WERC Highlights -- November 2002

Reducing Erosion: USGS research geologist Mary Ann Madej of the Western Ecological Research Center will present a poster at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, Dec. 6-10. The poster, titled "Using Dynamic Programming and Genetic Algorithms to Reduce Erosion Risks from Forest Roads," compares sediment savings from road restoration using a variety of conservation strategies. (Mary Ann Madej, Arcata, CA, 707-825-5148)

Urban Earth Briefing: USGS public affairs specialist Dale Cox and USGS scientists Jeff Lovich (biology) and Lucy Jones and Kenneth Hudnut (earth hazards) met with Representative Adam Schiff in his Pasadena, Calif. office and the California Biodiversity Council at their biannual conference on Nov. 19 to give them an overview of USGS Urban Earth. Urban Earth, a developing initiative, focuses integrated science programs in the urban environment on investigating the impacts of the city on the Earth and the Earth on the city. Southern California, with a population of 20 million, is among the country’s urban environments at highest risk from natural disasters. The California Biodiversity Council comprises 39 state, federal, and local agencies. (Dale Cox, Sacramento, CA, 916-278-3033; Michael V. Shulters, Sacramento, CA, 916-278-3026; Jeff Lovich, Sacramento, CA, 916-379-3742)

Sea Otters: Media coverage of sea otter research at the Monterey carnivore conference included two newspaper stories in the Monterey County Herald and one in the Santa Cruz Sentinel with quotes from USGS scientist Jim Estes of the Western Ecological Research Center, who gave the keynote on the Aleutian kelp ecosystem collapse and a paper on California sea otter deaths. (Jim Estes, Santa Cruz, CA, 831-459-2820)

Buffelgrass and Fire: USGS scientists Todd Esque of the Western Ecological Research Center and Cecil Schwalbe of the Southwest Biological Science Center discussed USGS fire research on buffelgrass with Audubon Magazine. Buffelgrass, an invasive exotic species, has escaped agricultural cultivation and invaded the Sonoran Desert, as well as other natural areas in Texas and Mexico. (Todd Esque, Henderson, NV, 702-564-4506; Cecil Schwalbe, Tucson, AZ, 520-621-5508)

Habitat Conservation Plan: USGS scientist Cecil Schwalbe of the Southwest Biological Science Center was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star about the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan; Schwalbe is a member of the science advisory team for this habitat conservation plan. (Cecil Schwalbe, Tucson, AZ, 520-621-5508)

Southwest Wildland Fires: Several USGS scientists are presenting papers and posters at the 2002 Fire Conference: Managing Fire and Fuels in the Remaining Wildlands and Open Spaces of the Southwestern United States at the Hyatt Regency Islandia Hotel and Marina in San Diego, California, Dec. 2-5. The conference, sponsored by the Association for Fire Ecology and the Western Section of The Wildlife Society, will consider the many issues confronting scientists, land managers, policymakers, and the public who address or are affected by management of fire and fuels across the Southwest (Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and California). Topics include fire ecology, behavior, history, prevention, education, restoration and rehabilitation, air quality, wildlife-fire and vegetation-fire interactions, planning, watershed responses to fire, invasive species responses to fire, and NEPA and other policies. The plenary session, “Implementing fuels management treatments in the western United States,” will be the morning of Tues., Dec. 3. Conference information: http://www.tws-west.org/meetings.html#fc2002. (Matt Brooks, Las Vegas, NV, 702-564-4615)

Turtle Soup: Diamondback terrapins are able to stay in the same tidal creek, despite daily tidal fluctuations and storms as strong as hurricanes, and are powerful swimmers, capable of roundtrip nesting journeys of over 3 miles from salt marsh to beach dunes. Yet as a result of human impacts, terrapin populations are declining, with significant local declines documented for some areas in Florida and some parts of South Carolina. For 20 years, researchers Jeff Lovich of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center and Whit Gibbons, of the University of Georgia, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, have documented the daily lives and annual cycles of activity of diamondback terrapins at Kiawah Island, S.C. They discovered that for the most part terrapins are found not only in the same creek from year-to-year, but often in the same small reach of water: of 442 individuals recaptured a year or more after their initial capture, only 25 terrapins changed locations from one tidal creek to another. This site fidelity appeared unchanged, even after major hurricanes like Hurricane Hugo in 1989, which packed 140-mile-per-hour winds. (Jeff Lovich, Sacramento, CA, 916-379-3742)

City Cats: USGS scientists Robert N. Fisher, Lisa Lyren, and Chris Haas of the Western Ecological Research Center were filmed in an interview about mountain lions living in the San Diego area by KFMB-TV News, a CBS affiliate; the story aired Nov. 13. (Robert N. Fisher San Diego, CA, 858-637-6882)

Wildfire Revisited: USGS scientist Todd Esque of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed for a story to run in Outside Magazine, or Sierra, about the 1994 Mother’s Day Fire, which engulfed 1,150 acres in Saguaro National Park, including 340 acres of desert scrub habitat. Investigating the impacts of the fire and the role of red brome, an exotic annual grass, USGS scientists estimated that 11 percent of a desert tortoise population were killed by the fire and more than 20 percent of saguaros sampled died within five years following the fire. (Todd Esque, Henderson, NV, 702-564-4506)

Duck Travels: USGS scientist Joe Fleskes of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed by the Portland Oregonian about USGS studies on pintail duck migration for a story to appear next Wed. in the Science section. (Joe Fleskes, Dixon, CA, 707-678-0682 x628)

Mercury Bioaccumulation: USGS scientists Steve Schwarzbach and Cliff Hui were interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle about effects of mercury contamination in animals that feed in the San Francisco Bay and Delta ecosystem. (Steve Schwarzbach, Sacramento, CA, 916-379-3745; Cliff Hui, Davis, CA, 530-752-6420)

Muddy Waters: Mary Ann Madej, a research geologist with the USGS Western Ecological Research Center, has been invited by the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to give a presentation on her research on the effects of suspended sediment on stream biota in Willits, California, on Nov. 13. The ongoing research is looking at the effects of suspended sediment and turbidity on benthic macroinvertebrate communities and fish-feeding behavior in north coastal California streams. Several streams with a range of timber harvest histories are included in the study. (Mary Ann Madej, Arcata, CA, 707-825-5148)

USGS Fire Workshop: USGS Central Region organized and is hosting the 3rd USGS Fire Science workshop on “The Role of USGS in Support of Fire Science and the Implementation of a National Fire Plan” to be held in Lakewood, Colorado, Nov. 12-15. USGS Director Chip Groat will speak on the “USGS Role in Fire Science,” and USGS fire ecologists from across the country will attend. Among them are several scientists from the USGS Western Ecological Research Center presenting the latest news from their fire ecology studies in California forests and chaparral ecosystems and the western deserts, including Jan van Wagtendonk, Matt Brooks, Jon Keeley, Todd Esque, and Dustin Haines. (Gloria Maender, Tucson, AZ, 520-670-5596)

Wild in the City: Erin Boydston, a research ecologist at the USGS Western Ecological Research Center, was interviewed by High Country News about her coyote research at Golden Gate National Recreation Area, included in a story in the Oct. 28 issue (vol. 34, No. 20) titled “Shadow Creatures: Urban wildlife is teaching us something about what we've lost.” (Erin Boydston, Sausalito, CA, 415-331-0639)