California State Conservancies

This geodatabase includes the boundaries of the California Natural Resource Agency’s State Conservancies. The collection of the State Conservancies boundaries was initiated in January 2012 by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and the geodatabase was updated in 2022 to include Sierra Nevada Conservancy boundary expansion. The geodatabase was constructed from GIS data requested from each of the State Conservancies. The following documentation describes the contacts who provided data, and where available, the type of spatial information provided. Baldwin Hills Conservancy: A shapefile of the Baldwin Hills Conservancy boundary was requested and received from Amanda Recinos, amanda@greeninfo.org, of GreenInfo Network on behalf of the Executive Officer of the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, David McNeill, on 10 January 2012. This boundary has not been modified from the original boundary provided. California State Coastal Conservancy: The California State Coastal Conservancy was updated by San Jenniches, sjenniches@scc.ca.gov, of the Coastal Conservancy in Fiscal Year 2014-2015. The SNC did not receive the boundary directly from the Coastal Conservancy; the feature class was provided by Nickolas Perez, Nickolas.Perez@water.ca.gov, of the California Natural Resources Agency to the SNC on 30 April 2015. Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy: A shapefile of the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy boundary was requested and received fromKerrie Godrey, kgodfrey@cvmc.ca.gov, of the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy on 10 January 2012. This boundary has not been modified from the original boundary provided. Delta Conservancy: A shapefile of the legal Delta and Suisun Marsh boundaries were provided by Elisa Sabatina with the Delta Conservancy, Elisa.Sabatini@deltaconservancy.ca.gov, on 10 January 2012. This boundary has not been modified from the original boundary provided. Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (San Gabriel/Lower LA): A shapefile of the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy was provided by Luz Torres, ltorres@rmc.ca.gov, of the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy on 10 January 2012. This boundary has not been modified from the original boundary provided. San Diego River Conservancy: Michael Nelson, mnelson@sdrc.ca.gov, the Executive Officer of the San Diego River Conservancy reported via email on 11 January 2012 that no prior GIS boundary existed for the Conservancy. Mr. Nelson provided written consent to the SNC, via an email dated 11 January 2012, to develop the San Diego River Conservancy GIS boundary from a PDF document supplied by Mr. Nelson that showed the general location of the San Diego River Conservancy’s boundary as occupying a one half mile buffer from the San Diego River. This boundary has not been modified from the original boundary provided. San Joaquin River Conservancy: The San Joaquin River Conservancy boundary was created from using both the legislation description of the boundary and a pdf version of the San Joaquin River Conservancy boundary provided by Marile Colindres, marile.colindres@sjrc.ca.gov, of the San Joaquin Conservancy on 24 February 2012. This boundary has not been modified from the since the creation of the boundary from the legal description in 2012. Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy: The SNC was not able to acquire GIS data from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy staff; therefore, the SNC created a boundary to represent the Santa Moninca Mountains Conservancy by using the description of the Conservancy from their website. Specifically, the SNC used the text from their website to select watersheds for GIS boundary: “the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy zone covers an area from the edge of the Mojave Desert to the Pacific Ocean. The zone encompasses the whole of the Santa Monica Mountains, the Simi Hills, the Verdugo Mountains and significant portions of the Santa Susana and San Gabriel Mountains. In addition, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority also owns or manages thousands of acres in the Sierra Pelona Mountains and in the Whittier-Puente Hills. From north to south, these areas drain into the Santa Clara River, Calleguas Creek, numerous smaller coastal watersheds in the Santa Monica Mountains, and the Los Angeles River and Rio Hondo. The Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) boundary was mapped to correspond with statute AB 2600 (2004) and as re-defined in SB 208 (2022). Work on the boundary was completed by CalFire, GreenInfo Network, and the California Department of Fish and Game. Meets and bounds description of the area as defined in statute: PRC Section 33302 (f) defines the Sierra Nevada Region as the area lying within the Counties of Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, and Yuba, described as the area bounded as follows: On the east by the eastern boundary of the State of California; the crest of the White/Inyo ranges; and State Routes 395 and 14 south of Olancha; on the south by State Route 58, Tehachapi Creek, and Caliente Creek; on the west by the line of 1,250 feet above sea level from Caliente Creek to the Kern/Tulare County line; the lower level of the western slope’s blue oak woodland, from the Kern/Tulare County line to the Sacramento River near the mouth of Seven-Mile Creek north of Red Bluff; the Sacramento River from Seven-Mile Creek north to Cow Creek below Redding; Cow Creek, Little Cow Creek, Dry Creek, and up to the southern boundary of the Pit River watershed where Bear Creek Mountain Road and Dry Creek Road intersect; the southern boundary of the Pit River watershed; the western boundary of the upper Trinity watershed in the County of Trinity; on the north by the boundary of the upper Trinity watershed in the County of Trinity and the upper Sacramento, McCloud, and Pit River watersheds in the County of Siskiyou; and within the County of Modoc, the easterly boundary of the Klamath River watershed; and on the north in the County of Modoc by the northern boundary of the State of California; excluding both of the following: (1) The Lake Tahoe Region, as described in Section 6605.5 of the Government Code, where it is defined as "region" (2) The San Joaquin River Parkway, as described in Section 32510. According to GreenInfo Network and the California Department of Fish and Game, the blue oak woodland used to define a portion of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy's western boundary was delineated using referenced vegetation and imagery data. The Tahoe Conservancy boundary was created by using the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) boundary received from the Tahoe Conservancy staff and clipping the TRPA boundary to the State of California boundary, using the Teale Albers projection. The TRPA boundary was received by the SNC from the Tahoe Conservancy staff in 2011, and the Tahoe Conservancy boundary was created by the SNC in 2012. Notes:Some conservancy boundaries overlap.