DOCSLIB.ORG

ACR Bulletin Spring 2013

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
ACR Bulletin Spring 2013 AUDUBON CANYON RANCH Number 52 BULLETIN Spring 2013 INSIDE THIS ISSUE THE NEXT 50 YEarS FALL FOR OUR NEW PRESERVES CREatiVE LEGacY GiftS WHat INSpirES RANCH GUIDES ArtSY LEttERS frOM KIDS PHOTOS, EVENTS AND MORE 50 Years and Still Gaining Ground Page 2 Audubon Canyon Ranch 50 Years and Still Gaining Ground www.egret.org Bold Plans for ACR’s Success ENVISIONING THE NEXT 50 YEarS by J. Scott Feierabend and Bryant Hichwa Imagine entering the Martin Griffin countless volunteers made Audubon • More opportunities for public Preserve and seeing the iconic West Canyon Ranch a gateway to the natural visitation and enhanced Marin farmhouse sporting a fresh coat world, hundreds of thousands of feet educational experiences of paint, with its doors open wide to have walked the trails on our Marin • Improved interpretative displays welcome visitors to the treasures of the and Sonoma County preserves. and interactive educational preserve. Once inside the farmhouse, During these 50 years, nature and materials you learn about Audubon Canyon seasonal rhythms have weathered and • Reduced carbon emissions Ranch’s rich legacy and conservation worn our buildings and their facilities. and increased energy and leadership, and linger in a new, well- This fall, as our anniversary gift to water conservation stocked and expanded bookstore. the community, ACR will launch an Creating a deeper experience From there, you stroll over to the organization-wide refurbishment Special projects are planned Display Hall to view newly and improvement initiative of for the Martin Griffin Preserve, refreshed exhibits and a unprecedented scope—called the Bouverie Preserve and Cypress “smart” classroom, serving over 50/Fifty Initiative—which Grove Research Center. Combined, 3,000 schoolchildren each year. will include restoration the projects will enhance visitor Then, you explore preserve trails to projects on each of understanding of the local ecology rejuvenate your soul and restore your its preserves. Each and provide a deeper appreciation of spirit by reconnecting with nature. thoughtfully the important work Audubon Canyon developed project will yield myriad Thousands of footprints Ranch conducts each and every day. benefits to the environment and the Since 1962, when Stan Picher, The 50/Fifty Initiative is a gateway communities we serve by providing: Aileen Pierson, Marty Griffin and to ACR’s next 50 years and a reminder please turn to Envisioning the Next 50 Years, page 10 Audubon Canyon Ranch FOUNDER Flora Maclise Julie Allecta David Kavanaugh ACR ADVISORS Leslie R. Perry George Peyton, Jr. 1st Vice President Andy Lafrenz Gerry Snedaker L. Martin Griffin, M.D. Tom Baty Helen Pratt André Brewster Amy LaGoy Betsy Stafford Emeritus Director Gordon Bennett Paul Ruby 2nd Vice President Helen McKenna Francis Toldi Len Blumin EMERITUS Jean Starkweather Diane Jacobson Valerie Merrin Barbara Winter DIRECTORS Patti Blumin Sue Stoddard Secretary Ivan Obolensky Patrick Woodworth Suzie Coleman Deborah Ablin Barbara Kosnar Judy Prokupek Nancy Young BOARD OF Roberta Downey Richard B. Baird Treasurer Bill Richardson DIRECTORS Peter Ehrlich Nancy Barbour Directors Diana Sanson Tony Gilbert Binny Fischer Officers Amy Blackstone April Starke Slakey Jim Horan Leslie Flint Bryant Hichwa Anna-Marie Bratton Stephen Smith Alan Margolis, M.D. Robert Hahn President Sam Dakin Lowell Sykes Dan Murphy Jack Harper Jesse Grantham STAFF Finance and Education, Julie Keating Administration Preserve Stewardship J. Scott Feierabend Development Conservation Science Weekend Program Yvonne Pierce David Greene Executive Director Didi Wilson and Habitat Protection Facilitator, MGP Executive Administrator/ Land Steward, CGRC John Petersen Director of Development John Kelly, Ph.D. Theo Michaels MGP Manager John Martin Chief Operating Officer & Communications Director of Conservation Resource Ecologist, BP Leslie Sproul Land Steward, BP Maurice A. ‘Skip’ Schwartz Trisha Fontan Science Sarah Millus Receptionist/ Tomas Ruiz Senior Advisor and Administrative Aide Sherry Adams Helen Pratt Field Biologist Office Assistant, MGP Land Steward, MIEP Executive Director Jennifer Newman Biologist & Preserve Jennifer Potts Nancy Trbovich Steve Trivelpiece Emeritus Annual Fund and Manager, MIEP & MMS Resource Ecologist, BP BP Manager Land Steward, MGP Communications Officer Emiko Condeso David Self Barbara Wechsberg, Stephen Pozsgai Ecologist/GIS Specialist Naturalist, MMS Cashier Controller Gwen Heistand Jeanne Wirka Receptionist, MGP Resident Biologist, MGP Resident Biologist, BP Raquel Ximenes Community Outreach Coordinator Martin Griffin Preserve (MGP) • Bouverie Preserve (BP) • Cypress Grove Research Center (CGRC) Modini Ingalls Ecological Preserve (MIEP) • Mayacamas Mountains Sanctuary (MMS) Bulletin 52, Spring 2013 Page 3 50 Years and Still Gaining Ground Mayacamas Mountains Sanctuary and the Modini Ingalls Ecological Preserve FALLING FOR ACR’S NEW PRESERVES by David Self In two short months (December or note about the preserve—and I am which drain to the Russian River near and January), my mind, eyes and heart humbled by all of these. I want to get Cloverdale, Jimtown and Healdsburg. have been captured by ACR’s newest to know the lions, bears and ranchers, Protecting Mayacamas lands preserves, the Mayacamas Mountains the robin, the eagle and birders, the These two preserves are also core to Sanctuary and the Modini Ingalls wildflowers, shrubs, trees and the 12,000 acres of contiguous habitat in Ecological Preserve. botanists. the Mayacamas Mountains protected I am mesmerized by the wild I want to the hike all of these hills through conservation easements with canyons and crags, the vistas and clouds, and canyons and hear the histories and the Sonoma County Agricultural and the mossy and lichen-crusted stories. Such a wealth from which to Preservation and Open Space District boulders that glow in the fog. learn . and share. (SCAPOSD), or as public land. I see barren sea-green Audubon Canyon Ranch serpentine outcrops and hear will continue collaborating with music from the riffles along Little SCAPOSD and other local Sulphur Creek. I am intrigued organizations and agencies on by the stark tree skeletons that the management, research and reach up from the site of the educational use of the preserves. 2004 Geysers Fire and are now surrounded by a riot of new trees Partnering for preservation and resprouts, some already 30 Ownership and management feet tall. of the 1,620-acre Mayacamas Mountains Sanctuary was shared Witnesses of history by National and California I am dwarfed by the Audubon, with ACR providing occasional towering yellow pine Trees charred by the 2004 Geysers Fire management assistance. and Douglas fir that withstood the A sweeping vista In May 2012, title to the property Geysers Fire and date back to the 1800s, These preserves, which together was transferred to Audubon Canyon and even earlier. total over 3,000 acres, occupy steep Ranch. Everywhere I see evidence of human slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains The Madrone Audubon Society, a history, highlighting the peoples who above Highway 128 and Jimtown in Sonoma County chapter of the National were once here: proud Wappo Indians, the Alexander Valley. With spectacular Audubon Society, has provided a vital early ranchers and mercury boomtown views of the valley, Mt. Saint Helena and presence in the Mayacamas Mountains residents. A wagon road built and the Coast Ranges, this place is home to Sanctuary since 1994, and today maintained by Chinese laborers served Black Bears, Mountain Lions, Golden continues to partner with ACR to offer rugged miners of the boomtown and Eagles, several sensitive animal and plant a wonderful series of natural history carried European royalty and other species, and a host of spring wildflowers. programs each spring. wealthy patrons by stagecoach to health Habitats include a mix of grassland, spas at the Geysers. Now the road is one Reserved for science serpentine outcrops, chaparral, oak of our hiking trails. The adjoining woodland and mixed evergreen forests, Modini Ingalls Getting acquainted as well as streams, creeks and springs. Ecological Longtime neighbors, residents and The peaks, ridges, ravines and valleys Preserve is over friends, both wild and human, have here are part of three healthy watersheds, 1,500 acres of shared a bit of time or left a track, story undisturbed continues on page 4 Page 4 Audubon Canyon Ranch 50 Years and Still Gaining Ground www.egret.org watershed, long protected by Jim and Come drive the road, but please Stay tuned! Together with the Shirley Modini, local ranchers and drive slowly and carefully—this is a Madrone Audubon Society and others, stalwart conservationists. This land is steep, rough, narrow, windy, one-lane ACR staff is organizing guided hikes dedicated to preservation and scientific country road with occasional blind and nature programs for this spring, research only, with no public access, at curves and is a very popular route for which will range from geology to the request of the Modinis. area bicyclists. wildflower photography, dragonflies, ACR has been assisting with Get oriented birding and history. We look forward management of the preserve since 2008 to exploring these dramatic wildlands For a permit to hike the sanctuary, and became the property owner in through the seasons with our new we require that you take part in an December 2012. friends in the community. access orientation session (see end of How to enjoy the preserves article for details). Offered monthly,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Manual Removal of Cape Ivy at Audubon Canyon Ranch's Bolinas
    Manual Removal of Cape Ivy at Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Bolinas Lagoon Preserve Len Blumin ([email protected]) Daniel Gluesenkamp ([email protected]) Introduction Cape ivy (Delairea odorata), an invasive vine from South Africa, has invaded many riparian areas of coastal California, and threatens thousands of acres of valuable habitat. This poster presents our 6 year experience in removing Cape ivy (CI) along a coastal creek and floodplain, using volunteer labor and a "modified scorched earth" approach. The Project – Audubon Canyon Ranch manages a system of nature preserves. Cape ivy appeared in ACR's Bolinas Lagoon Preserve before 1960 and by 1994 had invaded 6 acres in the flood plain of Volunteer Canyon (VC). In 1994 CI was identified as the highest priority invasive plant on the preserve. Encouraged by a successful CI removal pilot project in 1995, we set out to completely remove CI from Volunteer Canyon. The Site – The creek in Volunteer Canyon drops steeply through a mixed evergreen forest, flattens out as it enters the flood plain, then empties into Bolinas Lagoon. The canyon was logged from 1850 to 1875, supported ranching, farming and residential uses until the 1960s, and since 1968 has been used as an environmental education center and for ACR staff housing. While the preserve supports rich biodiversity and the canyon's slopes have few exotic plants other than non-native grasses, the flood plain is invaded by Cape ivy, Vinca major, and other non-indigenous plants listed in Table 1. Cape Ivy growth – By the mid 1970's the core Cape ivy population had covered 6.5 acres, as shown on the map.
    [Show full text]
  • Great Blue Herons Interrupt Nest-Guarding to Drink
    SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 501 attacking a Bald Eagle near a large stick nest only 10 We are grateful to J. B. Foster, S. G. Scaly, J. J. m from the ground. However, the nest contained a Hickey, and T. J. Cade for criticism of this manuscript large, young eagle and was the only such nest on the and for supporting funds from the Ecological Reserves island. Soon the adult male peregrine joined its mate Unit, Department of Environment, Victoria, British and became especially agitated and noisy near an old Columbia. spruce tree which had a large natural crack high up its trunk. A few pale feathers surrounded the hole LITERATURE CITED entrance, and several carcasses of recently eaten Rhinoceros Auklets were found in the vicinity, indi- BEEBE, F. L. 1960. The marine peregrines of the cating probable use by peregrines. northwest Pacific Coast. Condor 62: 145-189. Clearly, a small, tree-nesting population of Pere- BEEBE, F. L. 1974. Field studies of the Falconi- grine Falcons exists on islands off the northern coast formes (vultures, hawks, falcons and eagles) of of British Columbia, but we do not know whether this British Columbia. Occas. Pan. B.C. Prov. Mus. is a recent phenomenon. Campbell visited this area 17: 1-163. briefly in the early summer of 1970, and although CA~ZPBELL, R. W., AND D. STIRLING. 1971. A photo- adult peregrines were seen, no evidence of nesting duolicate file for British Columbia vertebrate was found. He may have overlooked tree nests, how- recbrds. Syesis 4~217-222. ever, because adult peregrines call only when intrud- DEMENTEV,’ G.
    [Show full text]
  • ACR's Olema Marsh and Restoration of The
    AUDUBON CANYON RANCH Number 44 BULLETIN Spring 2009 ACR’s Olema Marsh and Restoration of the Giacomini Wetlands RESTORING THE NATURAL HYDROLOGY OF TOMALES BAY by John Kelly single, lightning fast strike and splash mudflats, ponds, creeks, and emergent vegetation. of an egret’s bill can cause a wealth of Wetland life thrived, structured and fueled by Giacomini potential prey to dart and hide, making complicated patterns of tidal inundation and A Wetlands them temporarily unavailable to other predators. irregular pulses of runoff from a watershed that restoration Herons and egrets often overcome this fact by covers much of Marin County. The extravagant area, looking hunting in groups: prey that are busy fleeing flow of energy and nutrients through the system northwest, with from one forager are more easily caught by sustained a magnificent richness of estuarine newly introduced another. Nonetheless, prey concentrations fade life—but one that we can currently only imagine. tidewater quickly, forcing egrets to search for new feeding flooding into the opportunities in the surrounding landscape. Loss of a wetland treasure project area. When an area of intensive human use is In the 1800s, settlers came to western Marin ACR’s Olema returned to nature, processes like this drive the County, where they built ranches and dairy farms Marsh and assembly and arrangement of plants and animals. on the productive coastal prairies and logged the Levee Road are As new life appears, it coalesces into patches Douglas-fir and redwood forests along Inverness visible in the that swell, subside, shift, and intermingle. Intri- Ridge and in other parts of the Tomales Bay water- foreground.
    [Show full text]
  • ACR Bulletin Fall 2012
    AUDUBON CA NYON RA N C H Number 51 BULLETIN Fall 2012 INS I DE TH I S 50T H ANN I VE R S ar Y ISSUE TH A NKS FO R 50 YE ar S ACR HI S T O R Y HI GHL I GH T S HOW Bir DS SA VED Mari N Tri BU T E T O OU R BENEF act O R S PHO T OS , EVEN T S A ND M O R E Celebrating 50 Years Page 2 Audubon Canyon Ranch Celebrating 50 Years www.egret.org Leading the Environmental Community TH A NKS FO R 50 GR E at YE ar S by J. Scott Feierabend and Bryant Hichwa As we celebrate Audubon Canyon Leading environmental change shores of Tomales Bay in Marin Ranch’s 50th anniversary, we reflect on Because of the financial contribu- County to the wildlands of the remarkable accomplishments of this tions of our supporters and the tireless the Mayacamas Mountains in organization—and we thank and honor dedication of our volunteers, ACR is an northern and eastern Sonoma those who made these achievements enduring leader in the environmental County. possible . you! movement of the Bay Area: As we look to the past and all that The timeline in this Bulletin traces • Our science programs have we have accomplished together, we our collective journey through the past resulted in significant conservation must also look to the future and all that five decades. It is a remarkable story of gains for wetlands and other we aspire to achieve.
    [Show full text]
  • Management Framework for Protection of the Heronry at Martin Griffin Preserve
    Management framework for protection of the heronry at Martin Griffin Preserve: An assessment and response to the 2013 decline in Great Egret nesting in Picher Canyon Sarah A. Millus, John P. Kelly and T. Emiko Condeso Cypress Grove Research Center Audubon Canyon Ranch P.O. Box 808, Marshall, CA 94940 E-mail: [email protected] ACR Technical Report 67-1-3 © September 2013, Audubon Canyon Ranch Cypress Grove Research Center P. O. Box 808, Marshall, CA 94940 Executive Summary This is the final, comprehensive report regarding the 2013 nesting season at the Picher Canyon heronry at Martin Griffin Preserve, Stinson Beach, CA. As background information, the report contains relevant information about Great Egret nesting biology and a summary of the history of Great Egret nesting activity in Picher Canyon. This report also includes the complete evaluation of factors that may have contributed to the 2013 nesting failure, which is identical to a previous report (Millus et al. 2013, An assessment of the 2013 decline in Great Egret nesting in Picher Canyon, ACR Technical Report 67-1-2). Based on this information, we present a general management framework that incorporates the “precautionary principlea” to maximize the potential for colony recovery in the 2014 nesting season. The management framework includes the following key actions: Institute regular discussions involving science staff and Martin Griffin Preserve staff regarding changes in management at Picher Canyon Intensify monitoring of the heronry, including the installation of an infrared video camera Delay the public season until a minimum level of nesting success is observed Close the Henderson Overlook until a minimum level nesting success is observed Modify preserve maintenance activities in the canyon, January-August Eliminate or reduce traffic in the canyon January-August Close the canyon to major events January-August These actions will minimize disturbance and promote conditions that returning herons or egrets may require to initiate new nests next season.
    [Show full text]
  • ACR Bulletin Spring 2010
    AUDUBON CANYON RANCH Number 46 BULLETIN Spring 2010 Honoring our Past œ Celebrating the Future Gathering to Restore Oak Woodlands by Jeanne Wirka and Jennifer Potts On a recent Friday morning, 22 students from Sonoma Valley High School were playing “PVC golf” in the courtyard of David Bouverie’s house at Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Bouverie Preserve. Instead of clubs and greens, this golf game involves racing a golf ball across the courtyard through many short lengths of PVC pipe without touching the ball, dropping it, or going backward. It’s harder than it sounds, a fact not lost on the ACR staff members who, having been drafted to one of the two teams, are running in circles waving pieces of pipe. After six or seven tries, one of the teams manages to convey their golf ball to the finish line amid an explosion of hoots and high fives. Laughing and energized, the students reconvene and Students secure grow tubes with stakes to ensure the seedlings are protected when get down to the business that brought they emerge. them to the Bouverie Preserve in the (SSCRCD), grew out of ACR’s Habitat on Highway 12 and was therefore first place: laying over a mile of drip Protection 15-Year Action Plan, which willing to fund restoration at the line and installing emitters for the 400 identified the abandoned vineyards Bouverie Preserve. Because it could oak trees they helped to plant back in at the Bouverie Preserve as a high not contract directly with ACR due December as part of ACR’s new habitat priority for ecological restoration.
    [Show full text]
  • Breeding Biology of Great Blue Herons and Common Egrets in Central California
    BREEDING BIOLOGY OF GREAT BLUE HERONS AND COMMON EGRETS IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA HELEN M. PRATT 337 Jean Street Mill Valley, California 94941 Information available in the ornithological structed on the south-facing slope of the literature about breeding biology of the Great canyon, observers can look over the tops of Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and the Com­ the nesting trees and study the breeding birds. mon Egret (Casmerociius albus) is fragmen­ Nests are about 100-200 yards from the over­ tary at best. Breeding behavior preceding and look, and the birds appear to be undisturbed during pair formation of the Great Blue by the presence of observers. All observations Heron has been described by Bent (1926), were taken from this overlook. Cottrille and Cottrille ( 1958), and Meyer­ None of the other Ardeidae have been ob­ riecks ( 1960) . Miller ( 1943 ) comments on served nesting at Audubon Canyon Ranch to some aspects of breeding biology of the Great date, although a few Snowy Egrets ( Leu­ Blue Heron in the Philadelphia region but cophoyx thula) perched briefly in the heronry his data suffer from lack of quantification. In in both years of the study. Black-crowned fact, the recurrent themes in the most com­ Night Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) and plete summary to date of information about Snowy Egrets commonly feed in the lagoon, this species (Palmer 1962) are "quantitative and Green Herons (Butorides virescens) are data lacking," and "more information needed." . occasionally seen there also. Studies of the Common Egret are even more limited than those of the Great Blue METHOD Heron. Little has been added to knowledge Each nest, when established, was plotted and num­ of its reproduction since Bent (1926) wrote bered on a panorama of the heronry.
    [Show full text]
  • Strategic Plan Adopted 1.26.2019
    2019–2022 AUDUBON CANYON RANCH Strategic Plan Adopted 1.26.2019 Bouverie Preserve Cypress Grove Research Center Martin Griffin Preserve Modini Preserve Carlos Porrata Photo: 1 | ACR Strategic Plan, 2019–2022 Our Mission Connecting nature, people and science in a rapidly changing world Our Vision Inspired and informed communities use scientific knowledge to build a resilient, sustainable society that respects the intrinsic value of our natural world. ACR’s Great Egret telemetry project begins at the edge of the marsh at Toms Point, Tomales Bay. Fake, decoy egrets and live fish are used to lure wild egrets to traps. Photo: Scott Jennings 2 | ACR Strategic Plan, 2019–2022 2019–2022 Planning for resiliency A letter from Executive Director John Petersen and Board President Phillip Carlsen Dear ACR Community, In January 2019, the ACR Board of Directors met a critical milestone by adopting this four-year strategic plan to guide us as we build on our robust history of regional conservation and confront today’s evolving environmental challenges. In recent years, ACR added exciting new programs to our acclaimed education, conservation science, and stewardship initiatives, prompting the creation of a cohesive vision for the future that re-articulates our mission and values and directs the path forward. The strategic plan focuses on four key goals to help guide our organization into the future and improve effectiveness in fulfilling our mission. It directs us to use our preserves as healthy living laboratories, maximize new opportunities that produce local results with global implications, increase our influence as regional conservation leaders, and rebuild the Bouverie Preserve facilities that were lost in the Nuns Fire.
    [Show full text]
  • Year End Report 2016 Our Workshop on Board Roles And
    Year End Report 2016 Dear Friend and Fan of West Marin, GRANTS: You may be seeking a bright spot amid the uncertainties of Our recent Autumn round brought our West Marin Fund current events. You’ll find it here. The West Marin Fund grants total to $475,000 to more than 50 organizations supported many heartening efforts this past year through over the past 4 years. These 240 grants have made a big grants, community convenings, trainings & celebrations. difference to the groups receiving them. A sign at a Bolinas farm stand: “We still have each other!” “The West Marin Fund supports projects that others Indeed, taking care of one another here in this place that we wouldn’t even know to consider. This is invaluable funding love is as important as ever. The needs prevail: housing, so we can spend time on services, not on paperwork.” seniors, youth. Addressing them locally is what we do. -Wendy Friefeld, West Marin Community Services Please know that your support at the local level is meaningful. You strengthen West Marin’s non-profits through your memberships, your donations and through the West Marin Fund – the organization focused on the wellbeing of all of coastal West Marin. OVERVIEW BY THE NUMBERS: In 2016 the West Marin Fund accomplished the following: • Made capacity-building grants and other gifts to local nonprofits, getting $132,000 where it was needed most. • Convened 2 ConFabs, drawing a full house of nonprofit Coastal Health Alliance used a WMF grant to purchase an inter-oral camera leaders to our free skill-building workshops.
    [Show full text]
  • Auduboncanyonranch
    AudubonCanyonRanch Number 33 BULLETIN Fall 2003 Generations of a Living Landscape by Gwen Heistand GORDON SHERMAN All morning at Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Bolinas lowtail caterpillars are still inching slowly in search of Lagoon Preserve I have been watching two Northern a suitable place to pupate. Deer twins, whose after- flickers carrying food to their highly vocal young in birth I watched their mother lick from them two the alder bog. At the same time, an Allen’s humming- months ago, have almost lost their spots. And through bird pair cavort and click around the top of a tobacco it all the Swainson’s thrushes sing. It is July in tree. Thirty-seven California quail babies (yes, 37!) Volunteer Canyon and I am nearly breathless from and assorted parents chuckle and chuff as they com- watching one generation folding into the next. plete their morning laps in the driveway. A young The land, too, is generational. The flicker’s alder brush rabbit leaves its sanctuary in the fenced-in gar- bog seems so complete, so well established. And yet I den to join them. On the lagoon, great egrets (some know that it is a result of the big storms of 1982-1983. of them recently fledged chicks) are silhouetted as I know that it is in a waning phase, that alders are not they feed on the outgoing tide. An American long-lived, that the snags created from downed trees goldfinch couple that set up shop in the streamside are what attract the numerous cavity nesters. I am also bamboo this year visits cow parsnip flower heads now aware of what I’m not seeing: teaching ponds dug in brown and full of seeds.
    [Show full text]
  • Heron August 2016 Issue 300 (Old Pages)
    Issue 300 A Publication of the Docent Council, Martin Griffin Preserve of Audubon Canyon Ranch © August 2016 Life Underfoot By Gwen Heistand The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all. Wendell Berry I spent much of my youth in woods and fields, creeks and ponds, salt marshes and coastal strands of the northeast. There were times, especially in the spring, when I was so overcome by sunlight on dappled leaves and the smell of wet, fertile earth that I would throw myself into the leaf litter with wild abandon. I would dig down so my eyes were at the level of wild lily-of-the-valleys pushing up through the earth. I would burrow into moist patches of skunk cabbage, feeling mud ooze between my toes. I would insinuate myself among the roots of pale touch-me-nots, and spend hours popping seed pods – my own private firework display. I was part of everything and everything was new and old at the same time. And of course the longer I spent wrapped in moist leaves and soil, the more I saw. Eventually I would turn over and the view of upwardly mobile plants shifted to earthworms and pillbugs, spiders and beetles, tiny hoppers and bright red mites going about their business. An old magnifying glass opened up an even smaller world … life teeming underfoot. Even the name given to the soil and leaf litter environment is laced with the promise of discovery – the cryptoshpere – the hidden world. Some folks have called it the poor man’s rainforest, indicating the magnitude of species diversity and all we don’t know.
    [Show full text]
  • The ARDEID 2003
    Research and Resource Management at Audubon Canyon Ranch Ardeidthe ◗ 25 years of heron and egret monitoring Marin Islands ◗ tidal return Livermore Marsh ◗ population explosion introduced turkeys ◗ bird biodiversity report Tomales Bay ◗ ACR’s other science agenda visiting investigators 2003 the ARDEID 2002 In this issue A Tale of Two Islands: 25 years of monitoring heron and egret monitoring at the Marin Islands ◗ by John P. Kelly ......................................................................................................................page 1 The Return of Tidal Circulation: Breeding and winter bird use in Livermore Marsh ◗ by Katie Etienne......................................................................................................................page 4 Introduced Turkeys: California’s latest population explosion ◗ by Daniel Gluesenkamp ....page 6 Bird Alphabet Soup: A report on the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory of Tomales Bay ◗ by John P. Kelly ......................................................................................................................page 8 The Other Scientific Agenda: Visiting investigators on ACR lands ◗ by John P. Kelly ........page 13 In Progress: Project updates ◗ ................................................................................................page 15 Cover photo: Common Goldeneye by Kenneth W. Gardiner ◗ Ardeid masthead Great Blue Heron ink wash painting by Claudia Chapline Audubon Canyon Ranch The Watch Research and Resource Volunteers for ACR research or habitat restoration
    [Show full text]