New building or large renovation projects initiated by the state also evaluate the merits of clean on-site power generation such as solar panels and fuel cells. The state is advocating the procurement of goods and services that have a reduced impact on human health, called Environmentally Preferable Purchasing in simple terms, it means ‘buying green’. Sustainability or green building is the practice of designing, constructing, operating, maintaining, and removing buildings in ways that conserve natural resources and reduce their impact on climate change California is ensuring so. California is working to reduce energy and resource consumption in state buildings, while lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and creating healthier environments in which to work, live and learn. California has a total of 290, 821 acres of National Wildlife Refuges.Ĭalifornia is leading by example on energy efficiency and conservation, sustainability, green building, and green purchasing practices throughout state government. The endangered animals include the mountain beaver, kit fox, Pacific pocket mouse, kangaroo rat, sage sparrow, garter snake, five species of salamander, eleven types of butterflies, and more. Joint efforts by state and federal wildlife agencies have established an ambitious recovery program to revitalize the dwindling population of the native animals and birds. The Resources Agency of California’s Department of Fish and Game is especially active in listing and providing protection for rare, threatened and endangered fauna.

The kingfisher, chickadee, towhee, and hummingbird represent the bird life of this region. It includes the black-tailed deer, black bear, gray fox, elk, garter snakes, rattlesnakes. Valley oak, small shrubs, stunted trees, herbaceous plants, mint, viola, the golden poppy also flourish in this zone. Plant life in the arid climate features a diversity of native cactus, the Joshua tree, the desert poppy, and a variety of asters. The state’s six life zones are: the desert, foothill regions and some coastal lands, coastal areas and moist northeastern counties, and the Canadian, Hudsonian, and Arctic zones, comprising California’s highest elevations. In 1849, Californians sought statehood and, after a heated debate in the US Congress, California finally entered the Union as a free, nonslavery state, in the year 1850.Ĭalifornia embraces the greatest diversity of climate and terrain. In the same year, there was a gold rush in the territory, and with it came a huge increase in population and a pressing need for a civil government. On July 7th, 1848, California became part of the United States. Political events in the territory moved swiftly in the next few years. The first US overland trip was made in 1826, but US settlement did not become significant until the 1840s. Colonization of California remained largely Mexican until the 1840s.

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