The State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) is an overarching state strategy for conserving California’s fish and wildlife and their habitats. The SWAP provides a blueprint for actions necessary to address the highest priorities for conserving California’s aquatic, marine, and terrestrial resources. Implementation of the SWAP relies on having conservation information be readily accessible and partnerships between CDFW and an array of governments, agencies, organizations, businesses, and the public.
AFWA describes a ‘digital SWAP’ as a SWAP that is created, stored, and/or published in one or more electronic formats, including web-hosted SWAPs, SWAP databases, or SWAP dashboards. Many states are moving to this format to allow SWAP information to be more accessible, interactive, user-friendly, and engaging.
As part of the SWAP 2025 update, CDFW launched the SWAP Hub, California’s ‘digital SWAP’. The SWAP Hub follows a similar framework to the SWAP 2025 PDF while enhancing it with digital functionality. This ensures that conservation partners, land managers, policymakers, and the interested public can easily find and utilize SWAP information and data. The SWAP Hub will aim to improve the display of SWAP data and allow for seamless connection between SWAP and other CDFW tools, including BIOS and VegCAMP.
Along with the new SWAP Hub, there are two new digital tools that provide additional platforms for exploring SWAP data and details. The new SWAP Data Explorer allows users to search and visualize both target habitat and SGCN data, including life history information and range maps. The SWAP Conservation Success Stories, an engaging StoryMap, highlights seven recently completed SWG funded projects that are implementing SWAP strategies.
SWAP 2025 includes critical updates to SWAP 2015 that reflect 10 years of advancement in information and data, technological advances, monitoring, and tribal partnerships on behalf of biodiversity conservation in California.
SWAP 2025 updates include:
SGCN List – The SGCN list includes close to 1,400 species of birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, mammals, and plants.
Tribal engagement – CDFW is committed to engaging in high-value, highly leveraged conservation planning efforts with California Native American tribes. As part of this comprehensive SWAP 2025 update, the Tribal Lands Companion Plan was one of two companion plans updated.
Updated and expanded information on pressures – CDFW focused on bolstering information regarding emerging and expanded pressures since 2015. This included new information on fire suppression and resiliency, renewable energy projects, cannabis cultivation, and emerging invasive species.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)/Web Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Compliance – CDFW is committed to making publicly available information accessible to all Californians. SWAP 2025 was completely revised to be compliant with WCAG 2.2 standards.
To learn more, visit SWAP 2025 Appendix B.
CDFW uses an ecosystem and multi-species approach to conservation in SWAP 2025, originally developed for SWAP 2015. An ecosystem approach to conservation focuses on managing natural resources to ensure that species, populations, and communities of plants and animals, as well as ecosystem processes, are considered together.
An ecosystem approach benefits both game and non-game (harvested and non-harvested) wildlife (including fish) and plants by developing strategies that benefit both ecological services (such as enhanced water quality, soil retention, and resilience to the effects of climate change) and societal values (such as open space, scenic quality, and outdoor recreation opportunities).
To learn more, visit SWAP 2025 Chapter 2 and the SWAP Hub Ecosystem Approach page.
On a broad scale, SWAP 2025 divides California into seven provinces for analysis and conservation planning. The six terrestrial landscape/freshwater aquatic system provinces (Chapters 5.1–5.6) were described by Bailey in 1995 and are used by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The seventh Marine Province (Chapter 5.7) is defined by NOAA’s 3-mile marine limit. Anadromous species migrate across boundaries, so are described separately in Chapter 6. Additionally, there is a separate appendix for Offshore Islands (Appendix G).
To learn more, visit SWAP 2025 Chapter 1 and the SWAP Hub Ecosystem Approach page.
The SWAP does not provide any direct regulatory protection for SGCN. The inclusion of a species on the SGCN list means the species meets one of the criteria for inclusion within SWAP, listed below. Species on the SGCN list are eligible for State Wildlife Grant (SWG) funding; benefits to SGCN should be prioritized in SWG-funded projects.
The criteria for species inclusion can be found in SWAP 2025 (Chapter 2, Appendix C, and Appendix I) and on the SWAP Hub.
While plants and algae are included on the Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) list, plants and algae are not currently eligible for State Wildlife Grant (SWG) funding. Plants and algae are included in the SWAP because they are impacted by SWAP-identified pressures, provide habitat for SGCN, and will benefit from implementation of the SWAP conservation strategies. Should the ability to fund SWG projects for specific plant and/or algae become available in the future, the California SWAP will have already identified the plant and algal SGCN.
To learn more, visit SWAP 2025 (Chapter 2 and Appendix C) and on the SWAP Hub.
Anadromous fish begin life in the freshwater of rivers and streams, migrate to the ocean to grow into adults, and then return to freshwater to spawn. Because the geographic range of anadromous fishes may span multiple provinces, organization by province (used in Chapters 5.1 – 5.7) does not adequately address conservation needs of anadromous fish. Instead, Chapter 6 covers conservation strategies for anadromous fish that account for their movement across the landscape. Chapter 6 incorporates both the range of habitats and the scale of movement during migratory life cycles to describe threats and strategies for anadromous species conservation.
To learn more, visit SWAP 2025 Chapter 6 and on the SWAP Hub.
Many of the SWAP conservation strategies include activities that are beyond CDFW’s jurisdiction. In 2015, CDFW worked with partners to create the SWAP “companion plans” to provide more detailed, sector-specific collaborative approaches beyond the recommendations presented in the SWAP.
The companion plans explore solutions to the complexities of collaborative conservation actions to implement SWAP 2025. The companion plans also fulfil Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies’ (AFWA) emphasis on incorporating more partner engagement as a best practice in wildlife conservation planning.
Two of these companion plans were updated in 2025: the Tribal Lands Companion Plan and the Water Companion Plan. Due to staff capacity and our review timeline, these were the only companion plans that were reviewed and updated. Most of the content remained the same for these two plans, but CDFW ensured the information was still accurate.
To learn more, find all the companion plans on the SWAP Hub.
California SWAP is intended to serve as the blueprint for proactively conserving fish and wildlife to prevent species from becoming extinct. Conservation partners can use SWAP 2025 as a reference to identify priority species and habitats for conservation and to develop projects to implement the conservation actions in their region. Partners can also consider collaborating with CDFW on federal State Wildlife Grants (SWG) by contacting CDFW’s SWG Program. Partners are encouraged to work with CDFW to identify shared priorities and projects that implement SWAP goals, strategies, and actions that benefit Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) and SWAP conservation targets.
SWAP 2025 includes Province, Ecoregions, HUCS, Land Ownership by Province, and Plant Communities, along with Anadromous Species Distribution Maps. These maps can be located through the SWAP Chapters 2026 Update and on the SWAP Hub.
Access the SWAP 2025 PDFs on the SWAP Hub. Annually, updates will be summarized in the SWAP Annual Blog post around July. Users are encouraged to check for updated information then.
California State Wildlife Action Plan. 2025. California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Sacramento, California.