Systematic, science-based conservation planning is a hallmark of the Conservancy. For biodiversity to thrive, habitats need to be protected, enhanced, or restored not just in the still wild places on the planet but also where people live and make their livelihoods.
Multi-disciplinary planning can help elucidate where the highest priority places are and what needs to happen there – and inform tradeoffs between conservation and other societal values.
David C. Marvin, Gregory P. Asner
Policies that incentivize forest conservation by monetizing forest carbon ultimately depend on the accuracy of carbon stock estimates. Often, these estimates are based on field inventory sampling. In this paper, the authors assessed the accuracy of two common field-plot carbon sampling approaches when creating large-scale…
A Network for Voluntary Conservation
The Pajaro Compass—with its interactive maps and tools—supports a group of over 50 stakeholders representing conservation, agriculture, transportation, government and community interests who together share a common conservation vision for the Pajaro River watershed in central California. It provides a gateway for landowners and…
Tamara S Wilson, Benjamin M Sleeter, D Richard Cameron
This publication discusses how land use changes in Mediterranean California will drive changes in water use between urban uses and annual vs. perennial crops. The authors used a state-and-transition simulation model to project business-as-usual trends into the future for developed (municipal and industrial) and agricultural…
Conservationists should assume that people don’t care about biodiversity. By doing so, they would be especially motivated to figure out what people do care about, and how conservation might be able to align with those interests. Focusing on what it is about nature or its…
The Nature Conservancy and Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District
The Climate Action Through Conservation project provides a way for local governments, land managers, and planners to understand the links between climate benefits and conservation values and incorporate that knowledge into decisions about land use and land management. This report presents the result: a new…
Jason Kreitler, Carrie A. Schloss, Oliver Soong, Lee Hannah, Frank W. Davis
In the past, mitigation to address impacts from development have lacked a regional planning perspective resulting in efficient design across a set of sites for a suite of impacts. This paper introduces a tool that uses spatial prioritization to identify optimized mitigation opportunities for solar…
Megan Webb, Kirk Klausmeyer, Jeanette Howard
The transformation of California into one of the most productive agricultural and urban landscapes in the world and a growing population have put unprecedented pressure on freshwater habitats, reducing them to a small fraction of their historic extent. Across the state, freshwater-dependent ecosystems have been…
The Coastal Resilience Network supports a community of practitioners who are applying nature-based solutions to coastal hazard and climate adaptation issues. As a member of this Network, the Conservancy is working with scientists, geomorphologists, urban and environmental economists, regional conservation partners, and local stakeholders…
As a member of the Coastal Resilience Network, the Conservancy is leading Coastal Resilience Ventura. Coast Resilience Ventura is a partnership that provides science and decision-support tools to help conservation practitioners, planners and policymakers address the impact of climate change. Through this effort, the…
Jeanette Howard, Kirk Klausmeyer, Kurt Fesenmyer
The California Freshwater Species Database is the first comprehensive geospatial database of California’s freshwater species compiled and standardized into single format from nearly 500 sources. It provides a single source for geodata covering the plants and animals that rely on California’s freshwater resources to survive.…
Jeanette K. Howard, Kirk R. Klausmeyer, Kurt A. Fesenmyer, Joseph Furnish, Thomas Gardali, Ted Grantham, Jacob V. E. Katz, Sarah Kupferberg, Patrick McIntyre, Peter B. Moyle, Peter R. Ode, Ryan Peek, Rebecca M. Quiñones, Andrew C. Rehn, Nick Santos, Steve Schoenig, Larry Serpa, Jackson D. Shedd, Joe Slusark, Joshua H. Viers, Amber Wright, Scott A. Morrison
The California Freshwater Species Database is the first comprehensive geospatial database of California’s freshwater species compiled and standardized into single format from nearly 500 sources. It provides a single source for geodata covering the plants and animals that rely on California’s freshwater resources to…
The Nature Conservancy: Erica Brand, Laura Crane, Dick Cameron, Energy and Environmental Economics: Grace C. Wu, Nick Schlag
Integrating ecological data into long-term energy planning is critical to meet both California’s long term energy and conservation goals. This report assesses the potential trade-offs associated with renewable energy build-out by evaluating the land and water use implications and cost of a range of potential…
M.G. Anderson, P.J. Comer, P. Beier, J.J. Lawler, C.A. Schloss, S. Buttrick, C. M. Albano, D. P. Faith
Incorporating geodiversity into conservation plans to ensure conservation actions are more resilient to climate change is appealing because it addresses the threat of climate change while avoiding the uncertainties associated with climate model projections. However, there are no standards for how to do so. This…
Patrick J. Comer, Robert L. Pressey, Malcolm L. Hunter Jr., Carrie A. Schloss, Steven C. Buttrick, Nicole E. Heller, John M. Tirpak, Daniel P. Faith, Molly S. Cross, Mark L. Shaffer
The protection of biodiversity in a changing climate is a key challenge for conservation planners. Conserving a diversity of geophysical settings makes species and systems more resilient to climate change by providing a diversity of niche options that enable species to adapt to changing conditions.…
Tamara S. Wilson, Jason Sherba, Dick Cameron, Benjamin M Sleeter
Human land use will increasingly contribute to habitat loss and water shortages in California, given future population projections and associated land-use demand. Understanding how land-use change may impact future water use and where existing protected areas may be threatened by land-use conversion will be important…
Miriam Tsalyuk, Maggi Kelly, Kevin Koy, Wayne M. Getz, H. Scott Butterfield
Monitoring the effects of grazing on rangelands is crucial for ensuring sustainable rangeland ecosystem function and maintaining conservation values. Residual dry matter (RDM), the dry grass biomass left on the ground at the end of the grazing season, is a commonly used proxy for rangeland condition…
Doak, D.F., G.K. Himes Boor, V.J. Bakker, W.F. Morris, A. Louthan, S.A. Morrison, A. Stanley, L. Crowder
One of the key components of a recovery plan for a threatened or endangered species in the United States is the set of recovery criteria that will be used to evaluate progress in abating the threats to the species and reducing its risk of extinction.…
