San Diego Habitat Conservancy

In the coming year, SDHC expects to begin managing a number of new preserves in addition to the preserves already under management. Additionally, SDHC is making progress towards expanding our reach into Riverside County and beyond. As the workload increases and SDHC begins to create a stronger educational program, it is anticipated that SDHC will need to hire additional staff over the coming years.

At this time, SDHC envisions continuing and expanding a program where the Executive Director participates in “brown bag" lunches at local companies, and community groups around San Diego County in order to increase awareness of services provided by SDHC and gain volunteers in the process. SDHC also looks to build its educational program by working with teachers to provide educational opportunities that complement current curriculum and lesson plans and stimulate students' curiosity and fascination with the natural world. Possible activities include having local environmental professionals speak with students in order to expose them to the array of professions in the environmental field, leading hikes at one of our open space preserves, providing our preserve sites as outdoor classrooms, coordinating the planting of native gardens, and other opportunities that continue to be explored.

SDHC also looks forward to increasing partnerships with other nonprofits in the San Diego community in order to expand our role in bringing awareness of the importance of native habitats to the San Diego community and coordinate our efforts to eradicate invasive species from our native habitats.

SDHC is working with key stakeholders and expanding our network to include entities not only in San Diego County, but in San Bernardino County and beyond. SDHC is approved by the California Department of Fish & Wildlife to hold and manage mitigation lands in Region 5 (San Diego County). SDHC is applying to receive this approval for Regions 4 and 6 and will ultimately seek approval for all of California. SDHC received accreditation with the Land Trust Accreditation Commission in February 2016. The accreditation process has strengthened SDHC and shows to the nation that SDHC has met the highest standards for managing and protecting land in perpetuity.

One of only a few nonprofit habitat managers in the San Diego region working with developers, municipalities, and agencies to strike a critical balance between development and the protection of our valuable habitat.

- Manages approximately 1900 acres of open space habitat helping to provide a contiguous corridor of native habitats, vital to supporting natural resources that are considered important to our local ecosystem and that provide vital habitat for numerous endangered and threatened plants and animals.

- Provides outreach to neighboring communities in order to instill a sense of stewardship, educate them about the resources being protected, and the role protecting such resources plays in regional conservation efforts.

SDHC continues to increase our land management portfolio by not only increasing the number of acres we manage, but increasing the types of habitats that we manage, increasing the variety of plant and animal species we manage, expanding our presence to additional cities within San Diego County and to counties other than San Diego County, such as Riverside County. Additionally, in the past year SDHC has hired a full-time Acquisitions Manager.