This conservation plan is the coming together and the coalition of a lot of issues that had the opportunity to germinate into what it is today, partly a Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan. A part of it is just a general conservation plan of many planning elements that the County has been involved in over a number of years.

With the passage of the Federal Endangered Species Act in 1973, the stage was set for a confrontation between urban development and the provisions of Federal Law. Language was amended to the Act that established standards that a plan would have to meet before the Fish and Wildlife Service could approve it and issue a permit for the take of a listed species. In those jurisdictions that have adopted this approach, conservation of natural resources is no longer an afterthought but a major element that has to be considered during the regular land use permitting process.