Klamath Siskiyou Private Lands Conservation Assessment

In 1999, the Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) concluded a conservation science assessment of the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion culminating in the report “A Science-based Conservation Assessment for the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion.”  Numerous ecological assessments were conducted and a conservation plan was proposed based on the results for special elements, ecosystem representation, and focal species.  That study focused primarily on the public lands portion of the ecoregion. A private lands assessment for the World Wildlife fund began in 2002. 

The ecoregion encompasses southwestern Oregon and northwestern California, necessitating data sets spanning both states.  A total of nine conservation data sets covering the entire ecoregion and two data sets that covered the Oregon portion of the ecoregion were used. For all of the conservation data sets and analyses, only those areas that fell within private land boundaries were considered.  The location of private lands were determined using CBI’s 2001 Protected Areas Database (PAD).

The final raster data sets have a spatial resolution of 30 m. Users are cautioned that a single raster cell might include an entire suite of conservation information, and  the positional and attribute accuracy remain untested.  It would be safe to assume that the perceived accuracy is overstated and any small scale action (for example, conservation easements based on tax lot boundaries) should be preceded by a field examination of the site.