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Biogeographic Data Branch
1807 13th Street, Suite 202
Sacramento, CA 95811
(916) 322-2493
California Interagency Wildlife Task Group
Mission
Created by an interagency Memorandum of Understanding in 1981, CIWTG has a mission to promote improved understanding of the biology, distribution, and habitat requirements of California's vertebrate wildlife, and the application of that information to the management of California's lands.
This task group facilitates cooperation between agencies in California and fosters the development of up-to-date, reliable, and inter-relatable statewide natural resource inventories and classifications for wildlands. CIWTG strives to develop and make accessible, in cooperation with all interested parties, an objective body of knowledge and better tools to apply that knowledge to the management of land and its wildlife inhabitants.
Membership
An updated Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 1985 by sixteen agencies whose representatives have continued to meet quarterly ever since. Member agencies include:
- California Department of Fish and Game
- California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
- California Department of Parks and Recreation
- California Energy Commission
- California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
- University of California -- Davis Campus, Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension
- University of California -- Davis Campus, Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology
- University of California -- Berkeley Campus, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management
- Humboldt State University -- Department of Wildlife Management
- US Forest Service -- Pacific Southwest Region and Pacific Southwest Research Station
- US National Park Service
- US Fish and Wildlife Service
- US Geological Survey -- Biological Resources Division
- US Bureau of Land Management
- US Natural Resources Conservation Service
- US Army Corps of Engineers
- US Department of the Navy -- Naval Facilities Engineering Command (Western Division)
- US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) -- Ames Research Center
Goals
To date, the group's primary accomplishment has been the initial development and oversight of the California Wildlife Habitat Relationships (CWHR) System, now maintained by the California Department of Fish and Game. CIWTG goals are to:
- Facilitate a common terminology for vertebrates and their habitats.
- Promote continually improved knowledge of the biology, distribution, and dynamics of vertebrates and the biological communities in which they occur.
- Encourage and coordinate continual improvement in analytical and synthetic models for understanding, enhancing, and applying accumulated knowledge to social policy.
- Provide technical products and expertise on wildlife biology and management.
- Serve as a forum to discuss and apply scientific ideas in wildlife management and conservation biology.