WERC Highlights -- March 2006

USGS to Participate at BAER Team Meeting: USGS scientists Matt Brooks and John Matchett of the Western Ecological Research Center have been invited to present a summary of Mojave Desert fire issues for the National Interagency Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team’s annual pre-season meeting to be held April 9-14, 2006, in Las Vegas. Brooks will discuss the “Mojave Desert Fire History: Fuels, Fire Behavior, and Fire Regimes” and “Fire Effects and Postfire Mitigation,” and Matchett will review the “Summer 2005 Fire Season.” (Matt Brooks, Henderson, NV, 702-564-4615, matt_brooks@usgs.gov; John Matchett, Henderson, NV, 702-564-4617, jmatchett@usgs.gov)

LIDAR Workshop: USGS scientist Mary Ann Madej of the Western Ecological Research Center is working with the Redwood Community Action Agency to organize a workshop on LIDAR for agencies, academia, consultants and the general public. Several speakers will address how LIDAR can be a tool for analyzing environmental problems. The workshop will be held at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, on April 11, 2006. (Mary Ann Madej, Arcata, CA, 707-825-5148, mary_ann_madej@usgs.gov)

Ecology of Seabirds of the Southern California Current: USGS scientist Josh Adams of the Western Ecological Research Center will be the guest speaker for the April “From Shore to Sea” lecture sponsored by Channel Islands National Park and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Adams will focus on the ecology of local seabirds, many of which find critical breeding habitat in the park and marine sanctuary. Monitoring the local distributions of seabirds and their feeding patterns can provide unique information about their prey, and these data can also indicate changes in the marine ecosystem. Adams will speak on April 11, 2006, in Santa Barbara, CA, and on April 12 in Ventura, CA. (Josh Adams, Moss Landing, CA, 831-771-4138, josh_adams@usgs.gov)

Sediment Load Trends in Northern California Rivers: USGS scientist Mary Ann Madej of the Western Ecological Research Center will give a presentation at the Joint Eighth Federal Interagency Sedimentation Conference, to be held April 2-6, 2206, in Reno, NV. Madej will discuss trends detected in a 30-year record of sediment transport in northern California rivers, and how these trends relate to the EPA's threshold of concern in their "Total Maximum Daily Load" sediment allocations. Sediment loads decreased from the 1970’s to the mid-1990’s, but are now increasing again. For more: http://www.jfic.org/confInfo.php. (Mary Ann Madej, Arcata, CA, 707-825-5148, mary_ann_madej@usgs.gov)

Exotic Deer in Park: USGS scientist Gary Fellers of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times for a March 31, 2006, story that discusses a park service draft plan to remove nonnative axis and fallow deer in Point Reyes National Seashore: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deer31mar31,0,6521334.story?coll=la-home-headlines. Fellers has been calculating the impact of fallow deer in the park, based on diet overlap with native black-tailed deer and extent of habitat damage caused by leks that the males use during the fall rut. (Gary Fellers, Point Reyes, CA, (Gary Fellers, Point Reyes, CA, 415-464-5185, gary_fellers@usgs.gov)

Fire: On March 31, 2006, USGS scientist Jon Keeley of the Western Ecological Research Center will be interviewed by KWGS radio, an NPR affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during his visit to Tulsa University to give a seminar on “Fire as an Ecosystem Process: Past, Present and Future.” (Jon Keeley, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3170, jon_keeley@usgs.gov)

Sooty Shearwaters: USGS scientist Josh Adams of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed and provided photographs for the March 30–April 5 cover story in the Santa Cruz (CA) County weekly magazine Good Times, which detailed the life history, biology and cultural significance of sooty shearwaters, and some of Adams' recent research involving the use of satellite telemetry to track the migration of these pelagic seabirds: http://www.gtweekly.com/cover/story.2006-03-29.6506709591. (Josh Adams, Moss Landing, CA, 831-771-4138, josh_adams@usgs.gov)

Linking Mountain Science along the American Cordillera: USGS scientists Nate Stephenson (Western Ecological Research Center) and Dan Fagre (Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center) are invited speakers at the “Climate Change: Organizing the Science for the American Cordillera” or CONCORD conference, to be held April 4-6, 2006, in Mendoza, Argentina. The conference focuses on climatic change research along the American Cordillera, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Both will speak on ecological effects of climatic variability and change in mountains of the western U.S. Additionally, both are invited participants in a post-conference workshop aimed at coordinating research efforts along the American Cordillera. For more: http://www.ires.ubc.ca/projects/concord/English/home.htm. (Nate Stephenson, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3176, nstephenson@usgs.gov; Dan Fagre, West Glacier, MT, 406-888-7922, dan_fagre@usgs.gov)

Fire as an Ecosystem Process: USGS scientist Jon Keeley of the Western Ecological Research Center will give two university seminars this spring, on March 31 at Tulsa University and April 4 at Texas A& M on “Fire as an Ecosystem Process: Past, Present and Future.” Keeley will discuss fire as a major driver of ecosystems distribution and determinant of community structure dating from over 100 million years ago, which with climatic seasonality has become a predictable feature in many ecosystems of the world. Using California as a model of important attributes of fire-prone ecosystems, he will discuss challenges in making fire predictions and the need for regionalization of models where fire regimes are driven more by extreme weather events than by climatic seasonality that produces dry fuels. (Jon Keeley, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3170, jon_keeley@usgs.gov)

MSCP Rare Plant Monitoring Workshops: In public workshops to be held on March 28 and 29, 2006, in San Diego, USGS plant ecologist Kathryn McEachern of the Western Ecological Research Center will discuss the recommendations from a review of the rare plant monitoring monitoring component of the San Diego South County Multiple Species Conservation Plan. McEachern has been working over the past year with three independent science advisors to review the rare plant monitoring program. For more information: http://www.sandiego.gov/planning/mscp/rareplantmonitor.shtml. (Kathryn McEachern, Ventura, CA, 805-658-5753, kathryn_mceachern@usgs.gov)

New Series on Animal Planet Features National Parks: USGS scientist Gary Fellers of the Western Ecological Research Center will appear in the June 15, 2006, episode of “Animal Planet,” which will showcase Point Reyes National Seashore. Point Reyes is one of 10 national parks featured in a new series, which began airing March 16, that revolves around a real family that has been selected to spend a week “behind the scenes” at a park. For the Point Reyes episode, Fellers was filmed with an urban family of four’s mom and son, who got to look at bats emerging from a day roost and then at a bat up close that Fellers caught at a night roost. On the next night, the two kids got to help Fellers catch a red-legged frog, put on a radio transmitter, and then release the frog again at a pond. (Gary Fellers, Point Reyes, CA, 415-464-5185, gary_fellers@usgs.gov)

Night Lights: USGS scientist Robert N. Fisher of the Western Ecological Research Center discussed how heightened light levels from urban night lights may have contributed to the disappearance of some populations of two nocturnal snakes in southern California, in the cover story on night lights in the March 18, 2006, issue of Science News: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060318/bob10.asp (Robert N. Fisher, San Diego, CA, 619-225-6422, rfisher@usgs.gov)

WERC Involved in Planning for Avian Influenza: Center Director Steve Schwarzbach and Scientists John Takekawa, Joe Fleskes and Mike Casazza of the Western Ecological Research Center in California are working with state and federal partner agencies to prepare for the potential detection and response to an Avian Influenza outbreak in migratory waterbirds in the western U.S. In February, Schwarzbach co-organized a meeting of 35 participants with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Sacramento, CA. The purpose was to begin strategizing among DOI agencies as well as state and university officials for coordination of research and resources in the event of an outbreak of this disease in California. On March 8-9, Casazza attended the Pacific Flyway Study Committee meetings in Newport, OR and participated in the process of preparing a surveillance plan for the Pacific Flyway for 2006. The plan is a step-down of the National Plan that was developed earlier this year. Casazza offered to share USGS data on migratory bird movements in California with USDA. On March 14, Schwarzbach and Fleskes participated in a State of California-led group (Foreign Animal Disease Working Group, or FAD) charged by the Director of California Fish and Game to draft contingency plans for their response. Five subgroups have been identified within FAD to develop a plan that encompasses communication, safety, surveillance, response and research related to potential avian influenza occurrences within California. This month (March 24) Schwarzbach will meet with state and federal representatives in Hawaii to provide coordination of planning efforts being developed along the Pacific flyway with those in Hawaii. A five-BRD-center proposal to provide USGS science support to address the avian influenza threat in the western region has been prepared. (Steve Schwarzbach, Sacramento, CA, 916-278-9490, steven_schwarzbach@usgs.gov)

Forest Heterogeneity and Prescribed Burning: The abundance of fuels that have accumulated in many Sierra Nevada forests has led to a concern that fire effects generated by prescription burning might now overwhelm mechanisms that historically generated heterogeneity in fire severity, leading to greater than desired landscape uniformity. Research by USGS scientists shows that substantial heterogeneity in two measures of fire severity—percentage of area burned and scorch height—can be produced by both early season and late season prescribed burns. Patchiness of prescribed burns is greatest in early season burns, whereas the range of scorch heights is greatest in fall burns. By manipulating burning prescriptions, it is possible to burn the heavy fuel loads in productive mixed-conifer forests without generating uniformly high-severity fires. Eric Knapp (now with the U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station) and Jon Keeley report their findings in the March issue of the International Journal of Wildland Fire. For more: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/pubbriefs/Keeleypbmar2006.html. Citation: Knapp, E. E. and J. E. Keeley. 2006. Heterogeneity in fire severity within early season and late season prescribed burns in a mixed-conifer forest. International Journal of Wildland Fire 15:37–45. (Jon Keeley, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3170, jon_keeley@usgs.gov)

Fire-Flood-Fish: A poster coauthored by members of the multi-agency Southern California Native Freshwater Fauna Working Group highlights ongoing efforts to better understand the effects of wildfire/flooding on native fish. USGS scientist Robert N. Fisher is a coauthor of the poster, which will be presented by others at the 40th annual conference of the California-Nevada Chapter, American Fisheries Society, to be held March 30 – April 1, 2006 in San Luis Obispo, California. The advent of unusually extensive fires in October 2003, followed by excessively damaging winter floods in the upper Santa Ana River watershed, stimulated discussions in resource agencies and the Southern California Native Freshwater Fauna Working Group about the advisability of fish rescue. Santa Ana speckled dace have persisted in three streams from which reserve populations were taken; but recent efforts to locate them in two other heavily flooded streams have failed. Historical and recent data are presented on patterns of fire, precipitation, flood and sedimentation intensity, and nature of the habitat, geomorphology and anthropogenic events in the five stream basins to determine possible reasons for loss or retention of populations. Less, or non-fire/flood impacted streams were also examined. For more: http://www.afs-calneva.org./Events.htm (Robert Fisher, San Diego, CA, 619-225-6422, rfisher@usgs.gov)

Urban Coyote: USGS scientist Erin Boydston of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed on February 27, 2006, for a one-hour documentary film about wildlife in San Francisco. The film, which is expected to be completed this year and targeted for local public TV, is centered on the story of a wild coyote that moved to Bernal Hill, a small open space in a dense urban setting. Boydston was interviewed about carnivores she had studied in the nearby Presidio of San Francisco, including skunks, coyotes, raccoons, and foxes. For more about the film: http://www.stillwildatheart.com/ (Erin Boydston, Henderson, CA, 702-564-4504, eboydston@usgs.gov)

USGS to participate at Fire Conference: USGS scientist Jon Keeley of the Western Ecological Research Center has been invited to participate in the 1st Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference of the International Association of Wildland Fire, to be held March 27-30, 2006, in Portland, Oregon. Keeley’s panel discussion topic will be “How do we define success in fuels management.” Keeley also will be giving a talk, “The National Fire and Fire Surrogate Study,” and two posters, “Cost/benefits of Fuel Treatments in Chaparral” and “Fire Severity Impacts on Vegetation Recovery Following the 2003 Fires in Southern California.” Fuels management programs are designed to reduce risks to communities and to improve and maintain ecosystem health. This conference will address development, implementation, and evaluation of these programs, with a focus on how to measure success. The conference is for managers, practitioners, researchers, policy makers and anyone involved in developing, implementing or evaluating fuels management activities. For more: http://www.iawfonline.org/fuels/overview.shtml. (Jon Keeley, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3170, jon_keeley@usgs.gov)

Desert Tortoise Biology/Conservation: USGS scientist Kristin Berry of the Western Ecological Research Center is an invited speaker at the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association Symposium at the Hilton Cosa Mesa in Costa Mesa, California, during the week of March 7-11, 2006. She will be giving a lecture on “The Biology and Conservation of Threatened Desert Tortoises--What You Need to Know for Recovery Efforts.” For more: http://www.nwrawildlife.org/home.asp. (Kristin Berry, Moreno Valley, CA, 951-697-5361, kristin_berry@usgs.gov)

Night Lighting: USGS scientist Robert Fisher of the Western Ecological Research Center was quoted in a February 27, 2006, story in the Orange County Register on a new book on the effects of artificial night lighting on animals and plants (Fisher was co-author of a reptile chapter); the story was printed on March 3 in the Contra Costa Times and Biloxi Sun Herald. A separate story on February 27 in the Honolulu Advertiser also mentioned Fisher and the new book. URLs: http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1019077.php http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/14008070.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/14008070.htm http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Feb/27/ln/FP602270327.html/?print=on (Robert N. Fisher, San Diego, CA, 619-225-6422, rfisher@usgs.gov)