In 2008, the South Coast Missing Linkages Report (SC Wildlands 2008) set forth a comprehensive plan to maintain and restore 15 critical habitat linkages between protected lands in southern California that, if implemented, would secure needed landscape scale connectivity from the US-Mexico border to the Southern Sierra Nevada.
Many of these linkages have been adopted by regional land use and conservation plans, yet much work is still needed to be done. Linkage Implementation partnerships are key to securing habitat connectivity (Keeley et al 2019) and must engage diverse interests, including local transportation agencies, NGOs, land trusts, local jurisdictions, scientists, and land managers.
The San Bernardino to San Jacinto Mountains Linkage, located at the transition between California’s South Coast and Mojave Desert Ecoregions and the only connection between the Transverse and Peninsular Mountain Ranges, is one such linkage where there is tremendous capacity for linkage implementation, but where coordination of connectivity actions is lacking. In April 2021, SC Wildlands and The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with California Department of Transportation, Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority, and Coachella Valley Conservation Commission, joined forces to convene a Linkage Implementation Workshop designed to reinvigorate stakeholder engagement and encourage collaborative connectivity conservation actions in regionally important landscape linkages. The workshop focused on linkages within the “Greater I-10” area of Riverside County, and included the San Bernardino-San Jacinto Linkage; the San Bernardino-Little San Bernardino Linkage connecting the San Bernardino National Forest and Joshua Tree National Park; and the Joshua Tree - Chocolate Mountains Linkage linking Joshua Tree National Park and the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range administered by the Department of Defense. The workshop presented challenges to implementation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, thus, was held virtually in four, 3-hour sessions over a 2-week period to limit online meeting fatigue. Approximately 50 individuals participated in each session, which covered four broad topics requiring connectivity actions: 1) Land Use, Policy and Protection, 2) Transportation and Infrastructure, 3) Research and Monitoring, and 4) Stewardship, Restoration and Outreach. Each workshop session included presentations related to the workshop session topic as well as discussions on specific existing or past connectivity actions, needs, or opportunities. TNC developed a WebMap for the region that was made available prior to and during the workshop that allowed participants to indicate on the map specific locations for needs or opportunities. The goal of the workshop is to establish a Linkage Implementation Alliance that enlists all potential stakeholders to act on the needs and opportunities identified in the workshop to conserve these critical linkages.