In a normal year, groundwater accounts for 40 percent of California’s water supply. That number jumps to 60 percent during a drought. It’s also critically important for sustaining certain types of aquatic, terrestrial and coastal ecosystems.
Yet decades of unregulated groundwater withdrawal has compromised that ability to provide for people and nature. Wells dry up, water quality declines, and rivers, wetlands, and springs disappear.
To address this problem, California passed legislation requiring that groundwater basins be managed sustainably. We still face gaps, however, in our understanding of how to manage these basins to ensure the health of the ecosystems they support. Conservancy scientists are working with water managers and state agencies to close those gaps.
Freshwater Systems
California is one of the most hydrologically altered landscapes in the world. As water becomes…>>
Groundwater
In a normal year, groundwater accounts for 40 percent of California’s water supply. That…>>
Surface Flows
Californians have fundamentally altered many of the state’s rivers and streams with dams,…>>
Terrestrial Systems
In California, a day’s drive can take a visitor from record-setting desert heat to glaciated…>>
Wildlands
Nearly half of California is protected in some land status that prevents most kinds of intensive…>>
Harvested Landscapes
A third of California is privately-owned forestland, woodland or grassland. From redwood forests on…>>
Cultivated Landscapes
California is the leading agricultural state in the country and it’s agriculture generates…>>
Urban Areas and Infrastructure
With California’s population on track to reach 50 million people, the demand for energy,…>>
Fisheries
Wild capture fisheries supply food and jobs for hundreds of millions of people across the globe. Yet…>>
Coastal Conservation
Almost half of the world’s human population lives in coastal areas, and associated coastal…>>Science in Action
Terrestrial | Planning | Technology
Wildfire and Communities
How can land protection and restoration help protect communities from wildfire?
Terrestrial | Marine | Science
TNC and FEMA
How do we increase climate resilience in ways that work for people and nature?
Products
2006 | Marine | Planning | Publications & Reports
Assessing gaps in marine conservation in California
Mary G. Gleason, Matt S. Merrifield, Chuck Cook, Audrey L. Davenport, Rebecca Shaw
This study is the first marine gap analysis for California. It quantifies what is protected and what is not and highlights conservation needs and opportunities. Less than 5% of marine habitats are…
2006 | Marine | Planning | Publications & Reports
Northern California Marine Ecoregional Assessment
Mary Gleason, Matt Merrifield, Chuck Cook, Miguel Hall
The Conservancy's science and planning staff in California prepared this assessment of the most important areas for conservation of marine biodiversity in the Northern California…
2005 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports
Cattle grazing can maintain diversity of vernal pool grasslands
Marty, Jaymee T.
Livestock grazing in the American West often conjures up images of cattle degrading riparian areas or spreading weeds throughout desert rangeland. But cattle grazing does not always or necessarily…
2004 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports
Annual survivorship of a sedentary sparrow: no effect of edge or rainfall
Scott A. Morrison, Douglas T. Bolger, T. Scott Sillett
Fragmentation-sensitive species – those that tend to disappear when their habitat is fragmented – pose particular challenges for conservation, in part because fragmentation ushers in such…
2004 | Marine | Planning | Publications & Reports
Southern California Marine Ecoregional Assessment
Mary Gleason, Matt Merrifield, Craig Mayer, Michelle McCutchan, Chuck Cook
The Conservancy's science and planning staff in California prepared this assessment of the most important areas for conservation of marine biodiversity in the Southern California Marine…
2002 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports
Variation in a sparrow’s reproductive success with rainfall: food and predator-mediated processes
Scott A. Morrison, Douglas T. Bolger
Reproductive success of many species in arid environments can be sensitive to rainfall patterns: rainfall events can produce a boom of primary productivity that fuels an ecological response from the…
2002 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports
Lack of an urban edge effect on reproduction in a fragmentation-sensitive sparrow
Scott A. Morrison, Douglas T. Bolger
Fragmentation-sensitive species – those that tend to disappear when their habitat is fragmented – pose particular challenges for conservation, in part because fragmentation ushers in such…
2000 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports
Arthropods in urban habitat fragments in southern California: area, age and edge effects
Douglas T. Bolger, Andrew V. Suarez, Kevin R. Crooks, Scott A. Morrison, Ted J. Case
Habitat fragmentation ushers in a wide array of ecological changes, and understanding the drivers and impacts of those changes is critical for conservation management. This study examines an often…