The California Legacy Project has embarked on a series of nine workshops to collect information on important local and regional values, data, opportunities, and concerns. In May, Legacy held the first of these regional workshops in San Luis Obispo focusing on the Central Coast region.

At an Information Exchange, participants viewed maps of key resources and projected urban growth and added their knowledge of local projects to statewide inventories. In a series of lively small group sessions, participants generated sets of criteria for terrestrial biodiversity, aquatic biodiversity and riparian habitats, agricultural and grazing lands, rural recreation lands, and urban open space.

Further, participants were treated to a demonstration of how to use computer models to turn these criteria into map layers and identify important conservation opportunity areas. Mary Nichols, Secretary for Resources, attended the final session to discuss the workshop results with participants.

Along with the July 24–25 workshop held in San Diego, more workshops are scheduled for September 4–5 (Los Angeles) and October 16–17 (Oakland). The Legacy Project is developing the California Digital Conservation Atlas, a web–based mapping tool that will provide access to natural resources related data. Legacy met with Geographic Information System (GIS) software experts in April to draft the design. Users will be able to combine existing information to conduct analyses, create custom maps, and download information. The Atlas will be accessible on the Legacy Project website late this summer.