Spencer, W.D., P. Beier, K. Penrod, K. Winters, C. Paulman, H. Rustigian-Romsos, J. Strittholt, M. Parisi, and A. Pettler. 2010. California Essential Habitat Connectivity Project: A Strategy for Conserving a Connected California. Prepared for California Department of Transportation, California Department of Fish and Game, and Federal Highways Administration. 20100301 vector digital data https://wildlife.ca.gov/Data/BIOS https://filelib.wildlife.ca.gov/Public/BDB/GIS/BIOS/Habitat_Connectivity/Habitat_Connectivity_Data.zip https://filelib.wildlife.ca.gov/Public/BDB/GIS/BIOS/Public_Datasets/600_699/ds619.zip The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) commissioned the California Essential Habitat Connectivity Project because a functional network of connected wildlands is essential to the continued support of California's diverse natural communities in the face of human development and climate change. The Essential Connectivity Map depicts large, relatively natural habitat blocks that support native biodiversity (Natural Landscape Blocks) and areas essential for ecological connectivity between them (Essential Connectivity Areas). This coarse-scale map was based primarily on the concept of ecological integrity, rather than the needs of particular species. Essential Connectivity Areas are placeholder polygons that can inform land-planning efforts, but that should eventually be replaced by more detailed Linkage Designs, developed at finer resolution based on the needs of particular species and ecological processes. It is important to recognize that even areas outside of Natural Landscape Blocks and Essential Connectivity Areas support important ecological values that should not be "written off" as lacking conservation value. Furthermore, because the Essential Habitat Connectivity Map was created at the statewide scale, based on available statewide data layers, and ignored Natural Landscape Blocks smaller than 2,000 acres squared, it has errors of omission that should be addressed at regional and local scales. The Essential Connectivity Map shows a statewide network of 850 relatively intact Natural Landscape Blocks (ranging in size from 2,000 to about 3.7 million acres) connected by 192 Essential Connectivity Areas (Table 3.1). There are fewer Essential Connectivity Areas than Natural Landscape Blocks, because each Essential Connectivity Area serves to connect at least two, and as many as 15 Natural Landscape Blocks. Due to the broad, statewide nature of this map, and its focus on connecting very large blocks of mostly protected natural lands, the network omits many areas that are important to biological conservation. The purpose of the map is to focus attention on large areas important to maintaining ecological integrity at the broadest scale. Natural areas excluded from this broad-brush Essential Connectivity Network can therefore not be "written off" as unimportant to connectivity conservation or to sustaining California's natural heritage. The California Essential Habitat Connectivity Project report is available for download at http://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=18366 , http://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=18376 , http://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=18377 , and http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/env/bio/program_efforts.htm 20100301 publication date Complete None planned -123.982893 -112.517384 42.692765 32.262011 None Connectivity Conservation Linkage Design Least-cost Corridor Connectivity Corridor Essential Connectivity Areas Essential Natural Landscape Blocks Habitat Linkage ISO 19115 Topic Category biota environment None California None The user accepts sole responsibility for the correct interpretation of this report and the correct use of its accompanying data sets in environmental documents. The Essential Habitat Connectivity map delineates lands likely important to wildlife movement between large, mostly natural areas at the statewide scale based on available data and assumptions provided in this report. It omits small natural areas and does not reflect movement needs of particular species. It is a decision-support tool to be refined by finer-scale analyses and local linkage designs. DO NOT assume that lands outside Natural Landscape Blocks or Essential Connectivity Areas are unimportant to wildlife populations or movements.License: This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Using the citation standards recommended for BIOS datasets (https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/BIOS/Citing-BIOS) satisfies the attribution requirements of this license.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. California Department of Fish and Wildlife Melanie Gogol-Prokurat Lead Ecologist/Supervisor Melanie.Gogol-Prokurat@wildlife.ca.gov California Department of Fish and Wildlife Version 6.2 (Build 9200) ; Esri ArcGIS 10.6.1.9270 Edited original metadata by adding ISO keywords. 20100317 California Department of Fish and Game Greg Ewing bios@dfg.ca.gov Vector String 31 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 ds619 Interstate Connections - California Essential Habitat Connectivity (CEHC) [ds619] OBJECTID Internal feature number. ESRI Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Shape Feature geometry. ESRI Coordinates defining the features. pointA Identifying numbers of NLBs connected by the ECA NLB_dissect pointB Identifying numbers of NLBs connected by the ECA NLB_dissect stickid Original stick id, used in Sticks, Least_Cost_Paths, ECA, and ECA_split Sticks ECA_Name Name for the ECA Ecoregion Primary ecoregion Level Type of connection (described in Descript) 1 Road Mitigation 2 Indirect Connection 3 Modeled 5 Interstate Connection Descript Description for the type of connection Shape_Length Length of feature in internal units. ESRI Positive real numbers that are automatically generated. There are 175 modeled sticks and 168 unsplit ECAs. Due to the close proximity of some Natural Landscape Blocks, overlap of analysis extents that shared one Natural Landscape Block, and the variable sizes of the analysis extents, there were some Essential Connectivity Areas that were completely subsumed by others. In these few cases, the smaller Essential Connectivity Area that was completely included within a larger one was removed from the final output. 20231201 California Department of Fish and Wildlife Melanie Gogol-Prokurat Lead Ecologist/Supervisor Melanie.Gogol-Prokurat@wildlife.ca.gov FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998 local time