NOAA Coastal Services Center GIS Integration and Development Program

Northern California Conservation

Linking Land and Sea

areas of focus, scenic, habitat, and access

Project Overview
Along the northern California coast, conservation partners recognize a significant need for coastal conservation planning across the terrestrial-to-marine continuum.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Services Center (CSC) is working with diverse coastal and marine resource agencies and private nonprofit conservation groups to develop an Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) pilot project in Humboldt Bay.

To date, the Humboldt Bay EBM project has improved the leadership, organization, and cooperation across disciplines for Humboldt Bay's coastal conservation efforts. To help ensure the project's success, the Coastal Services Center is providing technical support and funding to build capacity in geographic information systems (GIS), data management, social science integration, collaboration and organizational sustainability.

Facilitating Collaboration
Center staff participate in the Humboldt Bay Ecosystem Based Management steering committee and Subtidal Habitat Goals committee offering guidance and sharing information and lessons learned from efforts underway in other areas. The Center is working with the committees to develop a benthic habitat mapping product use in Humboldt Bay and Eel River EBM applications.

The Center is also coordinating communication among six EBM efforts across California and the West Coast. The West Coast EBM Network coalesced to help EBM practitioners make linkages between projects, share successes and challenges, find solutions to common obstacles, and generally strengthen conservation and management efforts using EBM principles.

Technical Assistance
One important way the Center supports the Humboldt Bay EBM Project is by providing technical assistance to the partners. In 2006, The Center supported the development of a Needs Assessment for the tri-county area around the bay. The needs assessment identified a critical need for information about marine habitats in the bay.

In 2007 the Center supported the completion of a benthic spatial data inventory for the Bay with the specific intent of identifying data gaps and opportunities. In cooperation with partners in California, Center staff helped draft data specifications for aerial imagery and a benthic habitat mapping effort to fill this gap. The Center is actively working with partners in northern California and private industry to collect the needed aerial imagery and perform the habitat delineation.

The Center is also providing technical support for a social assessment that will document historical sites and traditional and current cultural practices related to Humboldt Bay's rich natural resources. In the summer of 2008, the project will convene a local roundtable to discuss findings of the social assessment, identify gaps in the research, and suggest ways that this important information can be integrated into coastal and marine conservation. The assessment and roundtable will offer a greater understanding of Humboldt Bay resources and will support more informed ecosystem-based management in the region.

To learn more about the project, visit the links below:

Project Partners

For More Information, Contact: Rebecca.Pollack@noaa.gov