Graniterock Company (Santa Cruz County).
Jodi McGraw Consulting teamed with Jones and Stokes Associates to prepare the Long-Term Management and Maintenance Plan for Graniterock’s Quail Hollow Quarry HCP. As the Preserve Manager since 2008, JMc has implemented the plan’s management and monitoring activities within an adaptive management framework. This work as entailed:
- Developing and implementing research-based strategies to enhance populations of six endangered species and maintain native community composition by managing fire, exotic plants, and public uses;
- Designing and implementing a multivariate plant community classification for the preserve area, and then mapping and monitoring the communities using GIS;
- Developing and implementing quantitative monitoring protocols and areal extent mapping protocols for the four endangered plant species; and
- Implementing the quantitative monitoring protocols and conducting spatial analyses to evaluate habitat use by the two endangered insects.
Prior to preparing the plan, Dr. McGraw conducted research at the site to inform its development. Researching, developing, and now implementing the management plan has provided important opportunities to feed forward lessons learned for development of similar plans. JMc manages the Quail Hollow Quarry Conservation Areas with assistance from interns from UC Santa Cruz, providing aspiring land managers and biologists with hands-on opportunities to learn a diverse suite of management and monitoring techniques.