In partnership with our sister organization, the Endangered Habitats Conservancy, EHL brokered land acquisitions that help assemble key linkages in the Multiple Species Conservation Program.

In 2009, EHL purchased two properties that, due their central location, help form a landscape linkage between the northern and southern portions of the MSCP. Specifically, in the Fall of 2009, EHL purchased a 30-acre parcel within the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge, the last in a series of transactions that we’ve completed over the past three years in the South Crest portion of the Sweetwater River watershed. Earlier in 2009, EHL completed an additional 155 acres of conservation acquisitions in this same area, using federal and state grant funding. These conservation acquisitions provide crucial connectivity between the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge and the Crestridge Ecological Reserve, as well as with Harbison Canyon and the Cleveland National Forest, and add to the ecological value of the nearby McGinty Mountain and Sycuan Peak Ecological Reserves. South Crest supports a variety of vegetation communities and habitat for over 50 sensitive or MSCP target species, including a small herd of mule deer.

All of the conserved South Crest properties – more than 500 acres in total – are now being transferred to the Endangered Habitats Conservancy for permanent management and stewardship. In the coming year we will be working to design a new phase of transactions in this same area, and have already identified several parcels with willing sellers, including more than 700 acres of land within Harbison Canyon.