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?

2013 | Terrestrial | Planning | Maps & Webmaps

Southwestern California Climate Report webmap

Brian Cohen

The Southwestern California Climate Report provides 50-year climate scenarios and plant species distribution forecasts to help inform conservation priorities in southwestern California. Spatial data…

2013 | Terrestrial | Planning | Publications & Reports

Laying the Foundation: How Existing Conservation Areas Have Helped Prepare California for Climate Change

Klausmeyer, K, D. Cameron, S. Morrison

This study evaluated the existing network of conservation lands in California to determine the extent to which it includes landscape features that may be especially important for biodiversity…

2013 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Farm practices for food safety: an emerging threat to floodplain and riparian ecosystem

Gennet, S., J. Howard, J. Langholz, K. Andrews, M.D. Reynolds, S.A. Morrison

This paper discusses the 2006 outbreak of toxic foodborne E. coli and its impact on wildlife. The authors explain how farming practices for food safety that target wildlife can damage ecosystems but…

2013 | Terrestrial | Planning | Maps & Webmaps

Western San Joaquin Valley Least Conflict Solar Energy Assessment webmap

Megan Webb, Scott Butterfield

This webmap is a product of The Nature Conservancy’s 2013 Western San Joaquin Valley (WSJV) Least Conflict Solar Energy Assessment which characterizes the land use and conservation constraints…

2013 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Decline and Recovery of Small Mammals after Flooding: Implications for Pest Management and Floodplain Community Dynamics

Golet G.H., J. Hunt, D. Koenig

Floodplains often are managed both for agriculture and as habitat for native species. On the Sacramento River, farmers have expressed concern that natural areas may be sources of pests to adjoining…

2012 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Differential effects of food availability and nest predation risk on avian reproductive strategies

HR Sofaer, TS Sillett, SI Peluc, SA Morrison, CK Ghalambor

Island archipelagos can provide useful opportunities for comparative studies in ecology. In this paper, for example, breeding ecology of a songbird was studied on two of the California Channel…

2012 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Hierarchical distance-sampling models to estimate population size and habitat-specific abundance of an island endemic

TS Sillett, RB Chandler, JA Royle, M Kéry, SA Morrison

The Island Scrub-Jay occurs only on 250 km2 Santa Cruz Island. This study combined an intensive, short-term field survey with novel statistical modeling to generate estimates of population abundance,…

2012 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Breeding density, not life history, predicts interpopulation differences in territorial aggression in a passerine bird

JongminYoon, T. Scott Sillett, Scott A.Morrison, Cameron K. Ghalambora

When members of a single species display very different behavioral patterns it can present a helpful model for ecological study. This paper examines two breeding populations of a songbird species: one…

2012 | Terrestrial | Technology | Science | Publications & Reports

An evaluation of monitoring methods for the endangered giant kangaroo rat

Tim Bean, Bob Stafford, Laura Prugh, Scott Butterfield, Justin Brashares

This paper compares the efficacy of different monitoring methods for estimating distribution, abundance, and population growth of the endangered giant kangaroo rat to determine the best practices for…

2012 | Terrestrial | Planning | Publications & Reports

Solar Energy Development in the Western Mojave Desert

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…

2012 | Terrestrial | Planning | Publications & Reports

An Approach to Enhance the Conservation-Compatibility of Solar Energy Development

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…

2012 | Terrestrial | Planning | Publications & Reports

Economic costs of achieving current conservation goals in the future as climate changes

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…

2012 | Terrestrial | Planning | Science | Publications & Reports

Small Reserves Can Successfully Preserve Rare Plants Despite Management Challenges

Parker, S.S

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…

2012 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Marine | Science | Publications & Reports

Restoring Salmon Habitat: Garcia River Forest

Jennifer Carah, Jason Pelletier

A two-page summary of salmon restoration efforts at the Garcia River Forest on the North Cost of California focusing on the reintroduction of wood in streams as a strategy.

2012 | Freshwater | Terrestrial | Marine | Science | Video

Saving Salmon One Log at a Time

The Nature Conservancy, Jennifer Carah

Salmon and trout thrive in streams with cool water, low levels of sand and silt, and deep, shaded pools. Intensive forest management in California over the last 150 years led to the removal of these…

2012 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Grassland community composition drives small-scale spatial patterns in soil properties and processes

Parker, S.S., E.W. Seabloom, J.P. Schimel

Understanding how plant invasions occur is vitally important for land managers and conservationists working to enhance biodiversity in California grasslands. While much of the research on this topic…

2011 | Terrestrial | Science | Publications & Reports

Proactive Conservation Management of an Island-endemic Bird Species in the Face of Global Change

Scott A. Morrison, T. Scott Sillett, Cameron K. Ghalambor, John W. Fitzpatrick, David M. Graber, Victoria J. Bakker, Reed Bowman, Charles T. Collins, Paul W. Collins, Kathleen Semple Delaney, Daniel F. Doak, Walter D. Koenig, Lyndal Laughrin, Alan A. Lieberman, John M. Marzluff, Mark D. Reynolds, J. Michael Scott, Jerre Ann Stallcup, Winston Vickers, Walter M. Boyce

This paper discusses conservation of the Island Scrub-Jay in the context of novel threats posed by climate change. The authors discuss management actions that could reduce extinction…