Type: report

Article abstract: On June 28, 2002, 70 participants representing over 40 agencies, academic institutions, land managers, land planners, conservation organizations, and community groups met to establish biological foundations for planning landscape linkages in the Peninsular-Borrego Connection. They identified 14 focal species that are sensitive to habitat loss and fragmentation here, including 1 plants, 3 insects, 2 reptiles, 3 birds and 5 mammals. Together, these species cover a wide array of habitats and movement needs in the region, so that planning adequate linkages for them is expected to cover connectivity needs for the ecosystems they represent. The ecological, educational, recreational, and spiritual values of protected wildlands in the southern California are immense. Our Linkage Design for the Peninsular-Borrego Connection represents an opportunity to protect a truly functional landscape-level connection. The cost of implementing this vision will be substantial—but the cost is small compared with the benefits. If implemented, our plan would not only permit movement of individuals and genes between the coastal habitats of the Peninsular Ranges and Anza Borrego Desert State Park, but should also conserve large-scale ecosystem processes that are essential to the continued integrity of existing conservation investments throughout the region. We hope that our biologically based and repeatable procedure will be applied in other parts of California and elsewhere to ensure continued ecosystem integrity in perpetuity.