Training

See also: Landscape-level conservation planning, Habitat Restoration

This workshop is designed to leverage the San Francisco Bay area's scientific expertise to inform transportation agencies on wildlife migration issues. Roads are one of the major obstacles to wildlife movement and habitat connectivity. In central California, county, state and regional transportation organizations are in the midst of planning efforts that may pose significant impacts to migration of wildlife species. Several staff with these agencies have indicated that now is a crucial time for scientific input into their plans. We are organizing a workshop where the State's leader in transportation planning, California Department of Transportation (CalTrans), will describe how wildlife migration data is used to better inform road design. The workshop will include two sessions, from 10-12 noon, and 1-2 p.m. The first session will begin with presentations from CalTrans, followed by a short question and answer discussion between scientists and planners to help clarify data needs. CalTrans will begin their presentations with a description of wildlife migration data needs for central California. They will then give case studies on how they have implemented successful measures for wildlife migration mitigation, and what data were critical to these projects. The second session will be a moderated, informal discussion between scientists to discuss opportunities for research collaboration. We hope through these discussions to better define thresholds of significance for environmental analysis of wildlife movement impacts and to indicate areas of data gaps and needs for central California.