Conservation Analysis and Reserve Design

1. Conservation Analysis and Reserve Design Risk Analysis Landscape Conservation Analysis Reserve Design

2. Risk Analysis Potential risk or threat to natural communities is important to consider when defining and prioritizing areas for establishment of reserves and preserves.

3. Factors Considered • percent slope (e.g., areas with greater than 30 percent slope are generally unsuitable for significant development), • soil capability classes, • parcel size (e.g., smaller parcels are more at risk for conversion or effects of development such as fragmentation are more significant), • existing preserves and reserves, • Existing development patterns/availability of services, and • existing regulatory mechanisms.

4. Six Risk Levels • Very High: Lands within current urban zones or other development zoning • High: Agricultural zoning 20 acre minimum and soil types most suitable for orchards and vineyards • Moderate: Agricultural zoning 40 to 160 acre minimums • Low: Areas with 30%> slopes, Watershed zoning • Very Low: Protected Under State law – Suisun Marsh Protection Act • Preserve: Existing Protected Lands

7. Reserve Design Principles • Preserve Large Blocks of Habitat • Conserve Target Species Throughout the Plan Area • Prioritize habitat with high conservation value at high risk of being developed • Incorporate a Range of Environmental Gradients • Protect Regional Water Quality • Maintain Connectivity • Preserve Blocks of Habitat Close Together • Incorporate Buffer Zones • Minimize Edge Habitat • Environmental Conditions • Ecotone and Transition Areas • Target ‘Hot Spots’ of diversity • Minimize Human Disturbance • Consider Management Needs

8. Conservation Targets • How much is enough? • Approach • Initial Base – TNC Conservation Blueprint (Groves 2003). Species Area Relationship • Modified with respect to address the Reserve Design Principles that help address conservation issues related to risk, representation, resilience, and redundancy

9. Species Area-Relationship • Suggests conservation of 20 - 40% of any given community or ecosystem are likely to conserve 70 – 90% of the species.

10. Inner Coast Range Conservation Targets .

11. Vernal Pool and Valley Floor Grassland

12. Coastal Marsh/Riparian

13. Giant Garter Snake and California Red-legged Frog

14. Reserve Design Goals • Goal 1. Maximize the preservation and stewardship of large blocks of contiguous habitat by locating new reserves and preserves adjacent to or in the vicinity of the existing network of high quality preserves. • Goal 2. Protect existing populations of extremely rare and range-limited species and/or uncommon habitats or associations to maintain viable populations of these species. • Goal 3. Maintain and enhance corridors linking regions and habitats within the County and provide stepping stones/larger blocks of habitat within corridors. • Goal 4. Maximize values, productivity, and carry capacity of reserves and preserves through appropriate restoration and management activities. • Goal 5. Increase potential for successful restoration by encouraging restoration activities near high quality preserves. • Goal 6. Provide adequate funding for management and monitoring of reserves in perpetuity.

15. Conservation Analysis • Landscape Level Elements • Corridors/Transitional Areas • Rarity Weighted Richness Index

16. Corridors/Transitional Areas • North Vacaville • Vacaville-Fairfield Green Belt • Suisun Valley (primarily riparian corridors) • West Hills – Vaca Mountains Corridor • Vallejo Lakes and Rockville Hills Jepson Prairie-Suisun Marsh Corridor

18. Rarity Weighted Richness Index • California Department of Fish and Game "Atlas of the Biodiversity of California” • A hexagonal grid of equal-area hexagonal cells with sides equaling a ¼ mile and averaging 2286ft (0.433 miles) between centers, was overlaid onto the Plan area. • Rarity-weighted richness index assigns a weight to each species based on the inverse of the number of hexagons in which it occurs. For example, if a species is found in only a single hexagon, that species receives the maximum possible score of 1/1, or 1.0. The score for a species that occurs in 20 hexagons would be 1/20, or 0.05. The individual scores for all species in a hexagon are then summed to yield a rarity-weighted index for the cell.

20. Landscape Level Conservation Values • Combines key conservation elements identified in the conservation approach sections for each of the covered natural communities and individual species. • A hexagonal grid of equal-area hexagonal cells with sides equaling a ¼ mile and averaging 2,286ft (0.433 miles) between centers, was overlaid onto the HCP\NCCP Plan area, similar to the grid used for the Rarity Weighted Richness Index

23. Priority Areas for Conservation and Reserve Design Combines: • Risk Analysis • Very High to Moderate • Low/Very Low • Preserve • Conservation Values • 2 or more overlapping elements • Conservation Acreage Targets

26. Conservation Summary

27. Conservation Costs HCP/NCCP

28. HCP/NCCP Conservation Costs by Applicant