1800 - 2000
Valley Vista

1 Southern California Conservation Strategy: Province-wide forest planning at work
Steven A. Anderson, Jacqueline A. Leonard, Eric Lindroth, and Therese O’Rourke, USDA Forest Service

2 A conservation strategy for the Northern Channel Islands
Tim Coonan, Sarah Chaney, Kate Faulkner, Channel Islands National Park; Lauren Johnson, Niobrara/Missouri National Scenic Riverways; Kathryn McEachern, U.S. Geological Survey; Connie Rutherford, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Cathy Schwemm, Channel Islands National Park ; and Tim Thomas, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

3 South Coast Wildlands Project -- vision maps for landscape connectivity
Rich Hunter, Talon Associates

4 The California Natural Diversity Data Base
Darlene McGriff, California Department of Fish and Game

5 Spatial and temporal variation in ephemeral pool crustacean communities
Janette Holtz, Marie A. Simovich, University of San Diego; and Thomas Philippi, University of Georgia

6 Bee diversity associated with Limnanthes floral patches in California vernal pool habitats
Joan M. Leong U.C. Davis and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; and Robbin W. Thorp, U.C. Davis

7 Habitat ephemerality and hatching fractions of a diapausing Anostracan (Crustacea: Branchiopoda)
Marie A. Simovich, University of San Diego; Thomas E. Philippi, University of Georgia; Ellen T. Bauder, San Diego State University; and Jacob A. Moorad, University of San Diego and Indiana University.

8 Surveys for California red-legged frog and arroyo southwestern toad on the Los Padres National Forest
Thomas G. Murphey, Valerie K. Hubbartt, and Richard J. Raymond, USDA Forest Service

9 Impact assessment and numbers of Oncorhynchus mykiss on the Los Padres National Forest
N. Kautzman, C. Slaughter, T. Weddle, T. Wallace, and J. Uyehara, USDA Forest Service

10 Monitoring the Shay Creek stickleback, a locally endangered fish
James Malcolm and Students, University of Redlands

11 Monitoring the effects of natural and anthropogenic habitat disturbance on the ecology and behavior of the San Diego coast horned lizard, Phrynosoma coronatum blainvillei
Tandora D. Grant and Allison C. Alberts, Zoological Society of San Diego

12 Atmospheric nitrogen deposition and habitat alteration in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in southern California: implications for threatened and endangered species
Mark Fenn, Mark Poth, USDA Forest Service; and Thomas Meixner, U.C. Riverside

13 Developing a weed control strategy for Channel Islands National Park
Sarah Chaney, Channel Islands National Park, Kathryn McEachern, U.S. Geological Survey

14 Patterns and processes of arthropod community succession after a fire
Jutta C. Burger, M.A. Patten, J.T. Rotenberry, and R.A. Redak, U. C., Riverside

15 Diptera community composition and succession following habitat disturbance by wildfire
Michael A. Patten, Jutta C. Burger, Thomas A. Prentice, John T. Rotenberry, Richard A. Redak, U.C. Riverside

16 A cautionary note on the need for fire management in some California ecosystems
Hartmut S. Walter and Teresa Brennan, U.C. Los Angeles

17 The effects of wildfire on the density and reproductive effort of the California gnatcatcher
William O. Wirtz, II and Sarah C. Chamberlain, Pomona College

18 Effects of fire on rodent populations in California coastal sage scrub
William O. Wirtz, II, Audrey L. Mayer, Mary M. Raney, Pomona College; and Jan L. Beyers, USDA Forest Service

Riparian Habitats
Session Chair – Mark Jennings, California Academy of Sciences

Auditorium

0830 – 0840 Introduction
Mark Jennings, California Academy of Sciences

0840 – 0900 Monitoring water quality in an urbanized watershed: a case study from the Santa Ana Basin, CA
Ken Belitz, U.S. Geological Survey

0900 – 0920 Biodiversity and conservation of the freshwater fishes of southern California
Camm Swift, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and Jonathan N. Baskin, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

0920 – 0940 Upland habitat use by California amphibians
Norman J. Scott, U.S. Geological Survey

0940 – 1000 Status of sensitive riparian birds in southern California
Barbara Kus, U.S. Geological Survey

1000 – 1030 BREAK

1030 – 1050 Arundo control effectiveness and system response
Dawn Lawson, U.S. Navy SW Division, Jesse A. Giessow, and Jason H. Giessow, Dendra

1050 – 1110 Impacts of exotic predators on the stream-breeding amphibians of the Santa Monica Mountains
Lee Kats, Pepperdine University

1110 – 1130 Pesticide concentrations in stormflow in the Santa Ana River, southern California
John A. Izbicki, U.S. Geological Survey

1130 – 1150 Los Padres Riparian Conservation Strategy: an attempt at managing for biodiversity at the ecosystem level
Maeton Freel, USDA Forest Service

1200 - 1300 LUNCH

Grassland and Woodland Habitats
Session Chair – Tom Scott, U.C. Riverside

Mountain Vista

0830 – 0840 Introduction
Tom Scott, U.C. Riverside

0840 – 0900 Pinyon-juniper woodland trends: interactions of thresholds, landscape heterogeneity and fire
Robin Tausch, USDA Forest Service

0900 – 0920 Effects of grazing in oak woodland habitats
Barbara Allen-Diaz, U.C. Berkeley

0920 – 0940 Vernal pool community dynamics and management considerations
Marie Simovich, University of San Diego

0940 – 1000 Management considerations for burrowing owl populations in southern California
Clark Winchell, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

1000 – 1030 BREAK

1030 – 1050 Exotic animals in grasslands and oak woodland habitats of cismontane southern California
Reginald Barrett, U.C. Berkeley

1050 – 1110 Avian population dynamics along elevational gradients in southern California
Mark Reynolds, San Diego State University Field Stations

1110 – 1130 Fire and exotics species control: a community based approach
Robin Wills, The Nature Conservancy

1200 - 1300 LUNCH

MONITORING
Session Chair – Michael Arbaugh, USDA Forest Service

Auditorium

1300 – 1330 The concept of ecological integrity – its relevance to the conservation of biological diversity
Barry Noon, Colorado State University

1330 – 1400 An ecosystem monitoring strategy for national forests in the Sierra Nevada
Patricia N. Manley, USDA Forest Service

1400 – 1430 Integrating monitoring into adaptive management: challenges, limitations, and an agenda for the future.
Barbara Kus, U.S. Geological Survey

1430 – 1500 Monitoring for biodiversity: limitations of sampling theory
Douglas H. Deutschman, San Diego State University

1500 – 1530 BREAK

Wednesday, March 1, 2000; 1530 – 1730

Thursday, March 2, 2000; 1230 – 1400

Hillside East, Hillside Central, Hillside West, Mountain Vista
(Room locations to be announced)

Attendees divide into ten groups, each of which will have a research and a management leader. The goal for each group is to outline a paper bringing together priority issues within the group’s topic, identifying hypotheses and approaches for testing them, and suggesting adaptive management projects to address the priority issues. Groups may discuss specific case studies within their general topics. Topics are listed below, and potential priority issues for discussion presented on the following pages.

1. Monitoring: community "vital signs" monitoring
2. Monitoring: survey and monitoring strategies for threatened and endangered species
3. Corridor design and reserve connectivity
4. Control of invasive plants
5. Management of subsidized and exotic animals
6. Identification and management of recreational effects on habitats
7. Fires: risk assessment and management
8. Water management for human and habitat needs
9. Habitat restoration issues
10. Forging relationships among agencies and non-governmental organizations

Breakout group co-chairs will facilitate discussion and maintain a tight focus for each group. Consensus on priority issues should be identified early during the first session, with the remainder of the time spent on identifying hypotheses and research-driven approaches for resolution of issues, and recommendations for adaptive management practices.
A recorder with a laptop computer will be present in each group to capture the participants’ discussions. At the end of the first breakout session, the recorder will work with the co-chairs to prepare a list of the refined priority issues and management needs. This list will be printed and distributed to participants at the second breakout session to guide development of hypotheses and protocols to meet these needs. The recorder will document the group’s discussion during the second day, and coordinate with the co-chairs to produce a synthetic overview of the group’s accomplishments. Each breakout group spokesperson will be allocated roughly 10 minutes to report on their group’s conclusions at a general session on Thursday afternoon.
Following the conference, a subset of each group will prepare a short paper for publication in the symposium proceedings.
Breakout Groups

1. Monitoring: community "vital signs" monitoring
Gary Davis, National Park Service, and Anne Bradley, USDA Forest Service; Co-Chairs
What are appropriate goals for vital signs monitoring programs?
How do you identify the critical processes and other relationships that link the system components and may serve as vital signs to monitor?
How do you design and test vital signs monitoring protocols?

2. Monitoring: survey and monitoring strategies for threatened and endangered species
John Stephenson, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and Mike Arbaugh, USDA Forest Service; Co-Chairs
Discuss effectiveness and efficiency of current survey protocols, including suggestions on how to improve them.
How do we transition from presence/absence surveys to long-term monitoring?
What are the needs for additional survey protocols?

3. Corridor design and reserve connectivity
Chris Haas, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and Geary Hund, California State Parks; Co-Chairs
Target species for corridors
Corridor characteristics: what variables optimize corridor use?
Corridor monitoring and management

4. Control of invasive plants
Jeffrey Lovich, U.S. Geological Survey, and Shawna Bautista, USDA Forest Service; Co-Chairs
Impacts of invasive plants on sensitive species
Dealing with Arundo
Alien grasses and landscape conversion

5. Management of subsidized and exotic animals
Andrew Suarez, U.C. San Diego, and Jud Monroe, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Co-Chairs
Managing reserves to minimize the penetration of exotic species.
How do we identify the most damaging exotics in order to prioritize efforts?
Monitoring programs as early warning systems for exotics

6. Identification and management of recreational effects on habitats
Melanie Beck, National Park Service; and Steve Loe, USDA Forest Service; Co-Chairs
Which recreation impacts are really significant in southern California?
What is the role of law enforcement, environmental education, and interpretation in protecting habitats?
Do we want and need carrying capacities for recreation? Will carrying capacities meet the goal of habitat protection?
Should we have sacrifice areas and where should they be located?

7. Fires: risk assessment and management
Jan Beyers, USDA Forest Service, and Claudia Luke, San Diego State University Field Stations; Co-Chairs
Balancing the need for fuel reduction at the wildland-urban interface with the need for mature vegetation by listed species (example -- California gnatcatcher in coastal sage scrub): how do we determine priorities and strategies?
Is aggressive age-class manipulation in chaparral needed or possible? What is the best way to target prescribed burning efforts?
In conifer forests, can fire be reintroduced without first modifying fuels? What fire intensity should be used?

8. Water management for human and habitat needs
Molly Pohl, San Diego State University, and Judith Mitchell, Mission Resource Conservation District; Co-Chairs
Hydrologic alteration/impacts (past, present, future)
Geomorphic and ecological implications of altered hydrology
Translating scientific studies into policy/management recommendations (mitigation, restoration)

9. Habitat restoration issues
Ted St. John, BioNet LLC, and John Rieger, California Department of Transportation; Co-Chairs
Improving the results of restoration while lowering costs.
Political and governmental constraints on implementation of restoration projects.
Using restoration to enhance habitat patches and improve connectivity.

10. Forging relationships among agencies and non-governmental organizations
Cameron Barrows, Center for Natural Lands Management; and Therese O’Rourke, USDA Forest Service; Co-Chairs
How do we maintain a cultural history on long-term issues in the face of high turnover within agencies?
How do we ensure that expectations of what partners can provide are realistic?
How do we maintain continuity in the face of variable resource and funding availability?

Regional Issues
Session Chair – Trish Smith, The Nature Conservancy

Auditorium

0830 – 0840 Introduction
Trish Smith, The Nature Conservancy.

0840 – 0900 Structure of soil organisms and ecosystem processes in southern California: dealing with complexity in a changing environment
Michael Allen, Kathleen Treseder, Cara Hinkson, and Louise Egerton-Warburton, U.C. Riverside

0900 – 0920 If caterpillars sing, do butterflies cry? (Subtitled: retrospective and prospective patterns of butterfly biodiversity across urbanized coastal southern California)
Rudi Mattoni, U.C. Los Angeles

0920 – 0940 Status, conservation issues and research needs for bats in the south coast bioregion
Karen Miner, California State Parks and Drew C. Stokes, U.S. Geological Survey

0940 – 1010 BREAK

1010 – 1030 Carnivore conservation in southern California: ongoing research of the effects of habitat fragmentation and landscape connectivity on predator populations
Kevin Crooks, U.C. San Diego; Chris Haas, and Lisa Lyren, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

1030 – 1050 Carnivore conservation is southern California: early lessons from ongoing telemetry research in the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills
Ray Sauvajot, Denise Kamradt, Seth P. Riley, Eric C. York, National Park Service; Robert K. Wayne, U.C. Los Angeles; and Todd K. Fuller, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

1050 – 1110 Recreation impacts to habitat
Melanie Beck, National Park Service

1110 – 1130 What southern California growth means to biodiversity
Thomas Scott, U.C. Riverside

1130 – 1230 LUNCH

Estuary, Beach and Strand Habitats
Session Chair – Kevin Lafferty, U.S. Geological Survey

Mountain Vista

0830 – 0840 Introduction
Kevin Lafferty, U.S. Geological Survey.

0840 – 0900 Lagoon ecology of central coast steelhead and tidewater goby
Jerry J. Smith, San Jose State University

0900 – 0920 Up, down, or stable: what do we know about populations of beach and estuarine endangered birds?
Abby Powell, U.S. Geological Survey

0920 – 0940 Status of small mammals in near coastal habitats, with emphasis on the endangered Pacific pocket mouse
Wayne D. Spencer, Conservation Biology Institute

0940 – 1010 BREAK

1010 – 1030 Hydrologic factors of coastal aquifers that impact biotic integrity
Randy Hanson, U.S. Geological Survey

1030 – 1050 Assessing salt marsh habitats
Kevin Lafferty, U.S. Geological Survey

1050 – 1110 Biodiversity benefits of coastal wetland restoration
Jack Fancher, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

1130 – 1230 LUNCH

1420 – 1545 BREAKOUT GROUP REPORTS AND DISCUSSION
Moderator – John Stephenson, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

1545 – 1615 Symposium Summary
Ted Case, U.C. San Diego

1615 – 1630 Agency Perspective and Concluding Remarks
Tom White, USDA Forest Service

1630 ADJOURN

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