The California Legacy Project is an exciting initiative that involves a broad range of government agencies and citizen organizations that are working together. The Project is developing a suite of tools and maps to help Californians make important decisions about conserving and protecting the state's bountiful working lands and magnificent natural resources.

Why is the project needed?

To address concerns about:

• Loss of natural resources,
• Insufficient conservation funding
• Lack of an integrated strategy to make the best use of limited funds.

Project Goals

• Develop a strategic context for statewide conservation investments.
• Build on local conservation planning efforts.
• Continually improve the process and basis for decision-making.
• Identify priority actions for conservation.
• Coordinate conservation actions among partners.
• Increase support for expanded conservation funding.

Assisting Decision-makers

• Better Information: The Legacy Project will provide better information and a more timely understanding of pending threats to natural resources. This information will be made available in easy-to-use and understandable formats so that the state and its conservation partners can make more informed decisions.
• More Cooperation: The Legacy Project will provide analytical tools to all groups interested in conservation (federal, state, regional, local, and private). These tools will help develop new partnership opportunities for a wide range of conservation objectives.
• Long-Range Strategy: The Project's analytical tools will help to identify a long-range strategy to conserve the most important natural resources in California. Having a comprehensive statewide conservation strategy enables decision-makers to be proactive and guides them to more effective and strategic allocations of funds. The Legacy Project's analyses will assist in showing how individual conservation investments, whether by acquisition or stewardship, fit into the regional and statewide context.
• Looking at the Big Picture: The Project will assemble a statewide digital atlas. This will include maps of key resources, and existing and future stressors on the health of resources. Through this statewide atlas the Project will be able to highlight important resources that either lack a strong local constituency or are critical to inter-bioregional linkages.

The Legacy Project Considers a Broad Range of Resources

• Terrestrial Biodiversity
• Aquatic Biodiversity and Watershed Values
• Working Landscapes (Agriculture, Grazing and Forestry)
• Outdoor Recreation and Education Lands and Facilities
• Urban Open Space

The Legacy Project Supports a Broad Range of Conservation Investment Tools

• Stewardship Incentives for Private Landowners
• Improved Public Land Management
• Conservation Easements
• Restoration
• Land Acquisition

Upcoming Legacy Project Products

• Comprehensive display of existing conservation priorities.
• Assessment of status and trends in California’s resource health.
• Improved and new data sets (e.g. a statewide public lands ownership catalog and map).
• Statewide analytical maps of natural resources (e.g. underrepresented habitats).
• Easy-to-access internet-based method to exchange data.
• Decision-support and analytical tools for conservation planning for all Legacy Project partners.
• Strategy to develop statewide conservation priorities.