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.