The Stallcup Preserve – San Diego County, California

The Stallcup Preserve (formerly known as the Montecito Ranch Preserve), dedicated to Jerre Ann Stallcup, a visionary, leader, and pioneer in San Diego County Conservation is official!  The Preserve is owned by the Endangered Habitats Conservancy and will be managed in perpetuity.  Jerre retired from CBI in 2018 after 16 years of dedicated service to advance conservation in the United States, Mexico, and Europe and more specifically in San Diego County and northern Baja California, Mexico.  The Stallcup Preserve is a 955-acre preserve located in Ramona, California and is the northern extent of the Ramona Grasslands County Preserve.  The Stallcup Preserve has been conserved for the benefit of species including the federally threatened coastal California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica), federally endangered San Diego fairy shrimp (Branchinecta sandiegoensis), and federally endangered Stephens’ kangaroo rat (Dipodomys stephensi) and natural habitats including grassland, oak woodland, chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and vernal pools.  CBI is proud to have been associated with Jerre for 16 years. We congratulate Jerre for this very special honor in having a preserve named after her. May the Stallcup Preserve continue to flourish as a sanctuary for plants and animals. 

Wildlife conservation lost a leader on August 19, 2022, when Dr. David Graber died suddenly at his home in Three Rivers, California, following a long battle with heart disease. David was a brilliant and dedicated wildlife biologist, innovator, and all-round thought leader at the National Park Service, where he rose to become Chief Scientist for the Western-Pacific Region, before retiring in 2014.

I first met David in the 1970s, when we were graduate students at UC-Berkeley — he working on the bears of Yosemite and me on martens in the Sierra Nevada. I became an immediate fan of David’s freethinking brilliance, amazing vocabulary, excellent writing and speaking skills, and all-round warmth and generosity of spirit. He had an infectious, twinkly smile, a deep laugh, and a sharp and ready wit. In more recent decades, our interactions were mostly at work meetings and conferences, at which I took full advantage whenever possible to be Dave’s dinner partner, so I could hear his ideas and enjoy his witty observations on anything and everything.

Never afraid to pose difficult questions or speak truth to power, David was highly influential in steering the Twentieth Century Park Service toward more effective, science-based management and monitoring practices. Dave was one of the principal advocates and architects of the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program, and along with Jan van Wagtendonk, he initiated the first systematic Natural Resources Inventory for Sierra Nevada parks. In his position as Chief Scientist, David provided the Park Service with guidance and analysis on a broad range of conservation science and policy issues; he served on endangered species recovery teams for the Channel Island fox, Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, and northern spotted owl; and to my delight, he represented the Park Service on the Sierra Nevada Fisher Working Group until he retired.

Among his many lifetime achievements, David will always be remembered as the inventor of the bear-proof food storage box, now ubiquitous in campgrounds across the country. His PhD study on Yosemite’s bears changed the thinking about bear management, and consequently how bears and humans interact on federal lands. This substantially reduced incidents of bears ravaging tents and autos, mauling humans, and being shot for it.

But David was more than a conservation scientist. He had an insatiable curiosity and vast knowledge of seemingly everything, from politics and history to literature and the culinary arts. I sometimes sensed that folks were intimidated by David’s scope of knowledge and almost regal bearing when making a point or asking a difficult question. But those of us who knew him well understood that he was just smarter, more knowledgeable, and more passionate about resource conservation than most.

He was also a warm and compassionate friend and family man. I am happy that one of David’s daughters, Sarah Campe with the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, is continuing her father’s pursuit of scientifically sound conservation in the Sierra Nevada, and even happier that CBI gets to work with her on that. Speaking about her father recently, I was deeply honored when Sarah told me that “it tickled him to no end that we worked together.”

Rest in peace, Dave Bear, confident that you made the world better.

PBS Terra, the home of science and nature shows from PBS Digital Studios, has released an informative 10-minute video called:
Is THIS the Real Reason More Homes Are Burning in Wildfires?

The video delves into the science about where destructive wildfires most often start and where houses burn, dispelling the long-held myth that the state’s forested lands are the main culprit.

CBI’s Senior Research Ecologist Dr. Alexandra Syphard explains what her research reveals about the patterns of structure loss in California. See the publication below to learn more.

CBI botanists have completed most of the nonnative Algerian sea lavender (Limonium ramosissimum) and European sea lavender (Limonium duriusculum) surveys in the San Diego Bay.

CBI and project partners including the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Port of San Diego, United States Department of the Navy, and the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuges prioritized survey locations in San Diego Bay using existing sea lavender spatial data, negative survey data, and habitat suitability mapping.

In early June 2022, CBI held a training session to identify the various Limonium species in the San Diego Bay area and instructed participants in surveying, mapping, and recommending treatment methods for newly detected nonnative sea lavender populations. CBI botanists spent a week surveying the San Diego Bay by foot and kayak to locate new sea lavender populations.

The survey crews detected and mapped many new nonnative sea lavender populations and several new populations of the endangered salt marsh bird’s beak (Chloropyron maritimum ssp. maritimum, shown in the photo above).

Surveys will continue in late summer 2022, followed by implementation of best management practices to control and/or eradicate nonnative sea lavender populations in the San Diego Bay.

Read more about the project here: San Diego Bay Nonnative Sea Lavender Mapping and Control Project

Marine offshore wind energy development presents an opportunity to help California achieve its 100% renewable energy goals. As part of our ongoing work with the Ocean Protection Council (OPC), the California Energy Commission (CEC), and other agencies, CBI recently launched its latest product called the California Offshore Wind Energy Modeling Platform. Powered by CBI’s EEMS software, this platform provides an interface where stakeholders and decision-makers can interact with four spatially-explicit models and their data sources to help inform offshore wind energy decision-making in federal waters off the California coast. The models on the online platform allow for interactive exploration of the analysis and synthesize key data to the following themes: (1) Wind Energy Potential, (2) Deployment Feasibility, (3) Ocean Use, and (4) Environmental.

CBI is collaborating with the Farm Service Agency within U.S. Department of Agriculture to more accurately map forest biometrics for tree-focused Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands in Mississippi. These private lands provide important ecological benefits such as purifying water, reducing downstream flooding, providing valuable wildlife habitat, and sequestering carbon. CBI initially developed predictive maps of tree height, tree density, biomass, basal area, and forest type using Random Forest machine learning models. In the latest version of the modeling, CBI researchers implemented new methods for processing Sentinel-1 imagery on the cloud computing platform Google Earth Engine (GEE); updated model code; and incorporated preliminary data products derived from NASA’s spaceborne LiDAR mission – the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI).  The overall accuracy of the forest characteristics modeled for the entire state ranged from 57% to 91% with biomass showing the greatest improvement.

Read more in the related Technical Report:
Mississippi CRP Forest Remote Sensing with Preliminary Global Ecosystem and Dynamics (GEDI) Mission Derived Data Products

The Riverside County Habitat Conservation Agency (RCHCA) – partners of CBI in the Rangewide Management & Monitoring Plan for the Stephens’ kangaroo rat – is proud to announce that 2021 commemorates their 25th year. At this monumental junction, they would like to recognize the original architects of the RCHCA, as they are true pioneers who built a solid foundation of conservation excellence, establishing this agency as a leader in the conservation field.

The RCHCA’s achievements in species recovery include making the Stephens’ Kangaroo Rat a candidate for Downlisting and several other milestones, such as the region’s first-ever public access plan on conserved lands, coordination of the SKR Rangewide Management and Monitoring Plan, implementation of adaptive management, and our support of community engagement through volunteerism and education outreach.

Their ambitious environmental efforts provide a pathway to balance wildlife conservation, protection of threatened and endangered species and the ecosystem, all while streamlining processes to support economic development within our county. Please join us in recognizing May, 2021 as Conservation Appreciation Month as we celebrate RCHCA’s 25th Anniversary.

CBI recently launched a short Data Basin survey, and a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who took the time to participate.  The survey offered a BONUS question with cash prize awards for first ($200), second ($100), and third place ($50) for two separate categories: U.S.-focused and international data. We asked Data Basin members to share how they use the platform in their work and to point to examples (i.e., links). The Data Basin team reviewed all the entries and we’re excited to announce the winners for National and International data categories. Congratulations, all!

Winners for U.S.-focused data and their work in Data Basin, in their own words:

• 1st Prize – Jon Pope: Before I encountered Data Basin, I was studying the vegetation and wildlife on my small woodland acreage in the Willamette Valley. As part of that research I discovered a collection of data sets developed by Portland State University which extrapolate the composition of vegetation that would have been found in any part of the valley in 1850. I was very excited when I realized that my woodland had kept most of its original structure since 1850. Since this information is invaluable for anyone attempting habitat restoration in the valley, I decided to upload these data sets to Data Basin, as most people would not have the software or skills needed to utilize the data. It was necessary to modernize the terminology as vegetative categories described in 19th century surveys, such as ‘Scrubland”, aren’t used today. The resulting DB Data Sets, “Willamette Valley Presettlement Vegetation 1850” allow someone to see what type of vegetation was likely to be found at any given address in the valley. A year later I was asked to do a school lesson sequence about local habitats. I showed 4th graders in a Salem’s Yoshikai Elementary how to use Data Basin’s Explore function with my 1850 map, enabling them to discover what habitat existed at their home address before development. Based on what I’ve learned about the decline of lowland forest in the Valley using Data Basin, I have entered the property into a Conservation Easement to preserve it into the future.
• 2nd Prize – Michelle Gostic: As a coastal engineer, I’ve used Data Basin data on a number of projects. Specifically, I’ve used the CA Offshore Wind Energy Gateway to access geospatial data for offshore wind project feasibility studies. One example is the California North Coast Offshore Wind Study, where we accessed some of the geospatial data for a desktop subsea transmission cable routing study. http://schatzcenter.org/publications/
• 3rd Prize – Michael Ryan: I used Data Basin to help track the effects of the phenomenon of the atmospheric river rainfall that has been deluging East San Diego County. Specifically the Harbison Canyon, Alpine, Flinn Springs, El Cajon, Chocolate Summit, Crest, Lakeside. Spring Valley, Rancho San DIego, Del Sol and Santee areas. Living in Alpine, attending Cuyamaca College’s Center for Water Studies program and having a Grade II wastewater plant operator license from California, I took an interest in the convoluted San Diego watersheds and the convoluted water system of San Diego. I started trying to trace the origin of Flinn Spring, one of the only year round flowing waterways in San Diego county. and ended up using the maps in Data Basin to chart local vegetation, topography and how the atmospheric river phenomenon fuels the vegetation for intense growth, and when followed by drought produces intense fires. These areas are prone to fire. I also decided to trace the water ways that are no longer free flowing, but rather are huge concrete channels that usher all the precious runoff to the Pacific Ocean instead of capturing a rare and precious resource. That is why San Diego now has to treat wastewater to drinking water. Fires are devastating to water supplies. Climate change makes water the most precious commodity in the world. 

Winners for internationally-focused data and their work in Data Basin, in their own words:

• 1st Prize – Juan Carlos Bravo: I have created a repository of layers and maps for collective annalyisis of the Río Mayo Basin between stakeholders, among the other NGO’s and the Mexican parks agency CONANP. https://databasin.org/groups/915c62591d1346b19b72bcf0d8fd21e9
• 2nd Prize – Helena Palma: I’m working on a linguistics and ethnomusicology research project on non-austronesian languages of Indonesia, West Papua, and on the languages of the Congo Basin region. Data Basin has been extremely helpful for my research. Unfortunately, finding base maps or datasets (administrative division) for West Papua is not easy.
• 3rd Prize – Gaurav Tripathi: I am a PhD candidate in India and working with NASA and ISRO on NISAR mission. I am working on mitigation and management of flood disaster in one the major recurrent basin in south Asia. Data Basin helped me get the roadmap and helped me in every step to know the ground base reality, what actually happens during the disaster and how to cope with this, with the help of several published maps and case studies published by Data Basin community. It also gives us a better environment to communicate to other professionals which sometimes give you a better and accurate advice to handle critical situations. Here workspace gives us feel to do the real time analysis with the help of tailor made video tutorials. The tools like Swiper, importing net cdf data, commenting etc helped in many ways. Here we got to know about some high-resolution climate dataset which we have used further in our case studies. In my case i have used flood frequency map and CHIRP dataset which made my study more representative and i have acknowledged Data Basin as well.