This report combines the results of two tasks funded under a local assistance grant from the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) for Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP) wildlife corridor monitoring: (1) the second consecutive year of monitoring for locations in the cities of Poway and San Diego, surveyed by San Diego State University (SDSU) graduate students (contract Task D) and (2) the first year of monitoring for new transect locations established by the Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) and San Diego Tracking Team (SDTT) (contract Task A). CBI directed both studies. Transects at some of the Poway-San Diego monitoring stations established in 2000 (CBI 2002b) were not re-surveyed, while monitoring protocols were altered slightly based on recommendations from CBI (2002b). Specifically, in addition to the data collected at baited track stations, the presence or absence of wildlife, as evidenced by all types of sign, was recorded along the entire length of the transect to compare the methods. These sign surveys along the track station transects are thus similar to surveys conducted by the SDTT.
There is increasing interest in the effects of urbanization on natural systems. Among the variety of observed effects, urbanization has long been recognized as affecting hydrological characteristics of streams and rivers. Given the close coupling of stream hydrologic characteristics and riparian plant species ecology, we examined the effects of watershed urbanization on riparian vegetation communities via alterations in the hydrologic regime of a coastal southern California riparian system. These coastal river systems in southern California have received little attention in the literature.
It has been commonly reported that gray wolves (Canis lupus) as well as other predators like panthers (Felis concolor) and lynx (Lynx canadensis) once lived throughout the northeastern U.S. including what is today the Adirondack Park. Extirpation of these summit predators closely followed European settlement (see Schneider 1997). As a result of an active bounty system, the last wolf was believed to have been killed in Upstate New York during the mid 1890s.
In recent years, gray wolf recovery (both natural and human-directed) has been successful in a number of locations throughout North America — most successfully in the Upper Great Lakes region of the U.S. (see Fuller 1995). A second population of gray wolves in the eastern U.S. outside the Minnesota population has been expressed as a goal for gray wolf recovery in the U.S. by federal agencies (see U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1992), and the Northeast has been identified as a potential region to support a viable population of wolves. In addition to northern sections of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, the AP has been identified as potentially supportive of gray wolves (see Mladenoff and Sickley 1998).
This study was by the Adirondack Park Citizens Action Committee organized by Defenders of Wildlife to examine the issue of gray wolf recovery in the Adirondack Park (from now on referred to as simply AP). By combining what has been learned about wolf biology from numerous field studies with geographic information systems (GIS), we addressed the issue of gray wolf reintroduction feasibility in the AP. In addition to developing wolf habitat suitability and connectivity models, we examined the important genetics questions pertinent to wolves in the AP.
The mission of the Volcan Mountain Preserve Foundation (VMPF) is conservation and stewardship of the majestic 15-mile long Volcan Mountains complex, situated within the Peninsular Ranges of Southern California (Figure 1). The emphasis of VMPF is conserving natural habitats and the species they support, maintaining wilderness values and connections to adjacent open space, preserving archaeological sites, and encouraging natural history-based research and education.
Land conservation in the Volcan Mountains began in 1989; since that time, over 9,000 acres of the former Rutherford Ranch on Volcan Mountain have been acquired by public agencies and non-governmental organizations as protected open space, complemented by conservation of tens of thousands of acres of surrounding lands (Figure 2). However, approximately 1,800 acres of Rutherford Ranch in the heart of the range, between these conserved lands and the Santa Ysabel Indian Reservation on the western flank of the mountain, lie unprotected and are currently threatened with development of estate lots.
VMPF requested that The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) prepare a brief case statement that would provide the basis from which it can develop a focused conservation strategic plan. This case statement describes the landscape that is the inspiration for the VMPF, with a focus on the privately held portions of Rutherford Ranch, by identifying regional conservation values and potential partners for conservation of these values within the context of existing opportunities.
The Sierra Nevada, John Muir’s Range of Light, is a state and national treasure, valued for its scenic beauty, rich biodiversity, ancient forests, unparalleled recreational opportunities, and commercial timber and water resources. The Sierra Nevada supports over 60% of California’s vertebrate species and over half of its plant species. For its size, it is the most floristically diverse area in North America. The Sierra supports 50 million recreational visitor days each year, and its watersheds deliver 65% of the water supply for California residents.
National interest in roadless area conservation dates back to the 1970s when the Forest Service was directed by Congress to inventory roadless areas in response to the public’s growing desire to protect wild landscapes primarily through wilderness designations. In 2001, President Clinton enacted the Roadless Conservation Rule to protect 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas on Forest Service lands, including nearly 2 million acres in Oregon. However, on May 13, 2005 the Bush administration issued a revised rule that established a process for governors to propose locally supported regulations for conserving roadless area within their states. While some states, including Oregon, have legally challenged this rule change, State governments will continue to play a vital role in providing recommendations to the Forest Service concerning the protection of federal roadless areas. This report provides new information on the importance of roadless areas in Oregon that places these areas among the most ecologically valued in the nation, thereby providing a scientific foundation for protecting all of Oregon’s roadless lands regardless of the method to achieve this outcome.
The Peninsular Ranges extend 1,500 km (900 mi) from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, forming a granitic spine near the western edge of the North American continent. They comprise an intact and rugged wilderness area connecting two countries and some of the richest montane and desert ecosystems in the world that support wideranging, iconic species, including mountain lion, California condor, and bighorn sheep. Connectivity at this continental scale is critical to maintaining ecosystem processes, biodiversity, wildlife movement, and habitat values of existing conservation investments in both countries.
This study was undertaken as part of a larger effort to conserve the integrity of this landscape linkage, in the face of increasing sprawl of development inland from the coast, escalating border security infrastructure, and other competing uses for the land. It focuses on the border region of California and Baja California, where the long-term connectivity between federally endangered bighorn sheep in Peninsular Ranges of Southern California and bighorn sheep in Baja California is threatened. The current level of connectivity and the possibilities for maintaining this connectivity in the future are not well understood. This preliminary study assesses the distribution and habitats of bighorn sheep in the Sierra Juárez in Baja California, just south of the international border, the potential threats to bighorn sheep there, and the threats to this landscape linkage, so as to inform conservation and management strategies for linking protected parklands in both countries.
The Global 200 Strategy amitiously seeks to conserve the variety of species, ecosystems, and ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain life on earth. Toward this end, the World Wildlife Fund hs identified over 200 ecoregions (Global 200) recognized for their high conservation priority, and calls for concentrated conservation planning in these regions. Not surprisingly, of the wide array of ecosystem types included in the Global 200, forest ecosystems constitute the majority. In fact, 87 of the 136 terrestrial ecoregions fall into one of five Major Habitat Types – Tropical and Subtropical Moist Brodleaf Forests, Tropical Dry Forests, Tropical and Sustropical Conifer Forests, Temperate Conifer and Broadleaf Forests, and Boreal Forests and Taiga.
The purpose of this report is threefold: (1) discuss the concept of forest restoration from a conservation biology perspective; (2) outline the ecological characteristics, technical constraints, socio-political and economic influences, and overall restoration principles relevant to the Global 200 major habitat types and associated realms; and (3) place forest restoration within the larger context of worldwide forest conservation.
The critically endangered Pacific pocket mouse (Perognathus longimembris pacificus), feared extinct for over 20 years, was “rediscovered” in 1993 and is now documented at four sites in Orange and San Diego Counties, California. Only one of these sites is considered large enough to be potentially self-sustaining without active intervention. In 1998, I gathered a team of biologists to initiate several research tasks in support of recovery planning for the species. The PPM Studies Team quickly determined that species recovery would require active translocations or reintroductions to establish new populations, but that we knew too little about the biology of P. l. pacificus and the availability of translocation receiver sites to design such a program. Recovery research from 1998 to 2000 therefore focused on (1) a systematic search for potential translocation receiver sites; (2) laboratory and field studies on non-listed, surrogate subspecies (P. l. longimembris and P. l. bangsi) to gain biological insights and perfect study methods; (3) studies on the historic and extant genetic diversity of P. l. pacificus; and (4) experimental habitat manipulations to increase P. l. pacificus populations. Using existing geographic information system (GIS) data, we identified sites throughout the historic range that might have appropriate soils and vegetation to support translocated P. l. pacificus. Reconnaissance surveys of habitat value were completed in all large areas of potential habitat identified by the model. Those sites having the highest habitat potential are being studied with more detailed and quantitative field analyses. The surrogate studies helped us design individual marking and monitoring methods and will be used to test translocation methods before applying them to P. l. pacificus. Genetic results suggest that P. l. pacificus populations were naturally fairly isolated from one another prior to modern development, that genetic diversity will continue to erode in the small populations that remain, and that individuals from extant populations could probably be mixed if maximizing genetic diversity in any newly established populations is an important recovery goal. Local populations should be increased in situ before they can supply donor animals for translocations. Experimental habitat management (shrub thinning) at one occupied site yielded a short-term, positive, behavioral response of mice to thinned habitat plots. However, the overall population seems to be in decline, and long-term population responses to habitat manipulations are not yet evident. The approach of the PPM Study Team has been to proceed cautiously and scientifically to obtain critical information and to design a translocation program, but we are prepared to recommend swift action to prevent extinction despite “insufficient data.” At this point, political and economic obstacles to species recovery seem larger than obstacles presented by scientific uncertainty.
Spencer, W.D. 2005. Recovery research for the endangered Pacific pocket mouse: An overview of collaborative studies. In B.E. Kus and J.L. Beyers, technical coordinators. Planning for Biodiversity: Bringing Research and Management Together: Proceedings of a Symposium for the South Coast Ecoregion. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-195. Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Albany, CA: 274pp.
Tejon Ranch is one of California’s most precious natural areas—a haven for rare and endangered species, a sanctuary for the soul of ancient California, a treasure that, through the years, has not escaped the wonderment of ranchers, hunters, wildlife enthusiasts, and scientists. This is a place through which thousands of people drive daily, but few have really seen; where one can visualize the dramatic geologic processes that shaped California’s landscape and influenced the evolutionary history of California’s diverse flora and fauna. In this place, California condors still fly, centuries-old oaks still flourish, and streams are born. Perhaps most remarkably, virtues of this place have not yet been compromised by the urban sprawl that is rapidly devouring so much of California’s natural landscape.
Tejon Ranch, 270,000 acres of southern Kern and northern Los Angeles counties, is the largest, contiguous, privately owned property in California. Owners of the Ranch are currently planning large-scale residential and industrial developments in what is now a largely undeveloped and natural landscape. Concerned that these development plans might severely compromise the Ranch’s ecological integrity before the public has had an opportunity to understand its significance, Environment Now and a coalition of environmental groups commissioned the Conservation Biology Institute to assess the regional and statewide value of Tejon Ranch for conservation of biological diversity. Through the course of this assessment, we have come to recognize what others have already suggested—that Tejon Ranch is truly one of California’s most priceless natural areas, unparalleled in its diversity of natural resources and its importance to conservation, and meeting all of the State’s criteria for a priority conservation target.
This report shares our synthesis of publicly available information—documenting the biogeographic importance of the Tejon Ranch region, revealing the values of the region’s natural resources, and identifying factors that threaten these values. This report does not advocate any specific open space design, but rather it illuminates the extraordinary values and regionally under-protected resources of the Ranch so that the public and decision-makers are fully aware of their importance in future land planning decisions. We hope that this information will be used as a basis for comprehensive, rather than piecemeal, land use planning of Tejon Ranch.