Western San Diego County is dominated by shrublands supporting biologically diverse native plant and animal communities. Widespread urbanization has led to regional habitat loss and fragmentation and many species in these shrubland communities are rare, threatened, or endangered. Large-scale, multiple species conservation planning has resulted in a regional preserve system that focuses on these shrubland communities. A number of large-scale threats are leading to type conversion from shrub-dominated to non-native invasive annual grass-dominated vegetation. To understand the changes that are occurring to native shrublands, we have developed a vegetation monitoring program with several components at multiple spatial scales, focused on quantifying coastal sage scrub (CSS) and chaparral vegetation community characteristics. Several drivers of change associated with type conversion of native shrubland to non-native annual grassland have been identified by previous research including increasing fire frequency, nitrogen deposition from air pollution, and prolonged and intense drought associated with changing climate. The objectives of this CSS and chaparral vegetation community monitoring plan are to: 1) Determine the distribution, composition, structure, and integrity of CSS and chaparral vegetation communities on conserved lands in western San Diego County, 2) Identify whether these attributes of the vegetation communities are changing over time, and 3) Evaluate relationships of known drivers of change (threats) and environmental factors in association with changes in vegetation community attributes. The goal of this monitoring program is to classify CSS and chaparral vegetation community integrity, identify areas of degradation across western San Diego County, and characterize drivers, and environmental factors associated with loss of ecological integrity. A combination of vegetation mapping, landscape-scale remote sensing, and field plots will be used to address all the aspects of our research questions. Data compiled and collected will be available to conservation partners to help inform future management decisions.

San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research (ICR), in partnership with multiple agencies, has developed an adaptive conservation management program to assist in the recovery of Western Burrowing Owls (BUOW; Athene cunicularia hypugaea) and their grassland ecosystem in San Diego County. Main objectives include (1) establishing more natural grassland ecosystems in San Diego County by re-establishing ground squirrels that provide critical resources for BUOW and valuable ecosystem engineering effects; (2) better understanding of the factors regulating BUOW population dynamics; (3) developing a comprehensive strategic management plan for BUOW in San Diego County; and (4) implementing the strategic management plan to begin establishing additional breeding nodes of burrowing owls. In 2017 ICR partnered with SDMMP to make publicly available a BUOW Conservation and Management Plan for San Diego County. This is a living document developed with input from local, state, and federal wildlife agencies, and will continue to be updated in the future.

The goal of this project was to install 855 linear feet of lodge pole fencing along the northern boundary of San Diego Audubon Society’s (SDAS’s) 11.6-acre Anstine-Audubon Nature Preserve (Anstine) in Vista, CA to combat hazardous and non-hazardous dumping and illegal trespassing. The addition of fencing along the northern portion of the property, adjacent to Hidden Lake Lane, will protect the fragile riparian, oak woodland, and endangered coastal sage scrub habitats on the preserve. Urban Corps of San Diego, with SDAS oversight, successfully installed an 855-foot long, five-foot high lodge pole wooden fence along with three access gates on the property in the planned one-year project. Project Start Date: March 7, 2023 Project Completion Date: January 18, 2024 This project was fully funded by SANDAG TransNet EMP Land Management Grant #S1125499

The Coastal Cactus Wren Conservation Network is an ad hoc group of more than 100 individuals representing research institutions, land management agencies, local government, non-profit conservation organizations and wildlife agencies. Members work together to exchange research and management information to develop best practices, policies, and programs that promote conservation and recovery of this bird throughout its range (Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego counties). This information will inform publication of a regional conservation strategy for the coastal cactus wren. Cactus wrens (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) are distributed across the arid regions of the southwestern United States and northern and central Mexico (Hamilton et al. 2011). While the desert populations are fairly abundant, populations of coastal cactus wrens have declined dramatically over the past 30 years, with extirpation and genetic isolation affecting many locations as a result of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, edge effects of development, and catastrophic fires (Solek and Szijj 2004). The coastal population is unique in that it occurs exclusively within the coastal sage scrub plant community, ranging from Ventura County south into San Diego County, U.S.A. and northwestern Baja California, Mexico. The firestorms of 2007 impacted several strongholds for the coastal cactus wren in Orange and San Diego counties. The significant loss of habitat and birds was the impetus for formation of the Coastal Cactus Wren Network. For more information on the Coastal Cactus Wren Conservation Network, please see the document titled "Coastal Cactus Wren Working Group Regional Goals, Objectives, and Strategies".

This project is designed to reduce the threat of altered hydrology and threat of loss of ecological integrity to the salt marsh vegetation community at Famosa Slough. In 2000, treatment ponds were built and vegetated at the south end of the Famosa Slough to clean all stormwater flows and retain dry-weather stormwater flows from the surrounding watershed of about 100 acres south of the Slough. The series of ponds and berms collect freshwater runoff as well as sediments, trash, and nutrients, but sediment has built up which reduces their effectiveness. The goal of this project is to restore the treatment ponds and berms and keep the dry weather freshwater and undesirable material from going into Famosa Slough, and thus reducing the risk of type conversion, and the resulting loss of ecological integrity of the strategic habitat of salt marsh vegetation community, and associated MSCP species. The treatment ponds are in urgent need of renovation to prevent the berms from failing and damaging the salt marsh habitat that is downstream. This project will remove sediment so that the dry weather freshwater is retained in the ponds rather than crossing the berm into the saltwater marsh areas, preserving the salt marsh.

Golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) face many threats in southern California. To reduce these threats and successfully conserve this species in western San Diego County, MSP Roadmap 2021-2026 objectives include the development and implementation of a Management Strategic Plan for Golden Eagles in San Diego County and a Monitoring Strategic Plan for Golden Eagles in San Diego County. These plans include general sections with background information and rationale for prioritizing and developing monitoring and management recommendations. Previously, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in collaboration with local, State, and other Federal agencies has conducted a multi-year research study of golden eagles to address questions regarding habitat use, movement behavior, nest occupancy, genetic population structure, and human impacts on eagles. From 2016-17, occupancy analyses were conducted and it was concluded that estimates of occupancy were greatest at sample sites with more rugged terrain conditions, lower human development, and lower amounts of scrubland vegetation cover (Weins et al. 2022). Tracking data from the last 10 years in the Western Unites States have shown eagles exhibit long-distance, nonroutine movements that were responsive to the updraft potential of the spatial and temporal landscape they encountered (Poessel et al. 2022). For the development of both Plans, chapters will be shaped based on the latest scientific information regarding occupancy, natal nesting success, juvenile dispersal, movement and biotelemetry, home range estimation, habitat use, and prey availability. Site-based threats assessment will be used to determine the best management practices. These plans are developed with input and guidance provided by the San Diego Golden Eagle working group, which includes include landowners and managers, scientists, species experts, and representatives from non-profit organizations, government, and wildlife agencies. Occurrence-specific management recommendations will be based on working group input and multiple years of data on Golden Eagle population status, habitat associations, and threats. These are living documents as the plans will be updated when new information becomes available or management actions are completed, and new recommendations are needed.

Declines of insects are being reported worldwide and includes several pollinator species in California. With reduced abundances and loss of species, there is a possibility that the ecosystem function of pollination is being compromised. The most common pollinators are Hymenoptera (bees and wasps), Coleoptera (beetles), Diptera (flies), and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). Overall, about 87 percent of plant species are pollinated by insects. San Diego Association of Governments TransNet Environmental Mitigation Program's Regional Management and Monitoring 2021-2022 and 2023-2024 workplans include objectives to improve wildlife movement. These objectives are based on the San Diego Management and Monitoring Program's Management and Monitoring Strategic Plan for Conserved Lands in Western San Diego County (MSP Roadmap; SDMMP and TNC 2017). Objectives for 2022-2026 are to prepare and implement a monitoring plan to survey pollinator communities and assess ecological integrity of pollinator functions in coastal sage scrub, chaparral, forblands and grasslands across the MSP Area. This project will prepare pollinator data in 2021 for analysis in 2022 and development of a pollinator monitoring pilot study plan in 2023 to be implemented in 2024. This plan is being prepared in conjunction with a coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and grassland vegetation monitoring plan. Pollinator sampling locations will be co-located at vegetation sampling plots.

Cactus-dominated components of coastal sage scrub are the obligate nesting habitat of Coastal Cactus Wren, deemed at significant risk of loss of occurrences in the San Diego Management and Monitoring Program's Strategic Plan for Conserved Lands in Western San Diego County. We aim to remove stinknet, an invasive fire-prone annual plant, from 24.5 untreated acres, and manage the stinknet seed bank in 70 acres of coastal sage scrub in the Safari Park Biodiversity Reserve (SPBDR). Additionally, we will restore 5 acres of disturbed land in the SPBDR in collaboration with the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians and other tribal partners, using a combination of locally sourced, ecologically appropriate, fire resistant, and culturally significant plants. This project will positively impact Coastal Cactus Wren habitat and engage new stakeholders in conservation work. This project is partially funded by SANDAG TransNet EMP Land Management Grant #S1125508.

The San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy (SDRVC) developed the San Dieguito Citizen Science Monitoring Program as a sustainable, cost-effective, and scientifically valid approach to gather critical data on lands within the San Dieguito River Park Focused Planning Area. This program seeks to fill knowledge gaps on the diversity, population, movements and spatial ecology of species within the watershed to better inform future land acquisitions, adaptive land management, habitat and species restoration, educational initiatives and future research. One of the main objectives of this program is to gather data that is consistent and shared with other regional planning efforts being coordinated by the San Diego Management & Monitoring Program. Data collected is submitted to regional databases and will help meet the management goals and objectives identified in the Management & Monitoring Strategic Plan. Annual expert-led surveys are carried out by volunteer citizen scientists following approved protocols and encourage community involvement and engagement.

As a program, SDMMP has regionally monitored 52 species and regionally surveyed 68 species across all taxa; monitored and/or mapped 8 vegetation communities; and modeled, assessed, and mapped 8 threats and stressors. Additionally, the SDMMP has completed 27 genetic studies, 80 research studies, 18 habitat models, and interacted with more than 75 partner groups. The table provided breaks down management and monitoring tasks that have been completed by species, vegetation community, and threats.