California’s Natural Community Conservation Planning Act has fostered the development of regional preserve systems with the aim of maintaining natural ecosystems while balancing growth. In the city and county of San Diego, this preserve system has become known as the Multiple Species Conservation Plan (MSCP) and Multiple Habitat Conservation Plan (MHCP), respectively. Today monitoring is the weakest part of the MSCP; it is presumed that each agency will perform its own monitoring, but there are few funds to pay for it and a lack of personnel with the appropriate training.

The SDTT’s network of Preserve and Land Trust-based volunteers are trained to do wildlife monitoring and have become a valuable resource for MSCP/MHCP monitoring. Although volunteer groups cannot completely meet all monitoring needs, they do provide a cost effective alternative to consultants, increase the likelihood that monitoring will actually be performed in the long term, increase public awareness, and foster an attitude of stewardship for our open spaces.