CA Public Lands and Climate Change Symposium

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Will the valley oak acquisition and restoration proposed outside of Fresno meet their purposes 50-100 years from now? Will the stream head-cutting erosion control measures at Mount San Jacinto protect the outstanding montane meadow or will the meadow be lost through groundwater depletion and encroachment of white fir and lodgepole pine? Will sea level rise in San Francisco Bay render a near-term 20-acre salt marsh restoration project functionally useless in twenty-five years? Will July and August stream flows in the Tuolumne River east of Modesto diminish to the point that water-based recreation and riparian forest restoration will fail? California State Parks and the conservation community are confronted with these and similar questions as we seek to better understand of the impacts of climate change on California's diverse natural resources.

This symposium is not about carbon sequestration or reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but rather about how global warming will impact the California landscape and the future success of conservation projects and large expenditures for natural resource stewardship, restoration and acquisition. We will explore current research on evolutionary hotspots in California, valley oak genetic discoveries and dynamic species range modeling of which are all tied to climate change in California. You’ll hear about expected impacts of climate change on Southern California reforestation, Bay Area regional land use redevelopment, coastal wetland restoration and acquisition, and large landscape reserve planning. Representatives from California departments of Fish and Game and State Parks, The Nature Conservancy, and the National Park Service will describe how climate challenges will effect their conservation planning procedures, practices, and priorities for the future. And we’ll unveil a new process for keeping track of conservation and climate change research-related practices over the next ten years.

Funders of major conservation efforts in California estimate that up to $3 billion will be spent in the State over the next five years on land stewardship and acquisition efforts. Presentations and discussions will serve to inform sustainable project design and funding decisions.

After the symposium, the California Center for Environmental Law and Policy at the U.C. Berkeley School of Law will take the lead in pursuing legal, regulatory or policy opportunities brought forward at the symposium that will help shape the future conservation and climate change agenda.