Private Sector

H. T. Harvey & Associates ecologists in our Sacramento Valley office assisted The Nature Conservancy (TNC) with the preparation of an Integrated Management Plan (IMP) for the Dye Creek Preserve in Tehama County. The Preserve represents one of the few remaining opportunities to protect, study, and manage California’s foothill oak woodlands, grasslands, and associated ecosystems. The 37,500-acre Preserve is part of a large, unfragmented landscape linking the Sacramento Valley with Mount Lassen and the Sierra Nevada.

The Preserve is important for protecting TNC-identified conservation targets in the Lassen Foothills ecoregion. These include habitat and species in northern hardpan vernal pools, blue oak woodland and grassland, Central Valley riparian habitat, anadromous fish, and the East Tehama Deer Herd.

The IMP was developed to describe TNC’s visions and priorities for the Preserve and to guide resource management, community and stakeholder engagement, and conservation research and education at the Preserve. Based on a collaborative planning process between our ecologists and TNC, the IMP developed specific recommendations to: guide TNC in cataloging and monitoring resources; enhancing and restoring sensitive habitats; improving livestock grazing management and the Preserve’s hunting program; and updating measures to avoid or minimize the impacts of operations and maintenance sensitive resources.