The purpose of this project was to create a GIS-based model that identifies specific focal areas throughout the range of the redwoods. Focal areas were defined as zones that offer the best conservation opportunities for long-term protection and maintenance of the redwood ecosystem based on current conditions. GIS was utilized because of its spatially explicit architecture and advanced analytical capability.
This model was produced for Save-the-Redwoods League as part of their overall Master Plan – an organizational blueprint for protecting the redwood ecosystem. More specifically, this model was intended to help the League target their future proactive conservation planning efforts more effectively as part of their overall conservation mission while supplying a broader organizational tool that could be shared with its conservation partners in the region.
Island foxes (Urocyon littoralis) inhabit the six largest Channel Islands off the coast of southern California, with a separate subspecies recognized on each island: San Miguel Island fox (U. l. littoralis), San Nicolas Island fox (U. l. dickeyi), San Clemente Island fox (U. l. clementae), Santa Catalina Island fox (U. l. catalinae), Santa Rosa Island fox (U. l. santarosae), and Santa Cruz Island fox (U. l. santacruzae). Due to their limited geographic distribution and small population sizes, foxes on all six islands have been listed as Threatened by the State of California, and all subspecies except those on San Nicolas and San Clemente have been listed as Endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service due to recent precipitous population declines and high risk of extinction.
Due to the persistent high risk of this island species, robust monitoring of fox populations and their threats is a key component of recovery and long-term management. In response to a request from the Recovery Coordination Group of the Island Fox Integrated Recovery Team, the Conservation Biology Institute was commissioned by The Nature Conservancy, with additional funding from the Catalina Island Conservancy, to develop a monitoring framework for five subspecies of island fox on San Miguel, San Nicolas, Santa Catalina, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz islands. A monitoring framework previously developed for the U.S. Navy for San Clemente Island foxes (Framework Monitoring Plan for the San Clemente Island Fox, 2006), in addition to years of monitoring and research on all six islands, provided the foundation for the current multi-island monitoring framework. This document thus represents the first comprehensive synthesis of monitoring data, objectives, and protocols across multiple Channel Islands with foxes.
This report describes the considerations and approaches used to identify specific monitoring objectives, determine parameters to address these objectives, and develop protocols to measure these parameters. It presents illustrative island-specific examples of monitoring scenarios designed to address current monitoring objectives, but with different levels of effort and resulting precision. Recommendations are offered as guidelines with some built-in flexibility to account for on-the-ground feasibility. It is expected that island managers will tailor and adapt protocols for on-the-ground use, based on their resources and priorities, understanding that there is generally a trade-off between monitoring intensity and information value, and that future advances in our knowledge of fox ecology and in the development of field and analytical techniques may result in adaptation of this framework monitoring protocol.
CBI led the development of a science-based adaptive habitat management plan for the approximately 3,000-acre Ramona Grasslands Open Space Preserve in central San Diego County. The Ramona Grasslands are a regionally important conservation area, supporting a variety of target resources, including vernal pools and rare vernal pool species, Stephens’ kangaroo rat, wintering and breeding raptors, riparian habitats and arroyo southwestern toads, and native grasslands. The Ramona Grasslands are grazed by cattle, which maintain habitat suitability for some species but adversely affect other natural resources. CBI initially partnered with The Nature Conservancy to develop a Framework Management Plan for the Grasslands, which laid out a scientific basis for implementing management activities, describe experimental manipulations to increase our understanding of the dynamics of the system, and to develop a biological monitoring program to assess changes in resource states.
CBI then worked with the County of San Diego Department of Parks and Recreation and their contractors to develop a detailed description of baseline conditions in the Ramona Grasslands and specific management and monitoring recommendations (Area Specific Management Directives) that were derived from the Framework Management Plan. Development of the management plan was preceded by a 2-year baseline field monitoring program that was coordinated by CBI. The Area Specific Management Directives proposed an adaptive grazing strategy to balance resource needs and optimize habitat quality across the preserve. Monitoring activities proposed by the management plan included surveys of grassland, vernal pool, and riparian plants; characterization of stream channel geomorphology and water quality; and avian, small mammal, amphibian, and fairy shrimp surveys.
1. Protected areas form one of the main pillars of biodiversity conservation throughout the world. Only 1.2 percent of the Alberta Foothills is currently protected, which is woefully inadequate by any scientific standard.
2. Protecting the full array of native biodiversity (representation) is an extremely important consideration in a regional protected areas strategy.
3. Approximately 75 percent of the natural variability present in the Alberta Foothills (measured as enduring features) is not adequately represented in a network of protected areas.
4. Approximately 82 percent of the region is comprised of logging tenures and much of this same area is subjected to intensive oil and gas development.
5. Change detection analysis has shown that nearly 9 percent of the ecoregion (~640,000 ha) has been impacted by activities visible from space since 1990 and much of this has been either by a growing network of oil and gas infrastructure or as clusters of clearcut logging. Impact on some species (e.g., woodland caribou) far exceeds this area.
6. The region contains over 36,000 wells, numerous pipelines, and thousands of kilometers of seismic exploration.
7. The Alberta Foothills no longer possesses large intact forest landscapes (undisturbed blocks >50,000 ha), but approximately 1/3 of the region is comprised of smaller forest remnants (over 2,100 with mean size of 1,500 ha) which forms the natural backbone of the region and form one of the major building blocks for protecting the many ecological values identified in the region.
8. Biodiversity values evaluated in the endangered forest mapping included: (1) rare forest types (old growth and less fragmented forests), (2) locations of rare and endangered species and their special habitats, (3) woodland caribou, (4) grizzly bear, (5) freshwater species such as bull trout and arctic grayling, and (6) forest and water-dependent bird species. Many of these values are being seriously degraded and some threatened with local extinction.
9. Decision support mapping results highlight areas within the Alberta Foothills that still contain high values and some of these values are of global or national significance. The highest scoring areas should be considered as candidates for an expanded protected areas network for the region. Recommended starting target should be approximately 16 percent of the ecoregion including existing and new protected areas. Failure to act will result in numerous species extirpations and significant loss of overall ecological integrity, including the degradation of several important ecosystem services.
10. In addition to new protected areas, landscape connectivity along waterways and over land should remain as an important consideration in an overall regional conservation strategy.
11. To be effective, an expanded protected area network alone will not be enough to maintain the conservation values present in the region today. New protected areas should be established strategically in the context of a region under dramatic pressure from development and extractive use. Management and even restoration in some areas should also be considered in an overall plan to achieve ecological sustainability.
12. The combination of Neatweaver®, EMDS®, and ArcMap® provides a powerful decision support planning tool set that can successfully address the topic of High Conservation Value and Endangered Forests.
In November 2002, two science-based conservation organizations, the Conservation Biology Institute (Corvallis, Oregon) and World Wildlife Fund (Ashland, Oregon), conducted an ecological assessment of the mid and lower reaches of the Klamath, including its tributaries and the Upper Sacramento River that flows into the mid Klamath.
Ecosystem health was assessed using computer mapping (Geographic Information Systems – GIS) and satellite interpretation technologies across 870 watersheds; 655 within the mid and lower Klamath and 215 within the Upper Sacramento River. We used a series of indicators or surrogates to assess watershed condition on a relative basis, including road density, stream-road intersections, logging in the basin over a three-decade period, and mining activities.
Because this is the first subbasin assessment of relative ecological condition of the mid and lower Klamath River, this executive summary will focus mainly on the Klamath findings as they are particularly relevant to policy and legislative efforts to manage water uses and restore ecosystem health throughout the Klamath River. In addition, according to monitoring stations of the United States Geological Service, the Klamath is in worse shape today than it was in 2002, the year that 34,000 to 68,000 salmon and trout died from disease in the lower Klamath River due primarily to low water flows and high water temperatures.
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.
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.