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.
Evan Fox, Sean Hastings, Melissa Miller-Henson, Dominique Monie, John Ugoretz, Adam Frimodig, Craig Shuman, Brian Owens, Rebecca Garwood, Darci Connor, Paulo Serpa, Mary Gleason
This paper explores the strategies used to address policy issues that arose in marine protected area (MPA) planning process in California. The authors provide examples from six specific topic areas—fisheries management, water quality, military use areas, marine bird and mammal protection, dredging and maintenance, and tribal…
Matthew S. Merrifield, Will McClintock, Chad Burt, Evan Fox, Paulo Serpa, Charles Steinback, Mary Gleason
This paper reviews the creation and use of MarineMap, a spatial decision support system that enabled stakeholder participation in designing marine protected areas (MPAs). The authors highlight why it was a necessary component of the planning process for California's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
Evan Foxa, Eric Poncelet, Darci Connor, Jason Vasques, John Ugoretz, Scott McCreary, Dominique Monié, Michael Harty, Mary Gleason
This paper examines how differences in regional characteristics and lessons learned influenced three important elements of the stakeholder process of California's Marine Life Protected Area (MLPA) Initiative including convening the stakeholders, managing stakeholder engagement, and integrating input from managing state agencies. It provides a case…
Matt Merrifield, Megan Webb, Katie Andrews
Since 2007, The Nature Conservancy has pioneered a first-of-its-kind fishery reform approach that aligns communities, the fishing industry, and conservation interests to drive strategic changes in fishery management and harvest practices. We have provided science and planning expertise and applied technology to increase efficiency and…
Cameron, D., S. Parker, B. Cohen, J. Randall, B. Christian, J. Moore, L. Crane, S. A. Morrison
Industrial-scale renewable energy generation facilities can have sizable footprints and therefore significant impact on the conservation values of a landscape. This assessment focused on a region experiencing intense development pressure, the western Mojave Desert, to highlight how facilities could be sited to have lower impact…
Cameron, D.R., B.S. Cohen, S.A. Morrison
California, like many regions in the world, needs to plan for emissions reductions and domestic clean energy. Ideally, that would be done in a way that is strategic, not reactionary. Through science-based landscape planning for conservation and energy, the trade-offs between energy development and habitat…
M. Rebecca Shaw, Kirk Klausmeyer, D. Richard Cameron, Jason MacKenzie, Patrick Roehrdanz
Species will move around the landscape as the climate changes, presenting challenges for traditional conservation strategies like land acquisition. This paper models the cost and total land area that needs to be protected by 2100 to track the changing distribution of 11 focal species of…
Small preserves are difficult to manage, but they can be important for rare plant protection. The article outlines the management challenges faced by small preserves, provides a case study from The San Bernardino Mountains of southern California, and suggests strategies and management recommendations for rare…
Halpern, B.S., Diamond, J., Gaines, S., Gelcich, S., Gleason, M., Jennings, S., Lester, S., Mace, A., McCook, L., McLeod, K., Napoli, N., Rawson, K., Rice, J., Rosenberg, A., Ruckelshaus, M., Saier, B., Sandifer, P., Sholtz, A., Zivian, A.
This paper informs emerging efforts to implement coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP) in the United States, Europe and elsewhere around the world. In order to identify priority needs for significantly advancing CMSP, the authors—expertsexperts in the science, policy and practice of CMSP—developed recommendations for…
Shaw, M.R., L. Pendleton, D.R. Cameron, B. Morris, D. Bachelet, K. Klausmeyer, J. MacKenzie, D.R. Conklin, G.N. Bratman, J. Lenihan, E. Haunreiter, C. Daly, P.R. Roehrdanz
As the climate warms, changes in ecosystems will impact human communities and livelihoods. This paper, together with a California Energy Commission Scenarios Report of the same name, explores the broad impacts of climate change on ecosystem services and California’s economy. These publications help direct land…
Invasive species can have profound effects on island ecosystems. So, too, can their removal. And interactions among species can both help and hinder the attainment of restoration goals. This paper provides a 30 year retrospective review of the multiple eradications that have occurred on Santa…
Jeanette Howard, Kirk Klausmeyer, Sally Liu
This report analyzed Chinook, coho salmon, and steelhead trout population and habitat data across California to identify a portfolio of places called the SalmonScape. SalmonScape identifies areas in California with the greatest potential for habitat restoration and protection, and where wild salmon also have the best…
Megan Webb, Jeanette Howard , Kirk Klausmeyer, Sally Liu
The Conservancy's SalmonScape is an analysis and map that analyzed and ranked the watersheds that support or contribute to salmon habitat in California based on where conservation efforts would have the best return-on-investment. The analysis helped coordinate and direct salmon conservation efforts across the state.
SA Morrison, KR Faulkner, LA Vermeer, L Lozier, MR Shaw
Eradication programs are complex undertakings that require comprehensive multidisciplinary planning and nimble adaptive implementation. This paper discusses the preparation that went into the most intensive feral pig eradication program to date, and highlights how that preparation enabled to project to proceed uninterrupted, despite numerous anticipated…
A Saunders, JP Parkes, A Aguirre-Munoz, SA Morrison
Tremendous advances over recent decades in eradication of invasive species on islands raise the question whether there are now opportunities to further increase the pace and scale of that work. This paper highlights the increased return on investment that could come via conservationists, scientists, managers,…
Cameron, D., K. Klausmeyer, J. Mackenzie, G. Low, L. Provencher
Climate change will impact plants and animals across the state, and conservationists are often unaware of the best way to address this threat. While much of the land in the Northern Sierra is public and protected from development, it is still at risk to changes…
Mary Gleason, Sarah Newkirk, Matt Merrifield, Jeanette Howard, Robin Cox, Megan Webb, Jennifer Koepcke, Brian Stranko, Bethany Taylor, Mike Beck, Roger Fuller, Dick VanderSchaaf, Jena Carter
While significant progress has been made over the past few decades in improving estuarine water quality, restoring wetland habitats, and incorporating estuarine habitats into managed areas, estuarine conservation efforts along the U.S. West Coast—including Washington, Oregon, and California—have generally proceeded on a bay-by-bay basis, with…
This map and a series of others in the Conservancy's 2010 Mojave Desert Ecoregional Assessment have played a guiding role in siting—and mitigating the impacts of—renewable energy development throughout the Mojave Desert. The Assessment helped shape the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. Completed and signed in 2016, the…
John M. Randall, Sophie S. Parker, James Moore, Brian Cohen, Laura Crane, Bill Christian, Dick Cameron, Jason B. Mackenzie, Kirk Klausmeyer, Scott Morrison
Regional conservation planning is critical to inform land and resource use decisions. The Mojave Desert Ecoregional Assessment represents an important advance in such planning, because of how its output characterized not just areas of high conservation value, but how conservation values distributed and graded across…
Susan Antenen , Dick Cameron, EJ Remson, Jason MacKenzie, Jim Gaither, Sophie Parker, Zach Principe, with Southern Sierra Partnership
This collaborative conservation assessment, characterizes the biodiversity, ecosystem services, ownerships, and land uses in the Southern Sierra and Tehachapi Mountains, and assesses threats to conservation values. The authors examine how a changing climate will impact or interact with these threats, forecast long-term responses in the landscape, and…