Private landowners critical to saving California biodiversity

California has more than 2,000 kinds of unique plants and animals, making it the most biologically diverse region of the continental United States. Given the predicted increase in human population and the high cost of habitat preservation, we can only expect biological reserves to maintain a small fraction of the state's biodiversity. Just as most of our biodiversity is evenly scattered across the state, we need a conservation continuum to preserve these species across the wide range of present-day wildlands. Managing this continuum will be a huge task that depends on wildland stewardship by private landowners. One program designed to promote these goals through research, integrated management, and public education is the DANR Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program.