Ecosystems
San Diego is home to a wide variety of ecosystems with coastal, mountain, and desert areas all in a short days drive. There are a variety of vegetation communities each with their own unique assemblage of plants and animals. Our Biodiversity site gives an overview of each of these communities with examples of some of the common species found in each.
Species
The County of San Diego is coordinating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game to protect sensitive species through the Multiple Species Conservation Program Plans. Many factors are considered to develop the draft covered species list, including, but not limited to species distribution, life history, sensitivity and vulnerability to human activities, viability, dependence on conservation, current listing status and its likelihood to be listed as rare, threatened or endangered in the future under the state or federal endangered species acts. These sensitive species are considered in the modeling and preserve design for each plan and ultimately the County of San Diego pursues an incidental take permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game for the species on the covered species lists.
The South County MSCP Subarea Plan covers 85 sensitive, rare, threatened and endangered plant and animal species. The County is currently working to amend this subarea plan to cover an 86th species, the Quino checkerspot butterfly.
The proposed North County MSCP Plan has a draft list of 61 sensitive, rare, threatened and endangered plant and animal species to be covered upon adoption.
The proposed East County MSCP Plan has a draft list of 153 sensitive, rare, threatened and endangered plant and animal species to be covered upon adoption.
Management and Monitoring
County of San Diego MSCP Management and Monitoring Reports.
Information on management and monitoring is also available in the County’s Annual Reports on MSCP.
MSCP Subregions
South County MSCP biological information.
North County MSCP biological information.
East County MSCP biological information.
Additional biological data is available on the BIOS website.
Last updated: August 2008
