Where: California

What's at stake: Refuge for the greatest concentration of endangered species in California

Threatened by: Oil and gas development

Animals include: San Joaquin kit fox, California condor, giant kangaroo rat, sandhill cranes, pronghorn antelope, Tule elk

• The Carrizo Plain was the first area in California to host reintroduced pronghorn antelope and Tule elk; these native grazers had been hunted to extinction by the late 1800s.
• The plain is now the largest remaining contiguous habitat for pronghorns as well as many other native California species.
• Birds that are vanishing from the rest of San Joaquin Valley, including golden eagles, northern harriers, prairie falcons and burrowing owls, find refuge at Carrizo.
• More than half the plant and animal life on the Carrizo Plain is hidden below ground.
• Humans have traded, traversed, or lived on the Carrizo Plain since roughly 11,000-9,000 BCE.
• Chumash and Yokut tribes frequented the area in prehistoric times. The Chumash created Painted Rock, a 55 foot rock formation which rises majestically from the grassland and is adorned with some of the most spectacular rock art in North America.