CDFW Conservation Lecture Series Archive

An increased demand for renewable energy, sparked by both public consciousness and recent government mandates, makes it imperative that the impacts to wildlife of associated activities be investigated and mitigated when possible. Migratory birds represent a particularly vulnerable group to renewable energy development, due to their potential exposure to facilities (both wind and solar) along migratory routes. Prof. Harrigan will describe newly-developed genetic identification methods for migratory birds in a hotspot of renewable energy development (the California Desert Southwest) that can allow us to better understand the effects to migratory birds of renewable energy activities, and that can help inform future management and siting strategies. 

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Habitat restoration and the management of invasive species are important strategies for conserving biodiversity, especially in recently burned areas which are especially vulnerable to invasion. To help managers prioritize restoration locations, Conservation Biology Institute, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, and United States Forest Service collaborated to create a new, replicable tool and approach for better combining field data with decision science. Because the data needs for this approach are high, especially in scaling it up to all fires, we experimented with tapping into the vast potential of community scientists (i.e. citizen scientists) and compared the resulting data with those collected by professionals. We then converted the research grade point data into population polygons, and combined with region-wide GIS data in a logic model that includes three criteria branches (sub-models): invasive species, erosion risk, and natural species regeneration capacity. For the invasive species branch, we programmed the Weed Heuristics Invasive Population Prioritization for Eradication Tool (WHIPPET) into an extension of the Environmental Evaluation Modeling System (EEMS), along with some additional, optional criteria, then looped it so it analyzes every species in a single model run and combines their results together. We also evaluated the community science contributions compared to professional expert contributions, and evaluated the decision support system with an expert-opinion based field assessment.

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Conservation efforts and other land management decisions are often intended to result in multiple benefits, but real or perceived trade-offs between goals, such as ecological and economic benefits, can contribute to conflict. To support knowledge-sharing across sectors and more informed decision-making, and with funding from the Proposition 1 Delta Water Quality and Ecosystem Restoration Program administered by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (Grant Agreement Number–Q1996022), we developed a flexible framework for evaluating multidimensional impacts of future landscape change in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. With input from local agencies and conservation organizations, we identified two major drivers of landscape change to evaluate: meeting habitat restoration objectives and continued expansion of perennial crops. We developed three scenarios representing the forecasted change resulting by 2050 from each driver independently, as well as a combination of the two, and we integrated multiple data sources and models to forecast the net impact of each scenario on metrics representing multiple categories of benefits: agricultural livelihoods, water quality, climate change resilience, and biodiversity support. We found that each scenario produced a mix of benefits and trade-offs, and the direction and magnitude of the projected impacts on each metric varied across scenarios. Our results provide a multidimensional understanding of the potential impacts of these scenarios to support more informed conservation and policy decision-making, while our framework is designed to be flexibly updated to incorporate additional metrics, data, and models, and to evaluate new scenarios. 

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Since 2016, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has been working to include methods to incorporate future climate change into engineering designs of fish passage facilities and stream crossings. The results of these efforts are detailed in this document titled NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region Guidance to Improve the Resilience of Fish Passage Facilities to Climate Change subsequently referred to as Improving Resilience. The intended users of Improving Resilience are NMFS engineers and biologists, along with applicants and their consultants. One of the goals of the document is to assist parties in satisfying NMFS regulatory authorities and NMFS’ policy on the treatment of climate change in Endangered Species Act (ESA) decisions. Improving Resilience provides the processes and tools needed to incorporate climate resiliency into the design of fish passage facilities and represents the first in a series of documents applicants should use when designing a fish passage project in the West Coast Region (WCR), which encompasses California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. 

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Year-round occupancy of cliff swallow mud-nests by several bat species has been observed throughout California, but formal documentation of these observations is limited to project reports. Bats roosting in cliff swallow mud-nests will be subject to direct impacts if they are present when these nests are removed to prevent swallows from nesting. In 2022, the California Bat Working Group compiled records from working group members and provided recommendations for take avoidance, including nest inspections and habitat modification to discourage occupancy. Here we'll discuss those records and share information on bat roosts in cliff swallow mud-nests. 

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Most threatened and endangered species face an uphill battle to recovery, and managers must contend with multiple limiting factors. Adding to this is the looming threat posed by climate change. The federally-listed Pacific coast population of the western plover is on the front lines of climate change, with respect to rising sea levels, which are expected to dramatically reduce available sandy beach habitat over the next several decades. In order to improve our understanding of climate threats, we developed a conceptual framework of predicted climate impacts, secondary effects, and species and habitat vulnerabilities. To test the predictions in the framework, we analyzed long-term spatially-explicit data from Monterey Bay and Point Reyes National Seashore to determine the relationship between plover productivity and multiple climate and habitat variables, and then projected future productivity across the landscape. The original conceptual framework is effective at predicting threats, which is corroborated by the analysis. Moreover, we identified probable causal mechanisms underlying climate-productivity relationships, which provide a strong foundation for future management to improve the resilience of the species and the beach ecosystem. 

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In April 2022, the California Natural Resources Agency released its Pathways to 30x30 strategy for conserving 30% of California’s land and coastal waters by 2030 to protect and restore biodiversity, expand access to nature, and mitigate and build resilience to climate change. Public participation and input were critical in helping the state identify strategies that reflect local and regional conservation priorities. Continued collaboration and learning will be key for successfully implementing Pathways to 30x30. Utilizing community science and the collective observations of plants and animals is an opportunity to expand our understanding of biodiversity in California and best identify important places to conserve. Join us in a conversation with community science champions to learn more about how we can work together to achieve California’s 30x30 goal.

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Life cycle models generate predictions at scales relevant to conservation and are an advantageous approach to managing and conserving anadromous salmon that use multiple habitats throughout their life cycle. This presentation will walk through how life cycle monitoring data throughout Redwood Creek was integrated into a life cycle model to evaluate restoration potential in different habitats. 

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The "AIMS for Wildlife" concept builds upon technological advances in wildlife monitoring, cloud computing and artificial intelligence to deliver powerful wildlife monitoring data in real-time. Advances in telemetry techniques such as GSM based transmitters utilizing the cellular networks to transmit data and which collect precise (GPS quality) location data at high frequency and accessible in real-time. The AIMS approach uses cloud based computing resources to integrate remotely sensed data (weather, habitat, etc.) with animal movement data and provide it to a variety of end users (refuge managers, species biologists, etc.) in near real-time.

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Climate-change refugia are locations that species can retreat to and persist in to escape or reduce the impacts of declining climatic suitability. As such, refugia have a critical role to play in protecting species from climate-change impacts. In this seminar, I review practical strategies for mapping climate-change refugia to support species conservation, covering tools and approaches that wildlife managers can start using today to incorporate refugia into their wildlife conservation strategies.

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