CNDDB News Blog

As the CNDDB program celebrates its 40th birthday this month it seems appropriate to shift our gaze backward.

While the current version of our field survey form is a website, the earlier forms were actual sheets of paper completed in the field. We look upon these old forms with a certain reverence. Our world is in constant change and these documents allow us a glimpse into California’s past.

Here is a CNDDB field survey form from 1980 for Santa Cruz tarplant, Holocarpha macradenia. This population of plants was extirpated during development over the following few years. Only a few handwritten pages remain to show this species ever occurred at this site.

While our program receives a continuous supply of recent data, about a quarter of the sources we use were actually created prior to the establishment of CNDDB. Most older sources are either journal articles or specimen records.

CNDDB has always been a database about history. Each and every one of our records are from the past, whether for a rare species found last month or a century ago. In the last 40 years our tools have evolved, our staff has changed, and many of California’s habitats have been altered permanently. Now, as our program enters its fifth decade, we hope the CNDDB is more relevant than ever. Our data is all about the past. Our mission is all about the future.

Our database was founded by The Nature Conservancy 40 years ago, in November of 1979. Two years later the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (then California Department of Fish and Game) took over the CNDDB. Our department has been continuously updating the database ever since.

The earliest work was done by hand on paper maps. Our processes have shifted year-by-year as new technology has been made available. Our methods have evolved, but throughout it all we have remained committed to our original mission of delivering information on imperiled species to scientists, decision makers, and the public.

If you could go back into the 1970’s for a moment, what would people say if you told them you could pull a phone from your pocket, use it to snap a photo of a flower, and also record your precise latitude and longitude at that same instant?

What will the next 40 years hold? Change, for sure. Expect new technology, increased human population, climate change, and…?

Unexpected things will happen!

Topographic map with hand-drawn CNDDB element occurrences from the middle 1980's.

Photo credit: Abigail Cramer, Rachel Powell, and Annie Chang

A couple of CNDDB staff recently volunteered to accompany permitted biologists from Area West Environmental to survey for California tiger salamanders at the SMUD Nature Preserve Mitigation Bank at Rancho Seco. Yearly monitoring visits to a mitigation site are vital to evaluating the success of restoration efforts, and often required by USFWS when approving a mitigation plan for threatened or endangered species.

The mitigation bank consists of both natural and man-made vernal pools which provide habitat for many native plants and animals, including the federally listed California tiger salamander. The California tiger salamander spends most of its life underground, only emerging after winter rains to breed and lay eggs in seasonal pools. When the SMUD mitigation bank first restored pools, California tiger salamanders were only found in pools near the margins of the restoration area, but today they can be found throughout the site.

We visited constructed vernal pools on the property to check for presence of salamander larvae and record measures of habitat quality. Not only did we find California tiger salamanders, we also observed vernal pool tadpole shrimp (federally listed as Endangered), western spadefoot (California Species of Special Concern), western toad, clam shrimp, garter snake, and chorus frog.

Thank you to Becky, Area West, and SMUD for the amazing opportunity to gain hands-on experience, and for submitting data to the CNDDB!

While much of the mitigation bank is closed to the public, the 7-mile Howard Ranch Trail traverses portions of the SMUD Nature Preserve, showcasing beautiful natural vernal pools and oak woodlands.