Managing by Landscapes - the Key to Sustaining Biodiversity

Ecosystems extend across boundaries created by government such as county lines and the borders of national forests, parks, and other jurisdictions. That's why California believes that our natural resources must be managed by landscapes - ecosystems - rather than by traditional boundaries, strict jurisdictions, and single species.

For example, a chinook salmon migrating from California's rivers to the Pacific Ocean and back to spawn has been known to cross Oregon, Washington, and Canadian ocean waters and a dozen or so counties and other political boundaries on its remarkable journey. Animals foraging for food travel the range of their natural habitat regardless of an abrupt and invisible boundary. Birds, from the tiny gnatcatcher of the Southern California coastal sage scrub to the northern spotted owl of the old-growth forest, follow the directions of their natural instincts, not the dictates of government.

Past practices of managing wildlife and their habitat on a species-by-species basis failed to recognize the importance of biological diversity, or "biodiversity," to the health of the ecosystem.

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