The State Wildlife Action Plan is updated every 10 years. It’s not mandatory but guides conservation strategies to protect plants and animals.
Armand Gonzales with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife says the updated plan will consider the effects of climate change on habitats.
The department also wants to look at managing ecosystems rather than individual species.
“Focusing on the ecosystem, focusing on the habitat, actually has a greater benefit," says Gonzales. "You not only benefit the listed species that depend on that habitat, but you benefit all the other species that live there as well.”
Noelle Cremers with the California Farm Bureau Federation says the current plan portrays agriculture and grazing lands as a threat to habitat. She hopes an updated plan will change that.
"We urge them to take a better look at the values agriculture has and the habitat it provides," says Cremers.
Gonzales says the plan might encourage the private preservation of land over the public purchase of land.
He says a lack of funding often makes it difficult to maintain or manage acquired land.
The updated plan is scheduled to be completed by 2015.
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