CDFW Conservation Lecture Series Archive

People's radically different perceptions of the tanoak tree (Notholithocarpus densiflorus) have ranged from treasured food plant to cash crop to trash tree. Having studied the patterns of tanoak use and abuse for nearly twenty years, botanist Frederica Bowcutt uncovers a complex history of cultural, sociopolitical, and economic factors affecting the tree's fate and discusses hopeful changes including reintroduction of low-intensity burning to reduce conifer competition for tanoaks, emerging disease resistance in some trees, and new partnerships among tanoak defenders, including botanists, foresters, Native Americans, and plant pathologists.

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In August of 2013 the Morgan Fire burned approximately 3,000 acres of the slopes of Mount Diablo. For botanists the post-fire environment is an opportunity to explore places normally blanketed with impenetrable chaparral and see plant species that have not been seen in decades. We know that fire is a major driver of diversity dynamics and ecosystem structure in many California plant communities. In particular, there is a suite of annual or short lived perennial species that benefit from, or rely on, fire as a part of their life history cycle. This post-fire flora represents a fleeting diversity and abundance, typically spanning 3 to 5 years after a fire and disappearing back into the soil seed bank until the next fire event. Nomad Ecology botanists Heath Bartosh and Brian Peterson used this opportunity to design and implement a study aimed at capturing diversity and short-term successional dynamics of the fleeting abundance of fire following plants. This talk will present an overview of the Morgan fire, their research, and preliminary results following two years of sampling...and they still have one more to go! See an overview of the Morgan Fire as reported by Bay Nature writer Joan Hamilton.

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This webinar will provide an overview of the biology, life history, and conservation status of monarchs in the western U.S., including factors that may be contributing to the observed population decline at California overwintering sites. The webinar will also review current conservation efforts in the West, including habitat management and enhancement efforts, applied research, and citizen science programs in monarch natal, migratory, and overwintering habitats. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Xerces Society are partnering for monarch butterfly conservation on international, national, regional, state, and locale scales. We will discuss some high priority projects and ways that the California Department of Fish & Wildlife may be able to participate in ongoing monarch conservation, including a western states habitat suitability modeling project.

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This presentation will review recent findings on the threats to California native vegetation posed by plant pathogens and management actions needed to prevent introduction and limit spread of exotic species. Plant diseases caused by species, such as sudden oak death (Phytophthora ramorum) have been an increasing concern as new species and hybrids are being discovered at an alarming rate. In California, dozens of Phytophthora species have been found in native plant nurseries, restoration sites, and native landscapes. The first detections of P. tentaculata in the US, ranked as a high priority threat by USDA, were in California native plant nurseries and restoration plantings. Various aspects of the problem will be explained: the impacts of Phytophthora species in California, pathways of spread - including local and global spread via infected nursery stock, current efforts to prevent introductions by clean nursery stock initiatives, the aftermath of introductions in restoration plantings and efforts to contain or eradicate introduced species from field sites. The panel is presented by the Phytophthoras in Native Habitats Work Group: Janice Alexander (UCCE Marin Co.), Ted Swiecki and Elizabeth Bernhardt (Phytosphere Research), Suzanne Rooney-Latham and Cheryl Blomquist (CDFA), and Janell Hillman (Santa Clara Valley Water District)

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California is a global biodiversity hotspot with more than 2,000 endemic plant species and more than 1,600 rare plant species. Rare and endemic plants are of special conservation concern because of their risk of extinction, and they may be particularly vulnerable to climate change because of traits such as limited geographic range, small population size, high habitat specificity, and low dispersal ability. Understanding where these species occur in the landscape is the first step in determining necessary conservation and management measures. Species distribution modeling is a rapidly developing field which uses complex statistical and geospatial analysis to identify potentially suitable habitat in the landscape based on habitat values present at known occurrence locations. This information can also be used to extrapolate potential future habitat suitability under projected climate change scenarios. The rapidly changing nature of modeling methods presents challenges for applying models to policy and management. We will present several case studies of species distribution modeling for rare plants, highlighting conservation implications, caveats, and lessons learned for conservation practitioners.

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The brown marmorated stink bug was introduced to the United States from Asia in the 1990s. The ability of the insect to hitchhike in vehicles and planes has allowed it to spread rapidly to new areas. Wherever the insect takes up residence, it causes severe crop and garden losses and becomes a nuisance to people. This insect has a propensity for migrating seasonally into homes and offices where large numbers aggregate to seek favorable overwintering sites. The invasive insect was first trapped in California in 2005, although its current establishment and distribution are not clear.

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The story of conservation of the Bay checkerspot butterfly over three decades illustrates many of the challenges posed by a novel 21st century environment. The butterfly is among the most well-studied natural populations in the world, and complex relationships between weather, topoclimate, phenology, and population dynamics have been untangled. The butterfly in its nutrient-poor serpentine grassland habitat has become a "poster child" for impacts of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on biodiversity, and the necessity of cattle grazing for maintaining habitat in the face of annual grass invasions. The newly adopted (2013) Santa Clara Valley HCP/NCCP promises to conserve and manage the remaining habitat. The broader implications of nitrogen deposition on California biodiversity will also be discussed. 

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The land clearing and draining industriousness of the early European settlers largely erased riparian wetlands and multi-threaded channels from the California landscape, as well as from our collective consciousness. Incised, simplified channels are the result of those efforts and what we tend to manage our waterways to be. The importance of multi-threaded channels for ecosystem function and biotic productivity is beginning to be understood and taken into account in restoration design. However, the preference for single-thread regime channels with sediment transport continuity runs deep in the stream restoration community. Dr. Brian Cluer will present the recently developed stream evolution model (SEM) (Cluer and Thorne 2014), which describes the complex habitat and ecosystem benefits associated with various channel types and their stages of evolution. The SEM framework shows that there are significant differences in these habitat and ecosystem values between incised, floodplain-connected, and multi-threaded streams. The implications for stream conservation and eco-hydrologic restoration will be explored. A case study on the transition from incised channel to multi-threaded wetland channel complex, and the resulting change in ecosystem benefits observed, will be presented by Lauren Hammack. The story takes place in Willow Creek, a tributary to the lower Russian River and a high-priority watershed for Coho salmon recovery and the Russian River Coho Salmon Captive Broodstock Program. The land use history of Willow Creek watershed, the channel management practices, and the restoration decision-making challenges are representative of situations throughout California. 

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Instream structures such as wood jams, living vegetation, beaver dams, certain geomorphic features and other obstacles that slow the downstream movement of water and sediment are essential to the restoration of streams. In particular, such ecologically functional dams or obstructions can accelerate the development of "stage zero" channels. The stage zero channel (sensu Cluer and Thorne 2013) is increasingly recognized as having intrinsic high value because of the multiple and synergistic ecosystem goods and services that such systems provide. Stage zero channels have well connected floodplains with elevated water tables, spatially variable hydrologic regimes and structurally complex aquatic and riparian habitat. As such, they provide incredibly valuable habitat for a suite of terrestrial and aquatic taxa, including several Pacific salmon species that are in decline. In this presentation, Dr. Pollock will provide an overview of how ecologically functional dams can be built to create zero order channels, the features and types of stage zero channels, where in the landscape they are likely to be found, and how they evolve under natural conditions. Dr. Pollock will compare the structure and function of stage zero channels to more traditional channel restoration targets. Dr. Pollock concludes that new approaches to stream restoration are needed that take into account society’s economic and ecological imperatives to create resilient, structurally complex and dynamic systems, and that the spatial scale of restorative actions should be expanded where possible to better recognize and integrate the interdependent nature of longitudinal, lateral and vertical linkages in stream systems. 

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The San Joaquin kit fox was added to the original endangered species list in 1967. After almost 50 years, it still remains listed with no prospects in sight of being delisted. Indeed, the species likely has steadily declined since listing and continues to decline today. In this presentation, Dr. Cypher will (1) provide an overview of the biology and ecology of the San Joaquin kit fox, (2) discuss its current conservation status and continuing threats, (3) detail recent research and conservation efforts, and (4) describe future conservation needs and challenges. And when possible, Dr. Cypher will offer suggestions for actions and measures the CDFW might consider implementing to facilitate kit fox conservation efforts.

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