Endangered Species Alert Program Manual
Southern California Edison (SCE) has accepted the challenge of balancing the need for reliable electric service to our customers with our commitment to protect endangered species in California and their habitats. As part of this effort, SCE in 1989 compiled a comprehensive field guide called the Endangered Species Alert Program manual. The manual was most recently updated in 1999.
The Endangered Species Alert contains descriptions and pictures of every protected plant or animal species in the utility's service territory, and for each species, a natural history, current status on state and federal endangered species lists, a description of activities that degrade its habitat, and a map showing where that species is found.
The manual, and the SCE program it anchors, has garnered wide recognition, including the National Institute for Urban Wildlife's 1989 Outstanding Conservation Award. The program has become an example for other utilities and development companies to follow and is now the California Department of Fish and Game has named it as the standard by which other endangered species protection programs are measured. SCE also received the Desert Tortoise Council's Annual Award in 1991 for working to help the conserve the desert tortoise and its habitat.
Life on the Edge: Covering California's Protected Species
In the 1970s, endangered species legislation sent many people looking for information on the subject. Because little was found, SCE took the initiative and, in collaboration with BioSystems Analysis, Inc., the National Audubon Society, and other environmental organizations, writers, and photographers to create a guide not only to California's 250 threatened and endangered species, but also to the fragile edge of the continent that supports them and their more recently arrived human neighbors.
The result was Life on the Edge, a beautiful 550-page folio book, complete with the best available historic and full color nature photography. Life on the Edge has become the definitive reference book on California's protected species.
