A Regional Conservation Investment Strategy (RCIS) is a voluntary, non-regulatory, and non-binding conservation assessment that includes information and analyses relating to the conservation of focal species, their associated habitats, and the conservation status of the RCIS land base. The RCIS program, which is administered by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, was created by state bill AB 2087. This conservation strategy is intended to guide conservation investments and advance mitigation in RCIS areas. CBI provided scientific and technical support to ICF International, who led the development of a pilot RCIS for the Antelope Valley in LA County. Implementation of this strategy is intended to sustain and enhance focal species and their habitats in the face of climate change and other stressors such as habitat loss and fragmentation.

Working with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Transportation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and other governmental and non-governmental partners, CBI is reviewing the current state of knowledge and is developing a wildlife and habitat connectivity blueprint for the State of Oregon, including the plan for generating a number of useful map-based products and online tools that will address planning at multiple scales across the state. This initial phase is expected to conclude in January 2018 with testing of the blueprint being carried out for a subset of the state (Coast Range and Klamath ecoregions) through different funding.

CBI is playing a key role in improving the health and resilience of wetland ecosystems in Southern California in a partnership with the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project (SCWRP). The newly-released Marsh Adaptation Planning Tool provides data access and decision-support technology for SCWRP’s new Regional Strategy 2018, a recovery plan for tidal and non-tidal wetlands from Point Conception to the Mexican border.

The Marsh Adaptation Planning Tool is powered by Data Basin, CBI’s robust online platform for creating, sharing, and using spatial data. Data Basin supports thousands of conservation practitioners, researchers, and educators, providing them with tools that put science and geographic information to work for them.
At Conservation Biology Institute we think that everyone should be empowered to learn about and participate in caring for the natural environments we live in. We are proud of our work to support efforts like the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project. To learn more about the SCWRP and the Marsh Adaptation Planning Tool, go to http://scwrp.databasin.org.

Above: The Marsh Adaptation Planning Tool homepage, with access to the Regional Strategy 2018, the spatial data that informed its development, and a special tool for planning projects that will contribute to its Work Plan.

Above: The MAPT’s “Quick-Start Map” that allows the user to explore Southern California’s wetlands. Layers depicting historical and present-day wetlands, important transitions zones, and other features can be turned on and off for quick comparison. The map and its data layers can be downloaded for use in GIS, or saved and used with any other layers in Data Basin.

Above: The Marsh Adaptation Planning Tool’s project planning utility, where project proponents can use Regional Strategy 2018 spatial data, habitat types, and goals and objectives to inform the planning of a project and apply to have it included in the SCWRP Work Plan.

The Micronesia Challenge is a commitment by the Republic of Palau, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated State of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands to preserve the marine and terrestrial resources that are crucial to the survival of the Pacific traditions, cultures and livelihoods. The overall goal of the Micronesia Challenge is to effectively conserve at least 30% of the near-shore marine resources and 20% of the terrestrial resources across Micronesia by 2020. The USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) team, regional partners and CBI developed the Micronesia Challenge Regional Terrestrial Monitoring Initiative tool (mcterrestrialmeasures.org) to allow users to visualize the spatial data from the Micronesia Challenge monitoring effort by regional framework indicator(s) that measure the status of managed conservation areas set aside under the program. Forest data were collected between 2003 and 2018 and are now being used to determine the status and trends in forest area, forest health, understory vegetation, biomass, and carbon storage.

CBI has partnered with the Paulson Institute (PI), the Foreign Economic Cooperation Office (FECO) of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China (MEP), and the State of California to provide FECO with an Environmental Risk Screening Tool that will help guide Chinese international investment projects. The overarching goal of the tool is to significantly reduce negative environmental impacts as the result of Chinese development projects around the world.

The screening tool will include interactive mapping of biodiversity and environmental data against which potential development projects can be evaluated. The tool will include a standard Biodiversity Impact Analysis using a set of internationally recognized datasets (e.g., Key Biodiversity Areas, Critical Natural Habitat, Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, and Protected Areas). The tool will also include regional and country-level biodiversity and environmental data in priority countries. The tool is not available for viewing at present. But here is a powerpoint describing its capabilities.

CBI is supporting the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) as it works to develop a strategic, comprehensive approach for conducting inventory, monitoring, and assessments that respond to the priorities of the whole agency instead of individual or programmatic needs. Many of today’s management decisions require a landscape approach to acquiring and analyzing information about forests and rangelands. Therefore an effective inventory, monitoring and assessment system requires working across organizational boundaries to determine common goals, avoid duplication and build on common information needs. CBI will assess existing data collection, management and storage methods of the USFS and make recommendations regarding the relationship agency data has with current decision support processes. This work was completed for The Wayne National Forest in Ohio and is in process of completion for the Salmon-Challis National Forest in Idaho.

Wayne National Forest

Salmon Challis National Forest

CBI is supporting the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in its work to develop a strategic, comprehensive approach for conducting inventory, monitoring, and assessments that respond to the priorities of the whole agency instead of individual or programmatic needs. Many of today’s management decisions require a landscape approach to acquiring and analyzing information about forests and rangelands. Therefore an effective inventory, monitoring and assessment system requires working across organizational boundaries to determine common goals, avoid duplication and build on common information needs. CBI will provide support to assess existing data collection, management and storage methods for the USFS Region 8 and make recommendations regarding the relationship agency data has with current decision support processes.

While the U.S. Forest Service National Forest Review projects are focused at the individual Forest level, the Census of Inventory, Monitoring, and Assessment Activities is focused on Region 8, which encompasses 15 Forests and covers 13 states in the southeastern United States.

CBI, in partnership with US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), San Diego Zoo, San Diego State University, Creekside Center for Earth Observation and Recon Environmental Inc, is working towards the recovery of the Quino checkerspot butterfly in San Diego County by increasing the number of stable populations and total number of individuals of this species on the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge.
Quino used to be one of the most abundant butterflies in San Diego County, though now it is very uncommon and rarely seen in high numbers. Quino are threatened by a lack of habitat connectivity which is key for its population structure and resilience. Primary drivers of decline include fragmentation from development and loss of suitable habitat from invading weeds. In addition, the distribution of Edith’s checkerspot (of which Quino is one of many sub-species) is shifting away from southern California under climate change, indicating that the location and nature of suitable habitat for Quino is likely to change.  Given the degree of habitat fragmentation in the area Quino may not be able to reach new suitable habitat patches on their own, making captive release programs an important management tool.
The intent of CBI and partners is to reestablish one or more populations of Quino in or near an area where they have been extirpated with the hope that the reestablished populations will spread to nearby habitat patches thereby improving connectivity. The site chosen for reestablishment, of the available sites on federal land, is predicted to change the least under climate change based on climatic water deficit data. An additional goal is to improve captive breeding protocols and develop an effective release strategy. Captive release has not been tried before with Quino checkerspot butterflies and this groundbreaking work to support the species is reliant on effective and strategic methodology.
Based on previous work with the Bay checkerspot butterfly, CBI and partners understand that mulitple releases of the Quino checkerspot butterfly are needed for re-establishment of a population. Expanding the effort to other habitat patches nearby could also be an important next step in developing a resilient population.

Both land and water resources are essential to agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley and other Mediterranean climates in California. These resources are under pressure from a variety of factors that have the potential to significantly affect the food production capacity of a region that contributes importantly to the food security of the state, nation and the world. The most significant challenges appear to be climate change, especially its impact on water supplies, environmental factors such as in-stream water needs, soil impairment, and urban development.

American Farmland Trust has partnered with the Conservation Biology Institute to undertake a spatial analysis to identify agricultural areas that are most at risk due to these challenges. Understanding how and where water supply shortages, soil impairment, urban growth or climatic changes may impact agriculture will contribute to the discussion of strategies for agricultural adaptation and conservation in the Valley.

This project will build on the successful effort led by CBI to identify areas where large-scale solar energy projects sited in the Valley would pose the least conflict to agricultural and environmental values (A Path Forward). As with the solar project, spatial analysis will occur at a broad Valley wide level, but with a finer grained analysis of at least two counties. A number of scenarios, representing different assumptions about physical and policy trends, will be done to further enrich our understanding of the future prospects of Valley agriculture. Input from technical experts and regional stakeholders will be sought throughout the process to help determine how to rank resource values and risks, and to help formulate future scenarios. We are now actively recruiting stakeholders to participate in the process.

The ultimate goal of the project is to encourage and inform a purposeful regional conversation about strategies that will be needed to meet the land and water resource management challenges and, thus, assure a productive and prosperous future for San Joaquin Valley agriculture.

The Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP), a major component of California’s renewable energy planning efforts, is designed to provide effective protection and conservation of desert ecosystems while allowing for the appropriate development of renewable energy projects.  Approximately 22.5 million acres of federal and non-federal California desert land are in the DRECP Plan Area.  The federal portion of plan area was released by the Bureau of Land Management as a Land Use Plan Amendment (LUPA).  The project is now transitioning into Phase II, which focuses on county-level planning designed to work in conjunction with the LUPA.

During Phase I of the project, CBI provided science support for this ambitious planning process including a wide range of spatial models and assessments (e.g., species distribution, intactness, conservation value, and climate change).  CBI also developed and continues to maintain the DRECP Gateway (launched on September 26, 2014) and various interpretation applications to support the determination of the Final Plan and its implementation.  One example of an interpretation application is the DRECP Climate Console, which was designed to allow users to explore climate projections to better understand how climate change could alter ecosystems in the California desert.  It provides science-based and actionable climate data to encourage smarter, more comprehensive landscape-level conservation planning efforts and decisions.

During Phase II of the project, CBI is customizing the Gateway to support the adaptive management aspects of the LUPA and to support the county-level planning processes.

To access the gateway, please visit http://drecp.databasin.org/

To access the Climate Console, please visit http://drecp.consbio.webfactional.com/climate

To learn more about the DRECP, please visit www.drecp.org or visit the Data Basin Guide and Case Study about DRECP at http://databasin.org/articles/1408e0eed6754d68a06047aaa0e64c2b