In California, a day’s drive can take a visitor from record-setting desert heat to glaciated peaks to temperate rainforests with the world’s tallest trees. This astounding climatic and landscape diversity has helped create a biodiversity hotspot. California is also an economic hotspot – the 6th largest economy in the world – and is home to nearly 40 million people. The demand for land for new development and farms, along with accelerating climate change, puts tremendous stress on ecosystems, and the benefits they provide.
The state’s legacy of conservation has created a network of natural and working lands that benefit people by supplying clean water, capturing carbon, and directly contributing to the state’s economic and cultural vitality through recreation, tourism, and agricultural production. Conservancy scientists work across the spectrum of ecosystem types and human land uses, to advance conservation goals that also contribute to the well-being of people in those places.
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,…>>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?
2019 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Marine | Publications & Reports
MarketLab: Where Economics and Finance Meet Conservation
We have an opportunity to apply the principles of economics and finance to demonstrate the value of conservation and create systems that incentivize the protection of nature at scale. In a changing…
2019 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports
Effects of cover crops on multiple ecosystem services: Ten meta-analyses of data from arable farmland in California and the Mediterranean
Gorm E. Shackelford, Rodd Kelsey, Lynn V. Dicks
As California and other major agricultural regions around the world tackle the challenge of increasing the sustainability of agriculture to improve environmental health, cover crops are increasingly…
2019 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports
Growers say cannabis legalization excludes small growers, supports illicit markets, undermines local economies
Hekia Bodwitch, Jennifer Carah, Kent M. Daane, Christy Getz, Theodore E. Grantham, Gordon M. Hickey, Houston Wilson
Cannabis has been an industry in the shadows for many decades and little studied. In partnership with U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Cooperative Extension, Conservancy staff developed the first cannabis…
2019 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports
First known survey of cannabis production practices in California
Houston Wilson, Hekia Bodwitch, Jennifer Carah, Kent Daane, Christy Getz, Theodore E. Grantham, Van Butsic
Cannabis has been an industry in the shadows for many decades and little studied. In partnership with U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Cooperative Extension, the Conservancy staff developed the first cannabis…
2019 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports
Investigating blunt-nosed leopard lizard population size, demographics, space use, and future population trends on department ecological reserves
E.N. Tennant, D.J. Germanol, J.A.E. Stewart, H.S. Butterfield, M.F. Westphal
2019 | Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Power of Place: Summary of Policy Recommendations
Summary available in English and Spanish.
2019 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Biodiversity Analysis in Los Angeles (BAILA) Report
Parker SS, Randall JM, Pauly GB, Li E, Brown BV, Cohen BS
This report is a product of the Biodiversity Analysis in Los Angeles (BAILA) project. It provides details on why we conducted our analysis, how the partnership between the Museum and the Conservancy…
2019 | Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Power of Place: Land Conservation and Clean Energy Pathways for California
Grace C. Wu, Emily Leslie, Douglas Allen, Oluwafemi Sawyerr, D. Richard Cameron, Erica Brand, Brian Cohen, Marcela Ochoa, Arne Olson
California has ambitious climate and energy policies that call for the development of significant amounts of new zero-carbon energy by midcentury. The Power of Place study looks at multiple pathways…
2019 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Science | Data
Biodiversity Analysis in Los Angeles (BAILA) data
Enjie Li, Sophie S. Parker, Gregory B. Pauly, John M. Randall, Brian V. Brown, Brian S. Cohen
This dataset is a product of the Biodiversity Analysis in Los Angeles (BAILA) project, and demonstrates a new way to evaluate urban biogeography—patterns in the distribution of species across…
2019 | Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Science | Blogs
Putting Nature on the Map (Literally)
Carrie Schloss, Liz O'Donoghue
2019 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
An urban biodiversity assessment framework that combines an urban habitat classification scheme and citizen science data
Enjie Li, Sophie S. Parker, Gregory B. Pauly, John M. Randall, Brian V. Brown, Brian S. Cohen
This paper presents a new way to evaluate urban biogeography—patterns in the distribution of species across urban areas. The authors developed a hierarchical, quantitative method for classifying…
2019 | Terrestrial | Planning | Publications & Reports
Restoring Forests through Partnership: Lessons Learned from the French Meadows Project
David Edelson, Angel Hertslet
There is an urgent need to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration in the Sierra Nevada and throughout the West to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire and promote more resilient forest…
2019 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports
The Impact of prescribed fire versus wildfire on the immune and cardiovascular systems of children
M. Prunicki, R. Kelsey, J. Lee, Z. Xiaoying, H. Smith, F. Haddad, J. Wu, K. Nadeau
2019 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports
The dark side of facilitation: native shrubs facilitate exotic annuals more strongly than native annuals
Jacob E. Lucero, Taylor Noble, Stephanie Haas, Michael Westphal, H. Scott Butterfield, Christopher J. Lortie
Previous work at the Carrizo Plain by this team in 2018 showed that native shrubs facilitated endangered blunt-nosed leopard lizard populations, and should be considered part of plans for habitat…
2019 | Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Science | Maps & Webmaps
Planning for connectivity implementation in present-day California and for a changing future: a 3-D web-tour
Carrie Schloss, Dick Cameron, Nathaniel Rindlaub, Connor Shank
This interactive, web-based tour provides an accessible introduction to The Nature Conservancy’s analysis of wildlife movement routes for climate adaptation in California. Viewing these pathways…
2019 | Terrestrial | Planning | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports
Circuit-theory applications to connectivity science and conservation
Brett G. Dickson, Christine M. Albano, Ranjan Anantharaman, Paul Beier, Joe Fargione, Tabitha A. Graves, Miranda E. Gray, Kimberly R. Hall, Josh J. Lawler, Paul B. Leonard, Caitlin E. Littlefield, Meredith L. McClure, John Novembre, Carrie A. Schloss, Nathan H. Schumaker, Viral B. Shah, David M. Theobald
The authors explore the impact that Brad McRae’s development of circuit theory and the associated software, Circuitscape, have had, and continue to have, on connectivity science and…
2019 | Terrestrial | Planning | Science | Publications & Reports
Making habitat connectivity a reality
Annika T. H. Keeley, Galli Basson, D. Richard Cameron, Nicole E. Heller, Patrick R. Huber, Carrie A. Schloss, James H. Thorne, Adina M. Merenlender
Connectivity conservation must move more rapidly from planning to implementation. We provide an evidence‐based solution composed of key elements for successful on‐the‐ground…
2019 | Terrestrial | Marine | Science | Publications & Reports
Globally important islands where eradicating invasive mammals will benefit highly threatened vertebrates
Holmes ND, Spatz DR, Oppel S, Tershy B, Croll DA, et al.
Restoring islands by eradicating damaging, non-native invasive mammals such as rats, cats, goats, and pigs has repeatedly proven to be a high impact conservation action. New research…