Species Accounts Appendix D
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Appendix D Species Accounts Appendix D. Species Accounts February 2016 The species accounts provide a summary of the biology of the Covered Species addressed in the Placer County Conservation Program, Western Placer County HCP/NCCP: Birds 1. Swainson's hawk 2. California black rail 3. Western burrowing owl 4. Tricolored blackbird Reptiles 5. Giant garter snake 6. Western pond turtle Amphibians 7. Foothill yellow-legged frog 8. California red-legged frog Fish 9. Steelhead 10. Chinook salmon Invertebrates 11. Valley elderberry longhorn beetle 12. Vernal pool fairy shrimp 13. Vernal pool tadpole shrimp 14. Conservancy fairy shrimp Each species account contains a description, an envirogram, and a map of the species occurrence and modeled habitat in Western Placer County. The description typically presents information on: Regulatory Status Distribution Population status and trends Natural history Threats Context for a regional conservation strategy Modeled species distribution in the Plan Area References The envirograms use a flowchart to show the most important ecological factors that affect a population or group of populations of a particular species. See description below. The maps show known occurrence records and modeled potential habitat. The occurrence data and the methodology for habitat modeling is described in Chapter 3, Section 3.3.2 Covered Species. Most Covered Species are associated with one or more land cover types. Land cover associations and spatial habitat features (e.g., elevation, proximity to other land cover types) were used to develop habitat distribution models. The models are an approximation: not all of a land cover type will include the specific habitat requirements for a species, and conversely, habitat may be present in small-scale landscape features that were not mapped. Envirograms Envirograms were created for each species from the information contained in the species accounts. The envirograms are included as a component of the Covered Species accounts at the recommendation of the Report of the Science Advisors for the Placer County Natural Communities Conservation Plan and Habitat Conservation Plan, Planning Principles, Uncertainties, and Management Recommendations, January 8, 2004. The envirograms were prepared under the direction of Peter Brussard, PhD, University of Nevada, Reno, chairman of the science advisors. The following description is adapted from that report: An envirogram is a tool that sharpens our understanding of the most important ecological factors that affect a population or group of populations of a particular species. The concept was developed originally by Andrewartha and Birch (1984), and envirograms were first applied to conservation planning by James et al. (1997) who used them to identify factors limiting the abundance of endangered Red-cockaded Woodpeckers in the southeastern United States. The version described below is modified somewhat from these previous applications. An envirogram consists of a “centrum,” components of the environment that directly affect a species’ chances to survive and reproduce, and several “webs,” distal factors that act in sequence to affect the proximate components of the centrum. The centrum consists of four major categories, resources, reproduction, hazards, and dispersal. Each of these can be subdivided as necessary. For example, resources could be subdivided into foraging habitats, breeding habitats, and food; reproduction could be divided into finding mates, nesting, and fledging. Hazards can be divided into predators (an animal that consumes the subject species in whole or part) and “malentities” (organisms or events that can adversely influence the subject species in other ways such as a cow stepping on a dispersing western spadefoot or the premature drying of a vernal pool). Dispersal also can be subdivided since it can occur at different times in a species’ life cycle and it can be either local (such as moving from one habitat type another) or long-distance. The web identifies the underlying ecological processes or human actions that influence each centrum component. The idea is that distal factors in the web flow in to activate proximate components of the centrum. Each of these flows is called a pathway. Pathways in the web are constructed from right to left, with Web-1 factors directly affecting centrum components, Web-2 factors affecting Web-1 factors, and so on. It is usually unnecessary to have more than three webs to track a centrum component along a pathway to its ultimate underlying influence. A web factor can have both positive and negative aspects. For example, precipitation is critical to vernal pools. Too little rain results in pools that dry up before their dependent species can complete their life cycles, but greater than average rainfall can result in flooding and dispersal of individuals among pools— an event necessary for gene flow and to replenish dwindling populations. The centrum components of the envirograms should be accurate reflections of the information in the species profiles, and the web pathways should be logical linkages of indirect environmental components to the proximate drivers of population processes in the centrum. Envirograms are not intended to be stand-alone documents but should be used in conjunction with species profiles and maps showing the distribution of populations and suitable habitat. They are considered to be “works in progress” and always can be modified by new and better information. The webs identify the underlying ecological processes or human actions that influence each Direct Component. Distal factors in the web activate proximate components. Each of these pathways in the web are constructed from right to left, with Indirect Components immediately to the left of Direct Components directly affecting the Direct Component, and secondary Indirect Components affecting primary Indirect Components. Management Problems can directly affect the Indirect Components, and Mitigation Actions provide solutions to remedy the Management Problems. Species Accounts Swainson’s Hawk (Buteo swainsoni) Swainson’s Hawk (Buteo swainsoni) Status Federal: Bird Species of Conservation Concern; Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act State: Threatened Critical Habitat: Not Applicable (N/A) Recovery Plan: N/A © 2007 Martin Meyers http://sierrabirdbum.com Distribution North America Swainson’s hawk inhabits grasslands, sage-steppe plains, and agricultural regions of western North America during the breeding season and winters in grassland and agricultural regions from Central Mexico to southern South America (Woodbridge et al. 1995a; Bechard et al. 2010). The North American breeding range extends north from California to British Columbia east of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges, east to Saskatchewan, and south to northern Mexico (Bechard et al. 2010). Small numbers also breed in interior valleys of British Columbia (Campbell et al. 1990 as cited in Bechard et al. 2010). Several disjunct populations occur throughout the breeding range; these include populations in Alaska, western Missouri, and the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, as well as the valleys of the Sierra Nevada, in California (Bechard et al. 2010). Swainson’s hawk is a long distance migrant. The majority of the population winters in South America, primarily on the Argentine pampas. It appears, however, that the California population is distinctive in that it winters in Mexico, Central America, and Columbia, although a few have been discovered spending a portion of the winter in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta in the last decade (Bechard et al. 2010). They are also regular, but uncommon, in Florida in the winter (Bechard et al. 2010). California In California, the nesting distribution includes Great Basin sage-steppe communities and associated agricultural valleys in extreme northeastern California, isolated valleys in the Sierra Nevada in Mono and Inyo Counties, the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, and at least one known isolated breeding site in the Mojave Desert. The majority of Swainson’s hawks in California nest in Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Yolo counties with Solano, Merced, Stanislaus, Sutter, Glenn, and Colusa counties all important to the central range of the bird (Bradbury 2009). Also important are the Swainson’s hawks found in Owens Velley and Klamath Basin, though these are considered part of the Great Basin population since they nest east of the Sierra crest (Bradbury 2009). The historic breeding distribution also included much of southern California, particularly the inland valleys, where the species was once considered common (Sharp 1902; Bent 1937; Bloom 1980). Breeding populations in California have been extirpated or are Placer County Conservation Program – 1 February 2016 Western Placer County HCP/NCCP Species Accounts Swainson’s Hawk (Buteo swainsoni) nearly extirpated from coastal southern California, the Mojave Desert, and the central Coast Ranges (Bloom 1980). Placer County Plan Area Historical Suitable habitat for Swainson’s hawk is limited to extreme western Placer County, where breeding habitat was probably limited to very large openings in oak woodland/savanna and riparian corridors along Auburn Ravine and Coon Creek. Current Swainson’s hawk nests and forages primarily in the valley portion of the Plan Area, below 400 feet elevation. Swainson’s hawk has a very patchy distribution in western Placer County. There are seventeen relatively recent records (one in 1996, the rest between 2001 and 2014) of nesting in the