CNDDB News Blog

Carrizo Plains Ecological Reserve, over 38,900 acres in size, is located in the Coast Range adjacent to Carrizo Plains National Monument. It was historically established as a cattle ranch in the 1800s and was acquired by CDFW in the early 2000s. The reserve is composed of diverse habitat such as scrubland, oak and juniper woodland, yucca slopes, and expansive annual grassland, which supports a variety of wildlife and plants, including special status species.

With such a large reserve, one may wonder, what’s out there? A number of recurring surveys have been performed over the years to help answer this question. This year, CNDDB staff joined department biologists from the Wildlife Branch and Region 4 to conduct wildlife surveys focused on reptiles and amphibians.

A few creeks run through the reserve with man-made ponds along the drainages. Western pond turtles, western spadefoots, western toads, and chorus frogs have made these waterways and ponds their home. We surveyed the ponds for western pond turtles and western spadefoot, which are both California Species of Special Concern and tracked by the CNDDB.

Large pond along Barrett Creek (left). Spadefoot tadpole (center). Spot the turtle: an adult basking (right)

Over 250 coverboards were placed throughout the reserve in order to capture and record terrestrial herps that occur in the different habitat types. We often found nothing, but with a bit of luck, flipping the boards can reveal snakes, lizards or even small mammals sheltering underneath. Of course, watch out for rattlesnakes!

A coverboard nestled in grass (left). A side-blotched lizard (center) was found this year and small rattlesnake (right) in 2017.

The Carrizo Plain Ecological Reserve is one of 749 CDFW-owned lands throughout the state, and forms part of an important network of reserves and public land in the Carrizo Plain area. The Carrizo Plain is the largest intact native grassland left in California, and the 250,000 acres of public land in this area allow wildlife to range freely and make use of a diversity of habitat types.

Some other animals found on the reserve: elk, golden eagle, great horned owl, mountain lion

Number of Element Occurrences in Current Distribution: 93,015
Number of New Element Occurrences Added Since Last Distribution: 208
Number of Element Occurrences Updated Since Last Distribution: 315
Number of Source Documents Added: 1,509

Taxa we've been working on:

Botany

• Agave shawii var. shawii (Shaw's agave)
• Astragalus claranus (Clara Hunt’s milk-vetch)
• Botrychium minganense (Mingan moonwort)
• Calochortus palmeri var. munzii (San Jacinto mariposa-lily)
• Cirsium scariosum var. loncholepis (La Graciosa thistle)
• Croton wigginsii (Wiggins' croton)
• Howellia aquatilis (water howellia)
• Iliamna latibracteata (California globe mallow)
• Linanthus orcuttii (Orcutt’s linanthus)
• Mentzelia tridentata (creamy blazing star)
• Monardella undulata ssp. crispa (crisp monardella)
• Oreostemma elatum (tall alpine-aster)
• Penstemon filiformis (thread-leaved beardtongue)
• Penstemon personatus (closed-throated beardtongue)
• Puccinellia simplex (California alkali grass)
• Scutellaria bolanderi ssp. austromontana (southern mountain skullcap)
• Stellaria longifolia (long-leaved starwort)
• Utricularia intermedia (flat-leaved bladderwort)

Zoology

• Catostomus platyrhynchus (mountain sucker)
• Gambelia sila (blunt-nosed leopard lizard)
• Oncorhynchus mykiss gilberti (Kern River rainbow trout)
• Ovis canadensis (bighorn sheep)
• Rana boylii (foothill yellow-legged frog)
• Rana cascadae (Cascades frog)
• Spea hammondii (western spadefoot)

Photo credit: Kristi Lazar
Photo caption: Left: Darlingtonia californica (CNPS List 4), Right: Pinguicula macroceras (CNPS List 2B.2)

Not all carnivores are in the order Carnivora – in fact some are plants! Carnivorous plants are plants that have adapted to trap insects as a nutritional supplement, to compensate for the nutrient-poor soils they usually grow in.

Most people are familiar with the Venus flytrap, which is native to the Carolinas, but there are other pretty cool carnivorous plants growing right under our noses here in California. CNDDB tracks several species of carnivorous plants which you may not have thought to look for in California – one species of sundew (Drosera anglica), one species of butterwort (Pinguicula macroceras), three bladderworts (Utricularia intermedia, U. minor, and U. ochroleuca), and our only native pitcher plant (Darlingtonia californica).

The California pitcher plant has large balloon-like leaves with a tiny exit hole, lined with slippery secretions and downward-pointing hairs, so that any insects unlucky enough to crawl inside cannot find their way out again and eventually die. Sundews and butterworts catch insects by secreting a sticky fluid and digestive enzymes onto their leaves, trapping insects like flypaper. Bladderworts have small round traps with lids growing from modified stems that float in the water or are buried in wet soil. These traps have trigger hairs at the opening so that when small organisms touch the hairs, the lid snaps open and sucks them in!

You can find these plants in the wild in bogs and seeps in the northern Sierras and on the North Coast. And remember to fill out an Online Field Survey Form if you see one of these neat plants!

Please join us for the next installment of the Conservation Lecture Series, where Dr. Nasseer Idrisi will talk about California Department of Fish and Wildlife monitoring of the Salton Sea. The monitoring has revealed concurrent declines in the tilapia population in the Sea and piscivorous birds that feed on the tilapia. Other fish surviving in the Salton Sea include desert pupfish (Cyprinodon macularius) and sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna). The piscivorous birds that use the Salton Sea as feeding grounds and are impacted by the decline in the fish population include American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), and double crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auratus).

Date: Wednesday, June 19, 10 a.m-12 p.m.
Register to view online.

Questions? Contact: Whitney.Albright@wildlife.ca.gov

Today’s Contributor Spotlight features Trish & Greg Tatarian, an inspiring couple who jointly own and operate Wildlife Research Associates (WRA), a Bay Area-based ecological consulting firm. Together, they have contributed over 300 source documents to CNDDB, which have provided data for hundreds of wildlife occurrences. In turn, they use CNDDB data at the start of almost every project during CEQA document preparation.

When Greg started WRA in 1991, his focus was humane wildlife damage control, and research on artificial roosts for bats. Trish, an amphibian expert, joined in 2000, opening WRA’s horizons to a multi-species approach. As a team, they have made great advances in bat avoidance and mitigation measures in the consulting world, and helped educate agency and independent biologists through California red-legged frog workshops they conducted for many years. Greg’s recent Conservation Lecture Series presentation on bat conservation further demonstrates the couple’s commitment to education.

They share a lifelong fascination with wildlife. Trish worked for years in wildlife rescue, while Greg’s passion for helping wildlife started with the coral reef aquarium industry, and a mentor who introduced him to humane solutions to human-wildlife conflicts. Trish’s personal career highlights thus far include peregrine falcon reintroduction efforts and California red-legged frog research throughout the state. In addition to his other work with bats, Greg is happiest when helping conserve bat species and their habitat through designing on- and in-structure bat roost replacement habitat for bridge upgrade/replacement projects.

Trish and Greg have tons of good advice for aspiring biologists! Here are some highlights:
Trish: “Try and get as much experience as possible from a wide variety of people... being a generalist is often more rewarding than being a species specialist. The more you look, the more you will see.”
Greg: “Volunteer for short-term projects for a wide range of species… you’ll learn so much from the specialists and those with extensive experience that will transfer to whatever field work you later conduct. Try to come to an understanding with yourself early on whether you have a strong desire to work in the field… field work isn’t for everyone, but it provides a set of experiences and observations that are unique.” As for co-owning a business with one’s spouse: “Field work is very rewarding as a team… it also helps that we get along well, which explains how we could live together on a 37’ sailboat for 10 years.”

When asked if they have a favorite plant or animal that they’ve worked with, Greg and Trish answered unanimously, like true field biologists: “Whichever one is in my hand!”

We thank the Tatarians for sharing their field data with CNDDB. Find them online at www.wildliferesearchassoc.com.

Want to be featured in CNDDB’s Contributor Spotlight? Contact Rachel at Rachel.Freund@wildlife.ca.gov.