The California Department of Fish and Wildlife updated its State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) in October 2025 to enable California to remain eligible for federal State Wildlife Grant funds from the USFWS. A key component of SWAP is to identify California’s ‘Species of Greatest Conservation Need’ (SGCN) and their habitats, along with threats and conservation actions for priority conservation targets. Identification of the SGCN list is foundational to the SWAP and is based on scientific criteria that includes, and extends beyond, federal and state listing status. In 2025, CDFW scientists revisited the SGCN criteria and expanded the SGCN list by over 250 wildlife and plant species to result in a total of 1,439 SGCN. The SWAP 2025 Team will present the SGCN criteria and summarize the resultant SGCN list to help inform projects that aim to conserve species on, and beyond, state- and federally- listed species lists.

Helen has been with California Department of Fish and Wildlife for six years. As a State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) Coordinator, she engaged with scientists statewide for the 2025 SWAP revision and is collaborating with the CDFW Team to develop a SWAP website for California.  Helen has also worked in CDFW’s Watershed Restoration Grants Branch and Lake and Streambed Alteration Program. Helen did research on invasive plant ecology during her PhD. With deep local roots, Helen has studied, worked, and recreated in Northern California intermittently over thirty years.