California Rangeland Conservation Coalition - The Nature Conservancy vector digital data https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/BIOS https://filelib.wildlife.ca.gov/Public/BDB/GIS/BIOS/Public_Datasets/500_599/ds553.zip This is the summarized output of priority rangeland conservation areas developed by the California Rangeland Conservation Coaltion. The Coalition is a partnership between ranchers, environmentalists, and land management agencies to develop approaches to protect rangeland resources in the State. The planning that resulted in these data was the result of the work of the Focus Areas committee of the coalition during much of 2006 and early 2007. The committee used spatial data and a site-selection algorithm, Marxan (v.1.8.2) to assemble scenarios to meet conservation goals. We assembled data on vegetation systems and species (both called conservation targets) characteristic and dependent on grasslands and oak woodland ecosystems. These data were either observed or modeled and were meant to represent the most accurate and comprehensive data available to represent the location and status of conservation targets. This layer was developed by simplifying and grouping output from Marxan scenarios and stakeholder input to identify areas that are important or critical for conservation goals. These tiers of importance are based on how many times Marxan selected a planning unit to meet conservation goals. It also includes selected sites that were selected based on expert input on biological value. There are certainly areas that are not well mapped in terms of their rangeland biodoversity value, and conversely there may be areas that are prioritized for this process that have been degraded. It is imperative to field-check areas before conservation activity and investment and not rely solely on broad characterizations of resource value such as this GIS layer. To help stakeholder organizations identify and evaluate broad conservation priorities. This layer is not meant for property evaluation or site-specific characterization of resources value. While we sought to use the most current data, the actual ecological condition of areas identified may be quite different than characterized. It is critical to remember that this is a broad characterization of biological resources at the scale of the ~30 million acre study area and it should not be used to filter priorities among various properties at the county scale. See the associated report that explains the planning process, inputs and assumptions more fully, titled: Biological Prioritization of Rangelands: Approach and Methods (http://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=15044) Complete As needed -122.986487 -118.023957 40.811922 34.475118 ISO 19115 Topic Category location boundaries None conservation priority areas rangeland None California Please do not re-distribute this layer. Contact the person listed as the contact for this data with any questions about data sharing. Disclaimer: The State makes no claims, promises, or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or adequacy of these data and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in these data. No warranty of any kind, implied, expressed, or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and freedom from computer virus, is given with respect to these data.These data should be used for meso-scale evaluation of conservation priorities at scales from ca 1:250,000 to 1:1,000,000 The Nature Conservancy Dick Cameron Senior Conservation Planner 415 281-0462 dcameron@tnc.org Copyright 2007 California Cattlemen's Association Version 6.2 (Build 9200) ; Esri ArcGIS 10.6.1.9270 to be used at meso-scales for identification and evaluation of priority rangeland conservation areas- 1:100,000 - 1:1,000,000, not to be used for site-specific conservation planning or zoning decisions. Once each planning unit was classified into one of the 3 categories, then the boundaries between planning units with the same category value were dissolved. Then individual planning units were merged with adjacent units based on the shared length to aggregate the priority areas. It was felt that individual planninig units represented an overly precise mapping of priority areas. While rare plants and other biodiversity elements may need protection at this scale, this is not the primary purpose of this planning process. After eliminating individual planning units, the boundary lines were simplified, using the "Simplify Polygon" tool in Arc 9.x Run site-selection algorithm and group summed solution results. The summed solution is how many times a planning unit (500 ha hexagon) was selected out of 10 runs. Each run is an attempt by Marxan to meet the conservation goals in the most efficient configuration possible given constraints imposed by suitability layer. Each planning unit falls into one of 3 groups. 1. Not included in priority areas. 2. Important for rangeland goals - selected 3-7 times of 10. 3. Critical for rangeland goals- selected 8-10 times. These areas were supplemented with areas identified by The Nature Conservancy in the Central Coast as having high rangeland biodiversity value. These planning units were added as critical. Additionally, areas within Tejon Ranch in Kern/L.A. counties identified by Conservation Biology Institute as conservation priorities were added as critical. These changes are tracked at the planning unit level and are not part of this simplified data set. Processed dataset for DFG BIOS review. Converted to California Teale Albers NAD83. Misc. edits, including citation title and keywords. Removed browse graphic link as the link did not work. 20090819 California Department of Fish and Game Will Patterson geodata@dfg.ca.gov Vector GT-polygon composed of chains 446 NAD 1983 California Teale Albers 34.0 40.5 -120.0 0.0 0.0 -4000000.0 coordinate pair 0.0001 0.0001 meter D North American 1983 GRS 1980 6378137.0 298.257222101 ds553 California Rangeland Priority Conservation Areas [ds553] OBJECTID Internal feature number. Esri Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Priority Classification of level of conservation priority. 0 No Priority 1 Critical Areas 2 Important Areas Shape Feature geometry. ESRI Coordinates defining the features. Shape_Length Length of feature in internal units. Esri Positive real numbers that are automatically generated. Shape_area Area of feature in internal units squared. ESRI Positive real numbers that are automatically generated. The Nature Conservancy, California Program The Nature Conservancy is not liable for any misuse of these data. Do not re-distrubute these data to additional orgnaiztaion without consent of TNC or CRCC. 20211108 The Nature Conservancy Dick Cameron Senior Conservation Planner dcameron@tnc.org FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998 local time