According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Fire and Resource Assessment Program (CDF FRAP 2005) there are over 340 million bone dry tons (BDT) of nonmerchantable, technical (potentially available) forest biomass, and slightly over 62 million BDT of shrubland biomass, that could be used for energy production in California. However, these CDF estimates did not account for a variety of administrative and ecological constraints that may limit where or how much biomass can actually be removed, due for example to concerns about impacts to ecologically sensitive lands or areas of high conservation value. We therefore evaluated to what degree additional ecological and administrative constraints might reduce the CDF estimates of technical forest and shrubland biomass for energy production. This coarse evaluation is meant more to illustrate the nature and extent of the constraints these issues may present to biomass use, rather than provide a comprehensive and precise quantification of the issues.
The Sonoran Desert of southern California has long been a region of under-appreciated natural significance. For most, the term “desert” evokes images of a bleak and lifeless wasteland—a place of unforgiving heat, sun, sand, and rocks. Throughout history, the Southwest’s deserts have been avoided or they presented a challenging obstacle on the way to a greener place. In the 19th century, during the era of exploration and migration, the desert was seen as an area to be crossed as quickly as possible. Even today, the Sonoran Desert remains one of the least populated areas in California. Historically and recently, many who ventured into the desert did so for utilitarian purposes—for activities such as mining, military training, farming, off-highway vehicle (OHV) recreation and, more recently, for energy production. In general, however, there has been a lack of awareness of the special and uniquely diverse species and ecosystems found in the region, leading to an unfortunate under-appreciation for what is truly an area of incredible
natural significance.
The foothills of the iconic Sierra Nevada—the California gold fields—are linked to California’s way of life and sense of place, as well as tied to the history of our nation. To many Californians, the natural resources of the Sierran foothills are emblematic of our state—grasslands golden in the summer sun mingling with rolling oak woodlands. Nonetheless, this iconic California landscape is not well protected, but rather is severely threatened by residential sprawl that has the potential to permanently compromise its conservation values. Less than 10% of the oak woodlands and grasslands in the Sierra Nevada foothills are protected, and the value of these conservation investments relies on maintaining the lands’ integrity and ecosystem functions by buffering them from development and maintaining connections to other intact areas. The current downturn in the real estate market provides a window of opportunity to protect some of the last uncompromised areas of the northern Sierra foothills using conservation tools such as fee title acquisitions, conservation easements, and land management agreements.
CBI staff facilitated and contributed to several indepent science adivsory processes and recommendation reports for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
Bay Delta Conservation Plan, Aquatic
A group of nine scientists were convened in September 2007 to provide independent advice to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) Steering Committee. These scientists provided advice on the use of science in developing an effective Conservation Plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in accordance with California’s Natural Community Conservation Planning Act (NCCPA) and the BDCP Planning Agreement. Consistent with the requirements of the NCCPA, the Science Advisors’ report includes a listing of principles for conservation planning, design, and management. The Report also includes a series of more specific recommendations regarding application of the existing knowledge base and the use of data and analyses for informing the BDCP. The following briefly summarizes key foundational principles and recommendations from the Report. These principles and recommendations should be considered as the overall conservation strategy and potential conservation measures are developed for the BDCP.
Bay Delta Conservation Plan, Aquatic (2007) PDF
Bay Delta Conservation Plan, Non-Aquatic
This report summarized recommendations from a group of six independent science advisors (ISA) concerning the treatment of non-aquatic species and communities by the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The intent of the ISA process is to ensure that the plan has access to the best available science. Our recommendations area not biding, and area not intended to either question or promote particular plan goals or policies, but are intended to help inform the planning process.
Bay Delta Conservation Plan, Non-Aquatic (2008) PDF
Bay Delta Conservation Plan, Adaptive Management
This report summarizes recommendations from a group of nine independent scientists convened in December 2008 concerning incorporation of adapative management into the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). This report includes a general review of pertinent BDCP documents and a recommended framework for incorporating adative management into the planning, designa and implementation of the BCDP.
Bay Delta Conservation Plan, Adaptive Management (2009) PDF
Our group of advisors was assembled to offer independent review of the scientific foundations for the Eastern Merced County Natural Community Conservation Plan (NCCP)/Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), a plan in progress. The objective of our review is to ensure the quality of the data, planning principles, analytic techniques, and interpretation of analytical results. We are charged to offer an independent evaluation of the science upon which planning decisions will be made in the proposed NCCP/HCP and to provide advice about how to improve the process with sound science. We generally will not comment on the goals or outcomes of planning. Moreover, for the purposes of this review we ignore the differences between NCCPs and HCPs and, instead, focus on scientific questions of concern to both processes. Although we avoid explicit comment on policies, it is difficult to divorce a discussion of scientific issues entirely from their policy implications.
This report summarizes recommendations from a group of independent science advisors for the Butte County Habitat Conservation Plan/Natural Community Conservation Plan (HCP/NCCP). This statutorily required scientific input is provided early in the planning process to help the plan proceed with best available science. The advisors operate independent of the entities involved in planning or implementing the HCP/NCCP.
Our recommendations are advisory only and not binding on HCP/NCCP participants. They are organized by the following major topics: (1) review of the Draft Ecological Baseline Report (SAIC 2007), (2) scope of the plan, (3) information gaps, (4) conservation design, (5) conservation analyses, and (6) adaptive management and monitoring.
This Executive Summary briefly highlights important recommendations. See the full report for additional details.
This report summarizes recommendations from a group of independent science advisors for the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan/Natural Community Conservation Plan (HCP/NCCP). This scientific input is provided early in the planning process to help the plan proceed with best available science. The advisors operate independent of the entities involved in planning or implementing the HCP/NCCP. Our recommendations are advisory only and not binding on HCP/NCCP participants.
Our recommendations are organized by the following major topics:(1) scope of the plan, (2) review of existing information, (3) conservation design, (4) conservation analyses, and (5) adaptive management and monitoring.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) commissioned the California Essential Habitat Connectivity Project because a functional network of connected wildlands is essential to the continued support of California’s diverse natural communities in the face of human development and climate change. This Report is also intended to make transportation and land-use planning more efficient and less costly, while helping reduce dangerous wildlife-vehicle collisions.
This Report was produced by a highly collaborative, transparent, and repeatable process that can be emulated by other states. The work was guided by input and review of a Multidisciplinary Team of agency representatives, a Technical Advisory Group, and a Steering Committee. The Multidisciplinary Team (~200 people from 62 agencies) provided broad representation across Federal, State, Tribal, regional, and local agencies that are involved in biodiversity conservation, land-use planning, or land management—and that could therefore both contribute to and benefit from efforts to improve habitat connectivity at various scales. The Technical Advisory Group (44 people from 23 agencies) was a subset of the Multidisciplinary Team. It provided technical expertise to help guide such decisions as selection of data sources, models, and mapping criteria. The Steering Committee (ten people from four partner agencies) guided key decisions about work flow, meeting agendas, and document contents. In addition to review by these agency representatives, the work plan and this final report were subject to peer review by five outside experts in conservation biology and conservation planning.
This report assess (1) the current status of fisher habitat and fishers (Martes pennanti) in the southern Sierra Nevada, California, and (2) how fisher habitat and the fisher population may respond in the future to potential forest management practices and wildfires. The ultimate goals are to hlep the three southern Sierra Forests (Sierra, Sequoia, and Stanislaus) improve landscape-level fuels management plans intended to reduce the risk of unplanned and unwanted wildland fire to human and natural communities, to restore and maintain fire-adapted ecosystems, and to conserve habitat for at-risk species.
The fisher is one at risk species whose habitat and population in the Sierra Nevada may be threatened by unnaturally large and severe wildfires; however, they may also be harmed by management efforts intended to reduce wildfire threats. This report assesses these competing threat and applies the results to recommending approaches for maximizing Fireshed Assessment goals, including to conserve and enhance habitat value for fishers to ensure their continued persistence, and perhaps expansion, in the Sierra Nevada.
Altruism presents a challenge to evolutionary theory because selection should favor selfish over caring strategies. Greenbeard altruism resolves this paradox by allowing cooperators to identify individuals carrying similar alleles producing a form of genic selection. In side-blotched lizards, genetically similar but unrelated blue male morphs settle on adjacent territories and cooperate. Here we show that payoffs of cooperation depend on asymmetric costs of orange neighbors. One blue male experiences low fitness and buffers his unrelated partner from aggressive orange males despite the potential benefits of defection. We show that recognition behavior is highly heritable in nature, and we map genetic factors underlying color and self-recognition behavior of genetic similarity in both sexes. Recognition and cooperation arise from genomewide factors based on our mapping study of the location of genes responsible for self-recognition behavior, recognition of blue color, and the color locus. Our results provide an example of greenbeard interactions in a vertebrate that are typified by cycles of greenbeard mutualism interspersed with phases of transient true altruism. Such cycles provide a mechanism encouraging the origin and stability of true altruism.