Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District, The Nature Conservancy, and the Big Sur Land Trust (Monterey County).
Jodi McGraw Consulting developed a comprehensive management plan for grasslands within the 4,300-acre Palo Corona Regional Park. To develop the plan, JMc:
- Characterized the conservation value, condition, and threats to the biologically-diverse coastal prairie grasslands within the park, based on a critical synthesis of site-specific and regional data;
- Developed goals for grasslands as well as the parks ponds and streams, to promote biodiversity, and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire;
- Collaborated with Range Manager Keith Guenther to evaluate grazing effects on the various conservation targets, and to develop grazing prescriptions designed to achieve the goals in conjunction with fire management;
- Designed monitoring protocols and an adaptive management framework to evaluate the effects of grazing and promote its long-term effectiveness at achieving the goals; and
- Coordinated with the Partners throughout development of the plan and its adoption by the Park District.
JMc has participated in implementation of the plan by reviewing monitoring results and adapting the prescriptions and monitoring protocols to promote their effectiveness.