This project will form the foundation of a statewide approach for regional connectivity planning. Specifically, this project will create a statewide connectivity forum comprising varied groups in California who share a common interest in protecting landscape linkages and wildlife movement corridors to counter the effects of habitat fragmentation. This connectivity forum will bring together landscape ecologists, biologists, planners, state and federal agencies, local governments, and conservation organizations who have been working in various combinations to design and implement wildlife connectivity projects throughout California. The forum will produce a "lessons learned/best practices" report based on these experiences for use by local and regional jurisdictions interested in creating and implementing wildlife connectivity designs. In addition, the project will publish a model approach for designing regional wildlife connectivity plans and apply the approach to California's San Joaquin Valley and surrounding foothills. This ecoregion plan, developed in consultation and partnership with Caltrans, Department of Fish and Game, and other stakeholders in land-use and transportation planning, will facilitate expansion of this collaborative connectivity design approach to other Eco-Regions in California and to the statewide effort.
Collaborators include: Defenders of Wildlife, South Coast Wildlands, and the Conservation Biology Institute. Funding frm the Wildlife Conservation Society
