The Nature Conservancy in California

06/10/2026

The BirdReturns Late Summer Farmlands Habitat Program is now accepting applications!

Each year, millions of shorebirds use California’s Central Valley as a critical pit stop to rest and refuel on long migrations. However, most of the wetlands that dotted the region and served as habitat for these shorebirds are now gone.

The Late Summer Farmlands Habitat Program is designed to incentivize farmers to create this temporary wetland habitat in late summer and early fall, when flooded habitat is especially scarce. By maintaining shallow, mud-flat conditions on idle or harvested and unvegetated fields for a five-week period in August and September, farmers can provide critical habitat for shorebirds while supporting their farms and local communities.

Swipe through to learn more about this program and apply here: https://nature.ly/49M6E6T

About BirdReturns: BirdReturns is a strategic partnership implemented by the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership and carried out by TNC, Audubon California and Point Blue Conservation Science. BirdReturns works with farmers and landowners in California’s Central Valley to provide habitat for migratory shorebirds, cranes, waterfowl and other waterbirds.

06/03/2026

Connect with the community while doing good!

On Thursday, June 11, TNC, in partnership with the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks & Recreation, will be hosting a community trail walk and trash pickup at the Arrastre Canyon Nature Preserve.

Join us for a casual evening trail walk along the Arrastre-Strumpell Trail, picking up trash and engaging with community members along the way. The trail is about 3 miles round trip with about 350 feet elevation change.

For more information, visit: https://nature.ly/4eiDwGI

Hope to see you there!

06/01/2026

05/27/2026

Our Science and Stewardship teams at the Las Piletas Ranch Preserve have witnessed an incredible sight: Two pronghorn fawns!

These two adorable fawns have been seen with a group of four does and one buck in the site’s Pronghorn pasture.

Once abundant in number, local pronghorn populations were driven to extinction due to overhunting, habitat loss, development and human intervention. Reintroduced by our partners at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife starting in the late 1980s – 182 in the Carrizo Plain region and 333 across San Luis Obispo County – the population has struggled to sustain its numbers, currently totaling about 60 individuals.

To address these issues, TNC and partners from across the region, including California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), CDFW and the Bureau of Land Management, are testing whether greater access to water and food throughout the year and a reduction in movement barriers – including through the removal or retrofitting of barbed wire fencing to be wildlife-friendly and use of virtual fencing – can help sustain and then recover this last and largest population of pronghorn in southern California.

Las Piletas Ranch Preserve – with its 13,500 acres of rolling foothills, grasslands and oak woodlands – serves as stronghold for sensitive species like pronghorn. It’s also a critical piece of the San Andreas Corridor, one of California’s most valuable under protected wildlife linkages that TNC has been working to build for more than 30 years.

The sight of fawns on this landscape is a hopeful sign that TNC and partners’ efforts to connect habitats and protect vulnerable wildlife species in this region is working.

05/23/2026

Today is World Fish Migration Day, a global, biennial celebration that brings together scientists, artists, educators and communities to protect migratory fish and their habitats. The day is an important reminder of the ecological importance of migratory fish and the need to protect the rivers, streams and habitats they depend on.

This year’s theme is We Are River People. Everybody has a connection to rivers, whether through gathering food, enjoying recreational activities or growing up next a beautiful free flowing river. We all share a connection to the rivers and the fish that live in them.

Reflecting this year’s theme, the TNC team recently led a tour of our coho salmon restoration projects in the Ten Mile River in northern California.

Joined by staff from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the group was able to see firsthand the work TNC and its partners have been doing to reconnect floodplains and enhance instream habitat to help salmon survive as they migrate from river to ocean and back again.

During another tour, the group even spotted adult coho migrating up through one of TNC’s most recent restoration sites! This stream channel and the high-quality habitat that it provides did not exist just a few months before this video was captured.

Learn more about how you can celebrate migratory fish and free-flowing rivers, today and every day, here: https://nature.ly/4wBypbP



Photo: The TNC and CDFW teams posing with the World Fish Migration Day “happy fish.” Courtesy of Jon Mann, California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

05/22/2026

We want to recognize all those connected to Santa Rosa Island / wima - from the tiniest ant to the towering Torrey pines.

From all of us on Santa Cruz Island / limuw, we are thinking of our nearby island family and sending our support to everyone involved in the wildfire response efforts. Thank you for the long hours, coordination, and care being put into protecting the island.

Moments like this remind us of the vast community that comes together - on all the best and worst of days - to support these one-of-a-kind places.

Thank you for all that you do. ❤️

For updates on the Santa Rosa Island fire, please visit Channel Islands Park Foundation.

05/22/2026

Nature as the classroom 🍃🐾

At our Randall Preserve, students from the Alf Museum of Paleontology at The Webb Schools spent a few action-packed days learning about the carnivores that call California home in a field course titled “Big History of Wolves (and Other Carnivores) in California.”

Students toured the preserve and learned from our resident experts about how conservation biologists monitor carnivore activity in the field. Working with our team, students also set camera traps to capture mountain lion photos, tracked a bobcat using radio telemetry and identified wildlife species from tracks and s**t.

Thanks to the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology and The Webb Schools for visiting and learning with us! We love helping students connect classroom learning with the real-world science and conservation.

📸 Maria Viteri / TNC

05/21/2026

For the first time in three years, California is allowing commercial and increased recreational salmon fishing to resume.

While this is welcome news, it would be a mistake to see this rebound as a return to normal. Turning this moment into a durable recovery will require sustained focus and a commitment to actionable, science-backed solutions.

In an op-ed for The Sacramento Bee, Chuck Bonham, our Executive Director in California, outlines a path forward for our state’s salmon runs – one grounded around a shared vision of healthy rivers and sustainable economies.

Read the full op-ed here: https://nature.ly/4ukSSQF

05/15/2026

Today is Endangered Species Day!

First introduced by the National Wildlife Federation, Endangered Species Day is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of conserving the lands and waters on which all life depends.

In California, we’re working across more than half a million acres of land to ensure that imperiled species have habitat to thrive.

Scroll through to learn more about some of the endangered species we’re helping to protect across California 💚

05/10/2026

Wishing all moms and mother figures a Happy Mother's Day!

Check out some fun footage of animal mothers and their babies from our Randall Preserve, courtesy of Juan Gonzalez and our friends at the Wildlife Health Center, UC Davis 🐾

1. American black bear (Ursus americanus)
2. Mountain lion (Puma concolor)
3. Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus)
4. Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)