WERC Highlights -- September 2002

Helping Communities Live with Coyotes: Erin Boydston, a USGS research ecologist from the Western Ecological Research Center, is an invited panelist for an Oct. 9 meeting organized by the Scott Valley Homeowners’ Association to help California’s Marin County homeowners co-exist with urban coyotes. Boydston, who is studying coyotes in Golden Gate National Recreation Area, will speak about the behavior and ecology of coyotes. Panelists representing the California Department of Fish and Game, University of California, and Animal Protection Institute will speak on related coyote topics. (Erin Boydston, Sausalito, CA, 415-331-0639)

Educating Docents: T’Shaka Toure, a USGS ecologist from the Western Ecological Research Center, will give a presentation on spadefoot toad and western pond turtle projects, and other monitoring and conservation biology projects conducted by USGS scientists in Orange County, for “Docent Day at Crystal Cove State Park,” in Laguna Beach, California, on Oct. 12. (T’Shaka Toure, Irvine, CA, 714-330-5042)

Frogs at the End of the Rainbow? USGS scientists from the Western Ecological Research Center are working in cooperation with the California Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Forest Service in a project to learn if non-native rainbow trout are contributing to the decline of the endangered mountain yellow-legged frog of southern California. The project involves removing the trout from a small section of Little Rock Creek in the Angeles National Forest, where a self-sustaining population of frogs exists in a stream section above a fish barrier. The team will remove trout immediately below the fish barrier, where the stream contains fish but few frogs, and then monitor the stream for the next three years to determine if frogs begin using the area where the trout have been removed. (Manna Warburton, San Diego, CA 858-637-6892 ; Adam Backlin, San Diego, CA, 949-215-3390)

Future of Salton Sea’s Birds at Risk? On Sept. 25, USGS biologist Mark Mendelsohn from the Western Ecological Research Center will present a poster at the 3rd North American Ornithological Conference in New Orleans on how reduced water flow into the Salton Sea might negatively affect avian diversity in the Salton Sea basin. Bird count data correlated with vegetation structure suggest that the ecology of the landbirds using habitats near the shore, may be severely impacted if the current water resources are partially diverted to meet increasing human needs in southern California. Thirty of the 47 bird species that used the terrestrial habitat, were observed at points nearest the shore. Reduction of the sea's level will likely disturb local vegetation patterns in this important thin strip of land along the sea's edge, in turn jeopardizing avian habitat. Consequently, the Salton Sea basin, which provides habitat for millions of waterbirds and other organisms, may not be able to supply additional fresh water to southern California without detriment to the region's wildlife. (Mark Mendelsohn, San Diego, CA, 858-637-6897)

Healing The Redwood Creek Watershed: Can the effects of decades of logging and roadbuilding on salmon habitat and redwood forest be reversed? USGS research geologist Mary Ann Madej from the Western Ecological Research Center will answer this and other questions at the USGS Evening Public Lecture in the Western Region Center in Menlo Park, Thurs., Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. Madej will speak about the successes and failures in the large-scale watershed restoration program that started 25 years ago at Redwood National and State Parks. Additional information about this lecture is available at: http://online.wr.usgs.gov/calendar/. (Mary Ann Madej, Arcata, CA, 707-825-5148)

What’s a Herp? On Oct. 8, T’Shaka Toure, a USGS ecologist from the Western Ecological Research Center, will present a lecture and training session at The Nature Conservancy’s annual Continuing Education Lecture Series in Irvine, California. Toure’s presentation will focus on how to identify reptiles and amphibians of southern California and how to recognize their natural breeding habitats. (T’Shaka Toure, Irvine, CA, 714-330-5042)

Secret Lives Revealed: Web visitors now have the opportunity to view video footage of highly secretive mountain lions, southwestern long-tailed weasels, and mountain beavers going about their daily routines at Pt. Reyes National Seashore. The footage is the result of wildlife monitoring conducted by Gary Fellers, a USGS research biologist at the Western Ecological Research Center who used video cameras triggered by multiple passive infrared sensors at unbaited stations along wildlife trails and at mountain beaver burrows to obtain detailed data on wildlife behavior. The videos can be viewed at http://www.werc.usgs.gov/pt.reyes/movies/. (Gary Fellers, Pt. Reyes, CA, 415-464-5185)

Air Pollution and Giant Sequoias: USGS research scientist Nate Stephenson from the Western Ecological Research Center was filmed for an upcoming ABC News segment on air pollution in national parks. Stephenson discussed the effects of air pollution on giant sequoias. The segment is expected to air next Tues. or Wed. (Sept. 24 or 25). (Nate Stephenson, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3176)

About Birds and Snakes: Several USGS scientists at the Western Ecological Research Center will be presenting papers and posters at The Wildlife Society annual meeting in Bismarck, North Dakota, Sept. 24-28. Topics include: tracking restoration success of riparian habitats using bird community development; using satellite telemetry to indicate pintails not accounted for in nesting surveys; assessing winter habitat for Pacific greater white-fronted geese; computer modeling to predict mourning dove nesting densities; habitat use of band-tailed pigeon; survival of molting mallards during drought; the importance of ricelands to wildlife; and habitat use by giant garter snakes. (Gloria Maender, Tucson, AZ, 520-670-5596)

Diving for Dinner: John Takekawa, a USGS research wildlife biologist at the Western Ecological Research Center explained how diving ducks feed and their risks of ingesting contaminated prey in the San Francisco Bay in a lecture for the USGS Western Region Colloquium Series on Sept. 9. Long recognized as a major migration and wintering area in the Pacific Flyway, the San Francisco Bay estuary has many areas with elevated contaminants levels that bioaccumulate in the prey consumed by foraging waterbirds. Takekawa’s talk included study results on the distribution and movements of waterbirds using radio telemetry. You can view a video of his lecture, using Windows Media Player, at this URL: mms://video.wr.usgs.gov/colloquium/WRC_09sep02.wmv. (John Takekawa, Vallejo, CA, 707-562-2000)

Lights, Camera, Frog-Action: On Sept. 4, a National Geographic TV crew interviewed T’Shaka Toure and filmed Toure and Elizabeth Gallegos, both USGS biologists at the Western Ecological Research Center. The camera followed the biologists as they set up traps and captured African clawed frogs at two man-made ponds in Irvine, California, for a documentary on people and frog phobias and conservation issues regarding this exotic frog. (T’Shaka Toure, Irvine, CA, 714-330-5042)

Fire Research: In the Sept. 9 issue of the U.S. News and World Report, in the article titled "Fire Storm," is a half-page photo on p. 65 by USGS research ecologist Nate Stephenson of the Western Ecological Research Center, taken during research to illustrate forest changes due to fire exclusion in Sequoia National Park. (Nate Stephenson, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3176)

Summer Birds: USGS research ecologist Barbara Kus of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed by San Diego Home and Garden Magazine about the USGS monitoring program for Neotropical migrants for a story in the August issue. (Barbara Kus, San Diego, CA, 858-637-6881)

Frog Man of the Sonoran Desert: NPR aired a Radio Expeditions story about desert frogs and bullfrogs on the Morning Edition Program on Sept. 5. USGS research ecologist Cecil Schwalbe of the Southwest Biological Science Center spoke about monitoring native desert amphibians and efforts to manage bullfrogs for leopard frog conservation. Story information is available on the NPR site at http://www.npr.org, including frog photos by Schwalbe linked with sound bites of frog mating calls. (Cecil Schwalbe, Tucson, AZ, 520-621-5508)