WERC Highlights -- September 2005

USGS at Wetland Management Workshop: USGS scientist Nicole Athearn of the Western Ecological Research Center is an invited speaker at the 4th annual Wetland Management in the Hawaiian Islands Workshop, sponsored by the Hawaii Chapter of the Wildlife Society, October 6-7, 2005, in Kaneohe, Hawaii. Athearn’s talk will be “A Delicate Balance: salt ponds, wetland restoration, and wildlife in San Francisco Bay,” co-authored by John Takekawa and Keith Miles. It will focus on the challenges inherent in balancing the needs of existing wildlife, endangered species, and people in urban wetland restoration, and the importance of research and monitoring programs to support adaptive management for wetland restoration programs. For more: http://www.tws-west.org/hawaii/events_conferences.html. (Nicole Athearn, Vallejo, CA 707-562-2002, nathearn@usgs.gov)

Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs Return to City Creek: Biologists of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center and U.S. Forest Service found 11 mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosa) in City Creek in the San Bernardino Mountains on September 13, 2005, confirming a recent report of the rare frog at this location. The frogs were thought to be extirpated from the location when their habitat was destroyed by winter flooding and debris flows following the 2003 Old Fire. Flooding last winter scoured out sediment and re-created pools that are habitable for frogs. Small tissue samples of the 11 frogs will be analyzed by the University of California, Berkeley, to help determine the new frogs’ origins, as well as their health. (Adam Backlin, San Diego, CA, 949-636-4269, abacklin@usgs.gov; Robert N. Fisher, San Diego, CA, 858-637-6882, rfisher@usgs.gov)

Southern California Fires: On September 29, 2005, USGS scientist Jon Keeley of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times regarding the season’s first Santa Ana wind-driven fires in southern California. Fire threatened suburban areas of Los Angeles at the edge of chaparral shrublands. (Jon Keeley, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3170, jon_keeley@usgs.gov)

Introduced Animals and Island Vegetation: On September 27, 2005, USGS scientist Kathryn McEachern of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed by Science Magazine about the effects that feral animal removal has on the vegetation of Santa Cruz Island, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California. McEachern described changes in vegetation and rare plants following sheep removal from the island and expectations for recovery following the removal of feral pigs, the only remaining introduced animal. A multi-year, multi-agency pig eradication project began in 2005 on Santa Cruz Island, which is managed by the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy. (Kathryn McEachern, Ventura, CA, 805-658-5753, kathryn_mceachern@usgs.gov)

California Sea Otters: On September 25, 2005, a story in the San Luis Obispo Tribune on educational events about sea otters mentioned an airing of the USGS video “Precipice of Survival: The Southern Sea Otter” at the Morro Bay State Park Museum of Natural History: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/local/12737527.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp. A September 28 story in the Monterey County Herald mentioned Monterey area airings of the USGS video and an update on the status of the sea otter by USGS scientist Jim Estes of the Western Ecological Research Center: http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/12738716.htm (Gloria Maender, Tucson, AZ, 520-670-5596, gloria_maender@usgs.gov)

Rare Frogs Return: USGS scientist Adam Backlin of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed in a September 24, 2005, story in the Riverside Press-Enterprise regarding the return of endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs to City Creek in the San Bernardino Mountains of California. (Adam Backlin, San Diego, CA, 949-636-4269, abacklin@usgs.gov)

USGS at the State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference: The U.S. Geological Survey will participate in the 7th Biennial State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference October 4-6, 2005, in Oakland, Calif. Several scientists of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center will present posters describing their research on the ecotoxicological risk of mercury to avian reproduction in the San Francisco Bay. This environmental conference provides a forum for scientists, resource managers, environmentalists, elected officials, representatives from business and industry, and members of the public to meet together for the purpose of reassessing the present ecological health of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. The theme of the 2005 conference is Celebrating Science and Stewardship. For more: http://www.abag.ca.gov/abag/events/estuary/. (Josh Ackerman, Davis, CA, 530-752-0485, jackerman@usgs.gov)

Sage-Grouse Research and Conservation: USGS scientist Mike Casazza of the Western Ecological Research Center will give a presentation titled “Ecology of Greater Sage-Grouse in Mono County, California: Surviving on the Edge of the Great Basin” at the 10th International Symposium on Grouse in Luchon, France, September 25-30, 2005. His presentation will focus on the breeding biology, seasonal movements and survival of a relatively isolated population of greater sage-grouse on the western edge of the Great Basin. For more: http://www.gct.org.uk/gsg/10igs.htm. On October 5, USGS scientist Cory Overton of the Western Ecological Research Center will give a talk at the Spotlight on Science Session at the FWS Regional Office in Portland, Oregon. His presentation on “Sage Grouse Conservation Planning and Research in Mono County, CA” will focus on the cooperative research and conservation efforts ongoing in the Bi-State Planning Area of western Nevada and eastern California with respect to greater sage-grouse. (Mike Casazza, Dixon, CA, 707-678-0682 ext. 629, mike_casazza@usgs.gov; Cory Overton, Dixon, CA, 707-678-0682 ext. 683, coverton@usgs.gov)

Fire Suppression Impacts on Sierra Nevada Shrublands: Roughly half of the chaparral shrublands in the southern part of California’s Sierra Nevada Range have never had a recorded fire since record keeping began in 1910. While it is unknown what the historical fire return interval is in the foothill chaparral belt, there has been concern that a long absence of fire might threaten the health and stability of these systems. However, according to a recent study in the International Journal of Wildland Fire, researchers have found these shrublands to be very resilient to long fire-free periods. USGS researchers Jon Keeley and Anne Pfaff of the Western Ecological Research Center in collaboration with U.S. Forest Service ecologist Hugh Safford compared postfire recovery of ancient stands of chaparral (as much as 150 years in age) with that in younger mature stands (50–60 years of age) following the 2002 McNally Fire in Sequoia National Forest. Based on shrub seedling recruitment, shrub resprouting success, abundance of postfire endemic annuals and total species diversity, the researchers found that ancient stands recovered as well as younger mature stands. They concluded that a century of fire exclusion poses little threat to the postfire recovery of this vegetation type. For more: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/pubbriefs/keeleypbsep2005a.html. (Jon Keeley, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3170, jon_keeley@usgs.gov) Citation: Keeley, J. E., A. H. Pfaff, and H. D. Safford. 2005. Fire suppression impacts on postfire recovery of Sierra Nevada chaparral shrublands. International Journal of Wildland Fire 14:255–265.

San Francisco East Bay Fire History, Landscape Changes: The San Francisco East Bay region has long been characterized by a rich mosaic of coastal range grasslands, shrublands and woodlands. However, management activities during the latter half of the 20th century are thought to be responsible for changes that resulted in loss of grasslands to native woody plant invasion, creating a landscape with increased fire hazard from greater fuel loads. In the September issue of the International Journal of Wildland Fire, USGS researcher Jon Keeley examined the 20th century fire history on this landscape to understand to what extent fire management activities could account for changes in landscape patterns. Keeley found that this region has a largely anthropogenic fire regime with no lightning-ignited fires in the vast majority of years. Fire suppression policy has not excluded fire from this region but has been effective at maintaining roughly similar burning levels and at decreasing the size of fires. Fire frequency paralleled increasing population growth until the latter part of the 20th century, when it reached a plateau. Millennia of human disturbance in the region created and maintained grasslands by repeated burning followed by livestock grazing. Twentieth century reduction in grazing, coupled with a lack of natural fires and the effective suppression of anthropogenic fires, have all acted in concert to favor shrubland expansion. For more: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/pubbriefs/keeleypbsep2005b.html. (Jon Keeley, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3170, jon_keeley@usgs.gov) Citation: Keeley, J. E. 2005. Fire history of the San Francisco East Bay region and implications for landscape patterns. International Journal of Wildland Fire 14:285–296.

Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs in City Creek: USGS scientist Robert N. Fisher of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed for a September 22, 2005, story that appeared in the San Bernardino Sun and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin regarding the recent discovery of 2 federally endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs in City Creek in California’s San Bernardino Mountains by the San Bernardino County Museum. USGS scientists later confirmed 11 juveniles at the site. City Creek frogs had been thought to be extirpated when a postfire debris flow destroyed their habitat in 2003. In 2004 surveys, no frogs were found at former City Creek sites: http://www2.sbsun.com/news/ci_3050187. (Robert N. Fisher, San Diego, CA, 858-637-6882, rfisher@usgs.gov)

Wilderness Congress: USGS scientist Nate Stephenson of the Western Ecological Research Center is an invited speaker at the 8th World Wilderness Congress (WWC), “Wilderness, Wildlands and People – A Partnership for the Planet,” to be held in Anchorage, Alaska, October 2-6. Stephenson will speak on “Wilderness management in an era of rapid global changes: the death of ‘natural,’ and redefinition of goals.” With senior-level representatives from governments, the private sector, native peoples, non-governmental organizations, and academia, WWCs are designed to bring together the full spectrum of wilderness-related views. (Nate Stephenson, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3176, nstephenson@usgs.gov)

Desert Tortoises: On Sept. 14, 2005, USGS scientist Kristin Berry of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times regarding the social behavior of desert tortoises for an upcoming story. There are plans for the reporter to visit a tortoise study site at Fort Irwin in October. (Kristin Berry, Moreno Valley, CA, 951-697-5361, kristin_berry@usgs.gov)

Parks and Climatic Variability and Change: On Sept. 14, 2005, USGS scientist Nate Stephenson of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed by High Country News for an upcoming article on national parks and climatic variability and changes. Stephenson posed some issues that may need to be considered by the National Park Service (NPS). For example, should NPS goals evolve to include more emphasis on enhancing or maintaining ecosystems that are best able to resist and recover from stresses? (Nate Stephenson, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3176, nstephenson@usgs.gov)

Wildlife Science: USGS scientists nationwide are participating in The Wildlife Society’s 12th Annual Conference, to be held in Madison, Wisconsin, Sept. 25-29, 2005. Topics of papers and posters coauthored by USGS scientists from the Western Ecological Research Center include: land-use trends on prairie breeding grounds of northern pintails and how these may affect their recovery; southern sea otter health issues can help to identify specific threats to nearshore ecosystems from terrestrial sources; evaluating biological effects of pesticides on Sierran frogs, habitat use of giant garter snakes; an ecotoxicological database on terrestrial vertebrates of coastal (and Great Lakes) habitats; and testing the effect of lipid extraction and content on analyses of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in different species and tissues. For more: http://www.wildlife.org/ (Gloria Maender, Tucson, AZ, 520-670-5596, gloria_maender@usgs.gov)

Sea Otter Awareness Week: Sea otter research, conservation, and education are focuses of numerous events scheduled for California during the Defenders of Wildlife Presents Sea Otter Awareness Week 2005, Sept. 26 through Oct. 1, 2005. Among the invited speakers will be scientist Jim Estes of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center with an update on the status of sea otters. The USGS-produced video “Precipice of Survival: The Southern Sea Otter,” a winner of Telly and National Association of Government Communicators Gold Screen awards, will have special showings during the week in Moss Landing, Morro Bay, and Santa Barbara, California. For details about presentations, video screenings, and other educational events: http://www.defenders.org/seaotter/awareness/. (Gloria Maender, Tucson, AZ, 520-670-5596, gloria_maender@usgs.gov)