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Showing 133 results for PCSLC ...
- Type: Article
Working within the structure of the One Tamalpais Collaborative, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy received $400,000 in funding through the California Wildlife Conservation Board’s pollinator rescue program to invest in protection of monarch butterflies in Marin County.
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Scientists Use Sediment Cores to Look Into the Past at Rodeo Lagoon
- Type: Article
Have you ever wondered what an environment looked like in the past? Or how much human-caused change has altered an area? So have scientists at Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the US Geological Survey! Sediment cores can act like windows into the past, containing information like what animals lived there and what their surroundings were like. In fall 2020, scientists collected about 21 four-inch sediment cores from throughout Rodeo Lagoon.
- Type: Article
The 2021-2022 elephant seal pupping and breeding season is just getting underway at Point Reyes National Seashore. The elephant seal monitoring crew recorded the season’s first pup on December 25th. Drakes Beach was closed on January 5th due to a large number of male seals in front of the Ken Patrick Visitor Center. It will remain closed unless seal numbers decrease. Other annual beach closures are also in effect.
- Type: Article
Visitors to Muir Woods National Monument may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of endangered coho salmon in Redwood Creek. Read on for the answers to several frequently asked questions about these fascinating fish.
- Type: Article
A pair of peregrine falcons has been active on Alcatraz Island since January 2019. While it is not unusual to see peregrines on Alcatraz during the fall and winter months, they usually depart by February. But last year, the peregrines remained active on the island through the spring and summer months. This year, on March 3, a photo was taken of the peregrines mating on the Alcatraz Water Tower. If are now nesting on Alcatraz, it will be the first time in recorded history.
- Type: Article
Harbor seals are year-round residents of San Francisco Bay Area waters. But they don't just stay in the water. They also need safe places to come ashore to rest, shed their fur, and raise their young. They “haul out” in several coves, lagoons, and estuaries along the coast, and at many sites within the San Francisco Bay.
- Type: Article
During the waterbird nesting season on Alcatraz Island (~March-September), docents are stationed near the colonial waterbird colonies. Using spotting scopes and binoculars to view waterbirds incubating eggs or feeding chicks, docents teach visitors about the ecology of nesting gulls, cormorants, herons, and egrets. However, waterbirds are not Alcatraz’s only avian inhabitants. In the winter months, these same waterbird docents assist with Island-wide bird counts.
- Type: Article
Waterbirds, which nested on Alcatraz Island long before people built upon it, have been reclaiming parts of the island in recent decades. But Alcatraz Natural Resources staff hadn't seen anything quite like the 2021 nesting season. It was one for the record books, with numbers far surpassing previous years' estimates. It’s been quite a journey for one species in particular—the Brandt’s cormorant. The Island's great blue herons and peregrine falcons also had a good year.
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
In Conservation Milestone, Staff Complete First Outplanting of Endangered Hickman's Potentilla in Golden Gate
- Type: Article
Hickman’s potentilla is a federally endangered herb in the rose family that produces charming yellow flowers with heart-shaped petals. About 99% of all known individuals occur at Rancho Corral de Tierra in San Mateo County, CA. In early January, Golden Gate National Recreation Area staff took a new step in their quest to conserve Hickman's potentilla, outplanting it at Rancho for the first time.
Pinnacles National Park
New Condor Behavior Caught on Camera
- Type: Article
California condor nesting season is well underway in Pinnacles National Park. This year, three separate pairs are nesting in the park, and biologists have a video camera on one of the nests. This camera is proving to be an incredible tool. It is also recording condor behavior that has never been observed before.
- Type: Article
The Wilderness Act has been a leading instrument of conservation for nearly 60 years, providing the highest level of protection for federal lands. National parks account for more than half of wilderness lands, offering protection first as a park and then as wilderness. But what portion of these wilderness areas are marine? Just two parks on the Pacific include marine waters in their wilderness boundaries: Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve and Point Reyes National Seashore.
- Type: Article
Scientists have abundant data on bird population trends and on climate change impacts to habitats around the world. For birds that stay in one place year round, linking the two to study bird population responses to climate change is relatively straightforward. But migratory birds spend time in different places at different times. As a result, all of that existing data isn’t enough to tease apart how climate impacts birds at different stages of their annual journeys.
Point Reyes National Seashore
Community Science at the Seashore
- Type: Article
Community science is a collaborative movement that makes research more inclusive and democratic. In community science programs, anyone can collect scientific data for ongoing research projects. In this way, community members participate in research and contribute to better understandings of the species and habitats that surround us. Here at Point Reyes National Seashore, there are several community science programs focused on monitoring marine and coastal ecosystems.
- Type: Article
Black abalone are endangered marine snails. When I told people that I was making a podcast about them, I was often met with the question, “Why black abalone?” If you are curious too, you’re in the right place. I hope to elucidate why black abalone represent an interesting case study in delicate balances: between marine and terrestrial, ancient and Anthropocene, and vulnerability and resiliency in the context of roles they play in their communities and in ours.
- Type: Article
It’s ironic: the official bird of San Francisco and the State of California, the native California quail, is locally extinct within the city of San Francisco. Land managers have mused about reintroducing the iconic species. But what would it take?
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Coyote Tracking in the Marin Headlands
- Type: Article
Beginning fall 2020, Golden Gate National Recreation Area wildlife biologists will use temporary remote tracking collars to learn about the population size and movements of coyotes in the Marin Headlands. Information from this study will be used to improve coyote education and outreach, with a focus on addressing the coyote feeding and habituation issues.
- Type: Article
Keeping invasive plants at bay is a powerful way to help native plants and wildlife flourish. But that’s no easy task when you aren’t quite sure where they are; first, you have to find them. The One Tam Conservation Management Team recently set out to do just that to help land managers keep one particular species of concern off of upper Mount Tamalpais: thoroughwort (Ageratina adenophora).
- Type: Article
This year has been a roller coaster for scientists keeping tabs on the Bay Area’s most at-risk insect—the San Francisco forktail damselfly. They’ve had some good news—the first population estimate in five years revealed stable numbers despite the drought—but also been confronted with diminishing water levels threatening the species' remaining stronghold near Fort Point like never before.
- Type: Article
After a long hiatus due to concerns of the unknown risk of transferring COVID-19 from humans to bats, the Marin Bat Monitoring Project team was finally able to safely resume the bat-handling portion of our research this summer.
- Type: Article
What impact could prescribed and cultural burnings have on the distribution of Sudden Oak Death? Community plant monitoring bio tech Danielle Parson's reflects on her experiences monitoring oak woodland plant communities that are suffering from Sudden Oak Death. and considers what it would take to collaboratively steward these special places.