets. The region was first subdivided into 50 ecosections (or natural regions), 32 of which were exclusively contained within the U.S. or straddled the Canada – U.S. border. Enduring features were then mapped and representation evaluated for each of the 32 ecosections. Finally, these results were added to the Canadian work for regional summarization. In addition to the enduring features gap analysis, enhancements to the methodology were examined for the U.S. portion of the study area using larger scale datasets. A physical units mapping procedure was developed and examples compared to the coarser scale enduring features analysis. Finally, a number of separate analyses (e.g., road density analysis) were performed for the U.S. portion of the study area that can now be used to support continuing conservation research in the region.

This report assesses potential impacts of feral pig populations in southern California (San Diego, Riverside, Imperial, and Orange counties) and Baja California, with an emphasis on San Diego County. We compiled information on the status of pigs in these areas from the literature and interviews with numerous individuals knowledgeable about feral pig populations, including a population recently introduced into San Diego County. We also reviewed available information on the potential impacts of feral pigs on natural resources, water systems, agriculture, and human health, and discussed the feasibility of various control and eradication options.

We developed population and habitat suitability models for feral pigs in San Diego County to examine the potential for numeric and geographic expansion following the recent introduction near El Capitan Reservoir. The models suggest that the population has the potential to grow rapidly and expand into large expanses of currently unoccupied habitat. Such expansion could harm natural biological resources, including riparian and oak woodland communities and numerous sensitive species. It is possible that populations could establish in such protected lands as Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and Volcan Mountain Preserve, as well as various wilderness areas. This could greatly diminish and possibly nullify large conservation investments already made in this region, including habitat restoration efforts. Finally, an expanding feral pig population in San Diego County could invade and cause grave damage in Baja California, where feral pig populations have not, to date, been reported.

In response to the environmental consequences of burning fossil fuels, particularly climate change, and rising energy prices, alternative energy sources are being actively sought throughout the world. Renewable energy sources can help to meet growing energy demands while reducing environmental costs. One widely promoted alternative is biomass energy derived from dedicated biomass crops, as well as from forest and fire management activities. While biomass energy shows some promise as a clean, renewable, and domestic alternative to fossil fuels, it can conflict with critical ecological values and sustainability goals if not properly planned for and implemented.  In order to move toward ecological sustainability, biomass energy production must not degrade these important ecological values.  However, existing projections of available forest and shrubland biomass resources in the U.S. have not adequately taken these values into consideration.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) commissioned CBI to evaluate the effect that ecological constraints would have on estimates of forest and shrubland biomass resources available for energy production in California, as assessed by the California Energy Commission in 2005.  California, home to many biologically diverse and unique areas, has been a leader in developing biomass as a potential source of energy as the demand for electrical power continues to rise.  The current contribution from biomass to electrical power in California is very small, but current and future biomass resources could be effectively developed to contribute as much as 15 percent of electrical energy demands by 2020. Rapid development of biomass as an energy alternative in California and elsewhere without careful consideration of the overall environmental impact could help achieve climate change abatement goals on the one hand but devastate important biological and ecological values on the other.  Accounting for these effects is an initial step towards reducing the environmental impact and risk to important conservation values as biomass development planning and implementation moves ahead. Using available spatial datasets, CBI’s GIS-based analysis quantified and mapped the changes to the current forest and shrubland biomass estimates after accounting for ecological values, such as old growth forest and critical habitat, and the wildland-urban interface.

CBI conservation biologists Jerre Stallcup, Patricia Gordon-Reedy, and Jessie Vinje are working with the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to develop methods for restoring grasslands of historic ranchos in southern San Diego County.  Together, we will develop an adaptive management plan with the objective of replicating this process on other conserved lands in southern California.

In the early to mid-1990s the Otay-Sweetwater area of San Diego County was comprised mostly of large cattle ranches; these were formerly Mexican land grants established in the early 1800s. Because of their size, resources, and location near large public land holdings of BLM and CDFW, these properties were excellent candidates for acquisition as part of the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP), a proactive and ecosystem-based conservation initiative launched in 1991 and continuing today. However, the properties also held special appeal to developers for many of the same reasons.

The San Diego NWR was thus born from unprecedented cooperation and partnership among local, state, and federal agencies, developers, and private conservation groups.  This area, where CBI is now working, lies within the largest expanse of undeveloped land in the MSCP planning area, supporting some of the last remaining coastal habitats of southern California.  Because of the concentration and global significance of its sensitive habitats and endangered species, and its high habitat integrity and proximity to other conserved lands, this unfragmented landscape is one of the highest priorities for conservation in California.

CBI used detailed habitat assessments and conceptual models to design cost-effective ways of controlling exotic grasses to benefit targeted grassland species (Otay tarplant, Quino checkerspot butterfly, and burrowing owl), testing different mechanical and chemical methods informed by past management practices.  We will restore native grasslands and forblands suitable for these and other rare species.  Coordination among land managers will allow us to conserve costs through economies of scale in contracting and implementing multi-year management actions with the objective of expanding the coverage of management actions based on the results of this project.

This project is providing spatially explicit scientific foundations for forest management recommendations to sustain and enhance populations of four imperiled carnivores in the Sierra Nevada of California:  marten (Martes americana), fisher (Martes pennanti), wolverine (Gulo gulo), and Sierra Nevada red fox (Vulpes vulpes necator).  The recommendations focus on enhancing resiliency of existing populations over the next 15-20 years, and assessing strategies for adaptation to climate change in the longer term.

Products include maps depicting habitat value and distribution for each species, lands important to maintaining population connectivity and movement potential between habitat areas, and lands important to accommodating shifts in distribution under climate change.  These maps will serve as foundations for spatially explicit conservation, management, and restoration recommendations, which can be incorporated into National Forest Management Plans and other land use and management plans.

This project will produce decision-support maps and tools to support an Interagency Fisher Biology Team in developing and implementing a Conservation Strategy for the west coast fisher Distinct Population Segment (DPS)–a Candidate for listing under that Endangered Species Act that stretches from southern British Columbia through Oregon, Washington, and California.  The Interagency Fisher Team includes representatives of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service, and other Federal, State, and Provincial agencies with an interest in species conservation and forest management.

CBI will prepare maps, analyses, and other decision-support tools, including habitat value, habitat connectivity, and population distribution maps for the DPS under current conditions, and an assessment of climate-change effects on fisher habitat and populations in the future.  These types of spatially explicit decision-support tools are needed to inform conservation planning and adaptive management to sustain and restore habitat value and fisher populations within the fisher DPS.

As the Earth’s climate changes, many plant and animal species are reacting by shifting their geographic ranges. As a result, resource managers are now faced with the challenge of developing and implementing strategies that will support wildlife adaptation to climate change. The sheer magnitude and diversity of models and data that can be applied to climate impact analyses and adaptation strategies can often be confusing to many users.

Recognizing a need for clarity within this field, the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences convened a working group of the nation’s leading conservation biologists, modelers, and policy makers to develop a guidance tool for integrating natural adaptation strategies into the context of natural resource planning and policymaking. The tool, The Yale Mapping Framework (www.databasin.org/yale), assists resource managers in selecting the assessment and modeling strategies that are most relevant to their specific needs, helping to guide choices among the many tools, data, and methods that planners may use to implement their adaptation approaches in the face of a changing climate.

CBI has managed a Protected Areas Database (PAD) for the United States since 1999 with public and private support. In May 2010, CBI released PAD-US (CBI Edition) v1.1 a national database of protected fee and easement lands. Since then CBI has been working to redesign PAD-US (CBI Edition) to be a fee lands only database to be used along with the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) to represent the terrestrial conservation lands of the United States. The most recent relase PAD-US (CBI Edition) Version 2, reflects this change to fee only database along with full updates to thirteen states (including AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, MI, MT, ND, OR, SD, TN, WA).

Protected areas are the cornerstones around which regional, national and international conservation strategies are developed. Through protected area designations, lands and waters are set-aside in-perpetuity to preserve functioning natural ecosystems, act as refuges for species, and maintain ecological processes. Complementary conservation strategies preserve land for the sustainable use of natural resources, or for the protection of significant geologic and cultural features or open space. PAD-US (CBI Edition) attempts to include all available spatial data on these places. It is our goal to publish the most comprehensive geospatial data set of U.S. protected areas to date.

PAD-US (CBI Edition) provides a rich picture of protected area coverage useful at a variety of scales. It portrays the nation’s protected areas with a standardized spatial geometry and numerous valuable attributes on land ownership, management designations and conservation status (using GAP and IUCN coding systems). It is developed with the purpose of allowing any user – from the general public to professional land managers – to know exactly what lands are protected anywhere the United States and allows them to easily use this inventory for conservation, land management, planning, recreation and other uses. This version should substantially improve our national inventory of protected lands.

Download the national data layer from links below:

– Click here for PAD-US (CBI Edition) Version 2.1 Shapefile (updated September 1, 2016)*

– Click here for PAD-US (CBI Edition) Version 2.1 Geodatabase (updated September 1, 2016)*

*These data have been updated to reflect finalization of reserved status for all protected lands.

The National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) is the first national database of conservation easement information, compiling records from land trusts and public agencies throughout the United States. This public-private partnership brings together national conservation groups, local and regional land trusts, and state and federal agencies around this common objective.

The purpose of the NCED project is to, in collaboration with land trusts and public agencies, create a single, up-to-date, sustainable nationwide system for managing and accessing data about conservation easements. Five leading conservation organizations have joined forces to develop the NCED:

Key partners providing support, advice, and data include the Land Trust Alliance, representing the views and concerns of the nation’s 1,700+ local and regional land trusts, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the U.S. Forest Service.