Science and Collaboration for Connected Wildlands 20140324 vector digital data ftp://ftp.dfg.ca.gov/BDB/GIS/BIOS/Public_Datasets/800_899/ds822.zip http://bios.dfg.ca.gov/ The rapidly increasing demands being placed on our deserts points to the urgent need for a comprehensive habitat connectivity assessment that spans jurisdictional boundaries and promotes the partnerships needed to implement a regional conservation strategy for this diverse and striking landscape. The primary goal of the California Desert Connectivity Project is to identify areas where maintenance or restoration of ecological connectivity is essential for conserving the unique biological diversity of California's deserts. Identification of these key areas of connectivity will help inform land management and conservation decisions, infrastructure improvements and mitigation options in the face of future land-use pressures as well as climate change. Another goal of the project was to produce implementable linkage designs and provide the necessary data and information to inform land management, land acquisition, restoration (e.g., habitat restoration and restoration of permeability across transportation barriers), and stewardship in connectivity zones. In 2009, SC Wildlands brought together regional ecologists to conduct a formal evaluation of 47 linkages associated with the California deserts. The evaluation was designed to assess the biological irreplaceability and vulnerability of each linkage (sensu Noss et al. 2002). Irreplaceability assessed the relative biological value of each linkage, including both terrestrial and aquatic criteria: 1) size of habitat blocks served by the linkage; 2) quality of existing habitat in the smaller habitat block; 3) quality and amount of existing habitat in the proposed linkage; 4) linkage to other ecoregions or key to movement through the ecoregion; 5) facilitation of seasonal movement and responses to climatic change; and 6) addition of value for aquatic ecosystems. Vulnerability and threat was primarily evaluated by comparing proposed renewable energy projects and study areas, and proposed road projects that might disrupt animal movement among targeted Landscape Blocks (i.e., areas protected from energy development and roads). Landscape Blocks include BLM Wilderness Areas and Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), national and state parks, federal and state wildlife refuges, private conservation reserves, and military reservations. This process identified 23 crucial linkages that were each defined by a pair of Landscape Blocks that should remain connected. One of the 23 linkage planning areas, the Mojave National Preserve to Joshua Tree National Park, was determined to be redundant with a previously delineated linkage design between Joshua Tree-Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base (Penrod et al. 2008) and the linkage planning area between Mojave National Preserve and Twentynine Palms. Thus, this process focused on 22 linkages that could be irretrievably compromised by development projects over the next decade unless immediate conservation action occurs (Figure 1). The biological integrity of several thousand square miles of wildlands in the California desert would be irreversibly jeopardized if these linkages were lost. The primary objective of this effort is to identify lands essential to maintain or restore functional connectivity among wildlands for all species or ecological processes of interest in the California deserts and as a vital adaptation strategy to conserve biodiversity during climate change. For a detailed description of the approach and methodology used to delineate the linkage corridors between landscape blocks please see the accompanying report "A Linkage Network for the California Deserts" at http://www.scwildlands.org/reports/Default.aspx. The associated Landscape Blocks dataset included in BIOS is ds823. Complete None planned -118.584318 -113.983496 36.181930 32.754830 ISO 19115 Topic Category None patch size patch configuration least-cost corridor land facet habitat suitability None California Mohave Desert Sonoran Desert None None Science & Collaboration for Connected Wildlands Kristeen Penrod Conservation Director (209)285-1916 kristeen@scwildlands.org Produced for the Bureau of Land Management and The Wildlands Conservancy. Produced by Science and Collaboration for Connected Wildlands, Fair Oaks, CA www.scwildlands.org and Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/pb1/. Microsoft Windows 7 Version 6.1 (Build 7601) Service Pack 1; Esri ArcGIS 10.4.0.5524 Vector GT-polygon composed of chains 1 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 ds822 Linkage Design for the California Desert Linkage Network [ds822] OBJECTID_1 Internal feature number. ESRI Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Shape Feature geometry. ESRI Coordinates defining the features. Area_ha Area of linkage design in hectares squared. Area_ac Area of linkage design in acres squared. 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. 20160902 Science & Collaboration for Connected Wildlands Kristeen Penrod Conservation Director (209)285-1916 kristeen@scwildlands FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998 local time