National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Sierra Nevada Network

DEVILS POSTPILE • SEQUOIA & KINGS CANYON • YOSEMITE Volume 6, Issue 1 Sierra Nevada Monitor December 2016 Newsletter of the Sierra Nevada Inventory & Monitoring Network Bird BioBlitz: César E. Chávez National Monument

BioBlitz participants viewing birds in the oak woodlands of Cesar E. Chavez National Monument.

A small, but enthusiastic group gathered at César E. Chávez National Monument (CECH) on April 16, 2016 to survey birds as a BioBlitz event in celebration of the National Park Service

Centennial. The effort established the first bird list for the Google map showing the locations of the April 16th BioBlitz monument, documenting 43 species and over 350 individual bird observations for César E. Chávez National Monument near birds. Visit the iNaturalist site for an interactive map and more Keene, California. information about BioBlitz results. In This Issue Sierra Nevada Network (SIEN) staff coordinated this BioBlitz in Staffing Updates….………………2 collaboration with the CECH Superintendent Ruben Andrade and the Cesar Chavez Foundation. This was a great opportunity Data Management Review………3 for SIEN, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, and the What’s New at Devils Postpile….3 public volunteers to contribute biological information to this important historical site. Project Updates……………………4 Botanist Moves on to Utah……..6 “This was a great event for César Chávez National Monument,” said Superintendent Andrade. “Up until this survey, we had Inventories, Next Phase…………6 no information to share with the visitors about birds at the Foothill Botany Forays...... 7 monument. We now have the start of a bird list for our visitors. Reports and Publications ...... 7 It is my hope that we can host an event like this again next year.” I&M in Mongolian Parks.………..8 CECH was established in 2012 as a national monument by President Obama to mark the extraordinary achievements and New Field Station Director...... 9 contributions to the history of the United States made by César SEKI Science Symposium...... 10 Chávez and the farm worker movement. New Species...... 10

EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICATM December 7, 2016 Sierra Nevada New Data Manager: Alex Eddy Data Management Review Benefits Network Network Inventory The Sierra Nevada Network welcomes Sound data management is core to the success of a & Monitoring Alex Eddy as our new Data Manager. long-term monitoring program, where information Her primary interests lie in the must be accessible both for current managers and As part of the National Park Service’s effort nexus between the environment and scientists as well as those in the future, allowing to “improve park management through society — she is specifically focused evaluation of park resource condition for decades to greater reliance on scientific knowledge,” a on leveraging data and technology to come. The Sierra Nevada Network (SIEN) initiated primary role of the Inventory and Monitor- support resource decision-making an evaluation of its data/information management ing (I&M) Program is to collect, organize, and make available natural resource data and responsible environmental program in February 2016 to help guide the new data and to contribute to the Service’s institu- stewardship. manager and other SIEN staff in the coming years. tional knowledge by facilitating the trans- formation of data into information through Alex previously worked for Peter Lindstrom, Data Manager in Yosemite National analysis, synthesis, and modeling. the National Park Service as a Park, conducted the evaluation as a detail funded by Cartographic Technician at Sequoia the National Park Service Inventory & Monitoring Parks in the network are: César E. Chávez and Kings Canyon National Parks, Division (IMD). The SIEN staff is grateful to: Peter National Monument (CECH), Devils Postpile National Monument (DEPO), Sequoia & as well as at Gateway National for his thorough work and insights, Yosemite National Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI), and Recreation Area and the National Park for making him available, the IMD for funding Yosemite National Park (YOSE). Parks of New York Harbor. She has the detail and providing helpful input, and all the park also worked in positions at state and Alex Eddy, Black Canyon of the Gunnison staff who responded to survey questions and provided Sierra Nevada Network Peter Lindstrom, Yosemite Data Manager. local governments, and in several National Recreation Area, Colorado. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks thoughtful input and comments that informed the academic environments dedicated evaluation. review of data. More attention now is needed on 47050 Generals Highway in Geography (with a specialization in Three Rivers, California 93271 to exploring landscape-level data sharing and product production to mitigate Society and the Environment). http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/units/sien/ environmental issues. A brief summary of the evaluation is that SIEN has risks to data utility and longevity, and ensure that the the infrastructure and Information Technology As part of OSU’s Glacier Environmental information produced is available for years to come. Program Manager She has a strong foundation in science support its needs and has succeeded in designing and Change group, Alex integrated The report will be made available after outside Sylvia Haultain (559) 565-3788 and geospatial theory provided by her implementing a majority of its monitoring projects, [email protected] geochemical and spatiotemporal analysis reviews are complete. undergraduate and graduate studies creating procedures for the effective collection and to evaluate glacier-associated hydrologic at Ohio State University (OSU). Data Manager systems in the Peruvian Andes. Alex Eddy (559) 565-3709 She has a B.S. in Geography (with a [email protected] specialization in GIS and Analytical Alex will be stationed at the Sierra Nevada Cartography and a second major in What’s New at Devils Postpile? Physical Scientist Network office in Sequoia National Park. Geology) and a Master of Arts Degree Andi Heard (559) 565-3786 Two New Mammals Documented [email protected] Staff from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and the now retired SIEN Ecologist Data Manager Les Chow continued a mammal inventory initiated in 2015 in Jonny Nesmith (559) 565-3765 Andi Heard Now Permanent [email protected] Devils Postpile National Monument (DEPO). In June, they trapped a heather Physical Scientist vole (Phenacomys intermedius), a rare and typically high elevation mammal Administrative Assistant associated with heather, but at DEPO was found in a Jeffrey pine-lodgepole Physical Scientist Andi Heard, Jenny Matsumoto (559) 565-3787 stand. Another exciting finding was a flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) in [email protected] who has worked with the Sierra Nevada Network since 2004, first dense lodgepole pine in September. This is the first Science Communication Specialist as a student under a cooperative known record of this species for the upper San Linda Mutch (559) 565-3174 agreement with Colorado State Joaquin River basin! [email protected] University, and then as a term and Pathways physical scientist, was State of the Park Report Completed Please distribute this newsletter to hired as a permanent physical any person or group who is interested. scientist in February of this year. The DEPO State of the Park report was completed in Contact Editor Linda Mutch to be added Congratulations, Andi! to the mailing list. JIm Patton, retired from the UC April 2016 and can be accessed at the following site: Andi manages the network’s lakes, Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate https://www.nps.gov/stateoftheparks/depo/. rivers, and climate monitoring Zoology, instructs DEPO Student Conservation Association Intern Congratulations to DEPO staff on this effort. Sierra protocols and was involved in Julie Chuong on mammal all the stages of developing the Nevada Network, Yosemite, and Sequoia & Kings sampling methods (above). Julie Canyon National Parks staff assisted with writing network’s vital signs monitoring weighs a deer mouse (right). NPS Andi Heard on a lake monitoring trip in Yosemite plan. photos by: Monica Buhler. portions of the report and providing subject-matter National Park, August 2015. expertise and review where needed. Cliff Swallow.

2 Sierra Nevada Monitor newsletter National Park Service 3 From the Field: 2016 Project Updates Field Updates High-elevation Forests This summer was the fifth season members were leads Sean Auclair Lakes of sampling for the high-elevation and Pete Del Zotto, plus Rosa white pine monitoring protocol. Cox, Vladimir Kovalenko, Hanna The lakes project completed its ninth lead) and Jacob Seidel, our Yosemite The purpose of this project is to Mohr, and Matthew Mosher. The field season this year. This season based crew, had a fantastic season document and interpret changes crews installed three new foxtail also marks the second round of sampling all the Yosemite sites, in community dynamics in forests plots in Sequoia & Kings Canyon completion of our monitoring panels, plus traveled south to sample three containing white pine species (SEKI), and two whitebark plots meaning that sites on the rotating lakes in Sequoia and Kings Canyon. (whitebark pine, Pinus albicaulis in Yosemite (YOSE). They re- panels have all been visited twice Roxanne Kessler (crew lead) and Liz and foxtail pine, P. balfouriana) visited 22 plots in SEKI and ten now. Bartholomew, our Sequoia based within Sierra Nevada Network plots in YOSE and scouted 14 crew, also had a successful season (SIEN) parks. This protocol is additional potential sites in SEKI Crews sampled water chemistry, sampling lakes throughout Sequoia shared with the Klamath and for sampling in 2017. recorded lake temperature profiles, and Kings Canyon. and conducted shoreline amphibian Upper Columbia Basin Networks In collaboration with a USGS surveys at 25 lakes throughout in order to assess high-elevation crew, the forest crews also Lake monitoring will have a ‘rest’ Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite white pine population dynamics completed re-measures of 50 season in 2017, where sampling will national parks. Megan Mason (crew at a regional scale. WPBR plots in SEKI. We expect be limited to annual panel sites. Two crews sampled data for this to complete fieldwork for that Contact: Andi Heard long-term monitoring project, project in 2017. Observations Physical Science Technician Megan Mason collects as well as for a separate project of WPBR and beetle activity Forest crew member Matt Mosher measures a lodgepole a water sample from Arndt Lake, Yosemite focused on assessing change in continue to be rare in the pine in a Sequoia National Park monitoring plot. National Park. white pine blister rust (WPBR) subalpine forests, though severity and occurrence in preliminary results indicate Contact: Jonny Nesmith Rivers below Maclure (YOSE). DEPO Sequoia and Kings Canyon (SEKI) that the incidence of WPBR is staff collected streamflow since the mid-1990s. The crew increasing. The focus of Fiscal Year measurements on the San (FY)16 was addressing peer- Joaquin through the summer review comments for the rivers Wetlands YOSE wetland mapping project. The field component of and will continue monthly protocol. The revised version measurements through February the project is expected to be completed next year. is nearly complete and will be when USGS takes over to resubmitted in early FY17. In capture late winter and spring Other highlights from the 2016 field season included the the meantime, we have been runoff flows. Yosemite staff identification and partial removal of a newly discovered working with park staff to conducted field monitoring weed population of Lactuca serriola in Kings Canyon NP. implement the protocol at the at the Tioga Bridge and Lyell SIEN staff will continue to assist with eradication efforts in three Sierra Nevada Network- Fork stations from May coordination with SEKI staff next year. Another highlight supported gages: Middle Fork through September and are was that while hiking up Blue Canyon in Kings Canyon NP, of the San Joaquin in Devils incorporating SIEN protocols the crew collected voucher material for Ivesia unguiculata, Postpile (DEPO), Tuolumne into their field work and data If there is snow, winter measurements of the Middle a species which had previously been recorded as occurring River at Tioga Bridge (YOSE), management procedures. Fork of the San Joaquin River in Devils Postpile National in SEKI, but had been removed from the parks’ species and Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne Monument require skiing to the monument. list due to lack of both voucher material and observational Contact: Andi Heard data of its occurrence. This California endemic, which is categorized as rare by the California Native Plant Society Birds Stephanie Bartlett, Madelyn Ore, burned areas and in several green due to its limited distribution, can now be added to the Wetlands monitoring crew members Talia Chorover, Wesley and Keelan Dann. Liz and Stephanie forest locations in YOSE. Meyers, and Corie Cann assess a soil profile. SEKI vascular plant list. The bird project returned to field Contact: Jonny Nesmith conducted the YOSE and DEPO A pair of White-faced Ibises was sampling this year after a rest and sampling, while Madelyn and Keelan Last summer was the third field season for the wetlands observed on the first day of training reporting year in 2015. The Institute did the SEKI sampling. Other IBP ecological integrity monitoring project. The project for Bird Populations (IBP) completed in Yosemite Valley, and a pair was contractors and staff provided also observed at Hetch Hetchy monitors wetland plant communities, groundwater levels, a draft synthesis report following the additional sampling support. and macroinvertebrates, and targets two types of wetlands: 2014 completion of the first four years Reservoir later in April. wet meadows and fens within SIEN parks. of sampling. The report is in review It was a successful season: All Higher-elevation species appeared and will be published later this year. 27 YOSE transects, 26 out of 27 to have a successful breeding season, The crew included: Corie Cann (crew lead), Stephanie transects at SEKI, and all of the and Rufous Hummingbird, on post- Liz Bartholomew returned to be the points at DEPO were sampled. Bartlett, Talia Chorover, and Wesley Meyers. The crew crew lead, and she led the intensive breeding southbound migration, installed and sampled four sites in SEKI, three sites in field training of new crew members A few bird highlights: was detected on a daily basis starting YOSE, and re-read an additional 11 plots, including the with assistance from Bob Wilkerson of in early July at high elevation sites site at Devils Postpile National Monument. The crew also IBP. Black-backed Woodpeckers, which throughout SEKI and YOSE. continued work on the accuracy assessment portion of the Ivesia unguiculata, also known as Yosemite mousetail, now added typically feed in recently burned to the Kings Canyon National Park plant species list. New members of the field team were: areas, were found both at numerous Contact: Sylvia Haultain

4 Sierra Nevada Monitor newsletter National Park Service 5 Wetlands Crew Lead Moving on to Utah Local Foothill Outings for Moss Enthusiasts

Corie Cann, Biological Science “It’s really a fantastic community – I’ve The Bryophyte Chapter of the We are excited to help host this event, Technician and botanist been fortunate to work with so many California Native Plant Society has which will focus many pairs of trained extraordinaire, has led the first great people who have taught me so scheduled its annual SO BE FREE eyes on the bryoflora of Sequoia. three seasons of field sampling much. Also, the Sierra are so incredible, (Spring Outing; Botanical Excursion; for the Sierra Nevada Network’s and my work has taken me to lots of Foray, Retreat, and Escape the This year, the group especially (SIEN) wetlands monitoring hidden corners of the range…but Environment) for March 27-30, 2017 in encourages participation by land protocol. Prior to her work with there is always more to explore,” Corie the Sierra Nevada foothills just outside management agency staff and SIEN, she worked six seasons explained. of Sequoia National Park. The main welcomes participants of all skill levels. in Sequoia and Kings Canyon As for favorite places in the parks’ vast focus of SO BE FREE is bryophytes This event will be based at Saint National Parks for the vegetation (mosses, hornworts, and liverworts), management and plant ecology wilderness? Anthony Retreat Center in Three but experts on other groups of plants Rivers, California. For California programs, working on weed Upper Blue Canyon (in Kings Canyon (or complete novices!) are encouraged Native Plant Society members, there is management and meadow National Park) is a special place that to participate. no cost to participate, and monitoring projects. I’m always excited to return to, but I for non-members, there probably have at least another dozen SO BE FREE includes outings to local Corie has accepted a permanent, Corie using an auger to sample a wetland soil profile. favorite spots. Pretty much everything habitats, which are rich in bryophytes, is a $25 fee. Those staying subject-to-furlough (so she still has at the retreat will have time for her winter travel adventures) around the Great Western Divide from including areas where the valley While Corie looks forward to getting Cloud and Deadman canyons to the fog hits the rock outcrops and oak lodging and meal costs. position with the U.S. Forest Service See http://bryophyte.org in southern Utah, working with to know a new place and flora, she Kern River headwaters (in Sequoia savannahs. It may be possible to take a hopes to return to the Sierra Nevada National Park) is also magical. SIEN Ecologist Jonny for more information and the Forest Inventory & Assessment group up into the giant sequoia forests. Nesmith examining someday. to download a registration program. There will be evening slide shows and wetland bryophytes near For the long-term, Corie “would like form. The regular informal talks as well as bryophyte Shorty’s Meadow, Kings to continue studying plants in any job registration deadline is I do.” keying sessions with microscopes. Canyon National Park. Bryophytes contribute to biodiversity and are December 15, 2016. Late registration And what does Corie do in the winters? important in maintaining hydrological must be received by February 27, 2017. conditions in Sierra Nevada wetlands. Travel! Usually my husband and I take a bit of time once we’re both done for the season to travel around the US and see friends and family- then we take off New Publications and Reports for an international adventure. This year we will be bicycling around the southern islands of Japan. Physical Scientist Andi Heard participated in the Air Quality and Ecosystem Services Workshop in Thousand We’ve also done bike tours of Chiapas, Cuba, and Oaks, CA, February 24-26, 2015. The purpose of the workshop was to identify linkages between the effects of air across the Himalayan foothills of India and Nepal. In pollution on natural resources and ecosystem services (i.e., services provided by nature that are valued by society) South America we have typically done backpacking/ with the broader goal of informing environmental policy and management decisions. Following is the report that mountaineering trips and have seen most of the length resulted from this workshop: of the Andes. Corie on a bicycling trip in Cuba, 2015. Blett, T. F., M. D. Bell, C. M. Clark, D. Bingham, J. Phelan, A. Nahlik, D. Landers, C. Davis, I. Irvine, and A. Heard. 2016. Air quality and ecosystem services workshop report: Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Thousand Oaks, CA – February 24-26, 2015. Natural Resource Report NPS/ NRSS/ARD/NRR—2016/1107. Park Input for Next Phase of Inventories Other publications include: The large-scale baseline inventories • Ensure data are relevant Heard, A. M. and J. O. Sickman. 2016. Nitrogen assessment points: Development and application to high-elevation lakes that were initiated in the 1990s, such and support science-based in the Sierra Nevada, California. Ecosphere 7(11): e01586. 10.1002/ecs2.1586. [Part of the Ecosphere Special Feature as geology, soils, vegetation, and management; Issue celebrating 100 years of National Park Service science by highlighting the agency’s Inventory & Monitoring water resources, are approaching Division contributions.] completion, and the Inventory & • Highlight importance of data Monitoring Division is planning a dissemination and integration; Mazer S.J., K.L. Gerst, E.R. Matthews, and A. Evenden. 2015. Species-specific phenological responses to winter scoping process where parks and Park staff can expect to receive a temperature and precipitation in a water-limited ecosystem. Ecosphere 6(6):98 http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES14- networks provide input on local pre-scoping survey that will help 00433.1. inventory needs and priorities. to identify current use of existing Nesmith, J. C. B., A. J. Das, K. L. O’Hara, and P. J. van Mantgem. 2015. The influence of prefire tree growth and Purposes for upcoming scoping inventory products and identify new sessions to take place at regional, ideas for consideration. Please take the crown condition on postfire mortality of sugar pine following prescribed fire in Sequoia National Park. Can. J. For. network, and park levels are: time to complete this survey. Res. 45(7): 910-919. dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2014-0449. • Define what natural resource Stuart, T. H. 2016. Effects of snowpack on avian abundance and species richness in Sierra Nevada forests. M.A.

inventories are needed to support USGS photo by Peggy Moore. Thesis, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colorado. management of park resources; Botanist conducts plant survey in Yosemite.

6 Sierra Nevada Monitor newsletter National Park Service 7 Inventory & Monitoring Guidance for New Sierra Nevada Research Stations Director

Yosemite’s Mongolian Sister Parks In 2006, two Sierra Nevada Research Stations were established in Yosemite and Sequoia national parks as a research partnership Yosemite National Park has a sister park relationship among the University of California-Merced, the national parks with three Ulaan Taiga Specially Protected Areas of involved, and the U.S. Geological Survey. northern Mongolia. SIEN’s retired Data Manager Les Chow participated in the July 2016 advisory trip to The mission of these stations is to provide acceess to research these protected areas, along with Joe Meyer, Physical and teaching in the national parks and adjacent national forests. Sciences Branch Chief for the Resources Management They also provide public service, engaging the public in science- & Science Division in Yosemite and Peggy Moore, Plant based activities and facilitating environmental education. Ecologist with the USGS Yosemite Field Station. In July 2016, Anne Kelly came on-board as the new Research Their overarching goal was to identify the steps Stations Director based out of Yosemite, and she explains below necessary for initiating an inventory and monitoring her research interests and background, as well as her motivation program for the three protected areas (which include and vision for this position. The Sierra Nevada Network looks Horidol Saridag Strictly Protected Area, Tengis- forward to increased engagement with the local field stations Shishged National Park, and Ulaan Taiga Strictly and the partnership opportunities they provide. Protected Area) all managed by one set of staff. Specific Yosemite Field Station office, Wawona area of Yosemite goals included: National Park. • Review natural resources and resource issues of Why did this position interest you? Ulaan Taiga Specially Protected Areas Joe Meyer with Ulaag Taiga rangers in the Horidol Saridag Strictly Protected Area, with rugged Ibex habitat in the background. Photo: • Identify and prioritize tasks to establish an Les Chow. The job of a field station director historians, local middle-schoolers, inventory and monitoring program for the has always been a dream: working birdwatchers.... The biggest and issues, and makes specific recommendations for protected areas with scientists, educators, students, challenge and opportunity of these establishing an inventory and monitoring program. artists, writers; living somewhere stations is to bridge connections • Identify spatial data sets to be included in a The National Park Service Inventory & Monitoring geographic information system Division’s framework and approach informed the beautiful; having the privilege of between our station visitors and recommendations. doing something new and different our communities to enhance our • Recommend research efforts that would inform an every day. As the director of UC understanding and stewardship of inventory and monitoring program Les, Peggy, and Joe came away with rewards and Merced’s Sequoia and Yosemite our region. The parks are a great learning experiences of their own from the trip. Field Stations, the popularity of nexus for bringing people together, the parks brings an even more and it’s a treat for me to be back A few highlights included: diverse set of visitors to the in the Sierra, where I’ve spent so • Learning about the scale and complexity of the station than most. Station visitors many years trying to understand its landscape in relation to the limited size of the include graphic artists, cultural forests. staff: A total of 30 rangers patrol over 3 million acres of protected-area lands year-round, in an area described as having a ‘severe continental What are your research interests and educational climate’ with most of the precipitation falling in the summers and winters characterized by very cold background? Anne Kelly, ice-fishing in the La Sal Mountains temperatures. in Utah. My primary research interests My undergraduate degree is in • The hosts were warm, welcoming, and committed. concern ecosystems at the landscape astrophysics, but my favorite Most are local, from herding families, and have a scale. Why do forests grow where part was spending time at Other thoughts... strong connection to community and place. they grow, how do they mediate the observatories on remote mountaintops. After a few years • The bighorn sheep of Mongolia (known as argali, the cycling of carbon and water The decades of research out of through our region, and how might at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, I Peggy Moore (left) and Les Chow and Joe Meyer (middle) with or Ovis ammon) live in very different habitat from these parks has been strongly Mongol Ecology Center staff. the North American bighorn sheep: rolling green the ecosystems around us change got a high school science teaching hills rather than rugged rocky terrain. Their long with global climate change, and credential, and taught for a little influential on how I understand They spent time both in the office with the protected legs enable them to run fast, important for escaping how will the changing ecosystems while in Los Angeles. When I found California’s forests. I feel area staff (including the Director, Resource Specialists, their primary natural predator, wolves. alter the landscape itself? My out that I could use my astronomy privileged to work with Sequoia, and Rangers) as well as time in the field reviewing key background is in astrophysics, techniques to study plants, I jumped Kings Canyon, and Yosemite, and I • Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) dominates the forest resources, information needs, threats, and management and those techniques came in into a masters program, ground- zone (over 70%) and grows predominantly in areas hope in my role as station director challenges. Important threats to natural resources surprisingly handy for my PhD truthing remote sensing of warming include illegal logging and mining as well as poaching of permafrost soils. tundra in the high Arctic. I moved I can help to build on this work in the Central Sierra, building important body of work for for both subistence (meat) and trafficking of horns and The Trust for Mutual Understanding provided financial on-the-ground forest physiology on to plant surveys in the Mojave, organs. support for this effort, and the Mongol Ecology Center measurements and relating those to then fire ecology, and eventually my better stewardship of our region in PhD in Earth System Science at UC the face of many complex The group has a draft report under review that provides provided coordination and assistance for field and satellite observations. Irvine. an overview of the protected area setting, resources, travel logistics. challenges.

8 Sierra Nevada Monitor newsletter National Park Service 9 Sequoia & Kings Canyon Host Science Symposium

Research COLLABORATION, monitoring of ecological CHANGE, and COMMUNICATION of findings and challenges. These were the themes that emerged from the Sequoia and Kings Canyon (SEKI) Science Symposium November 9-10, 2016. In celebration of the NPS centennial, the symposium brought together over 100 scientists, interpreters, and students to share current and long-term research as well as engage the next generation to build on and communicate what we know – and what we need to know. What the parks learned from the symposium: • These national parks have a rich legacy of long- term data sets and collaborative research that have informed how we steward park resources and will continue to provide valuable insights into the future. Sierra Nevada Network (SIEN) Ecologist Jonny Nesmith presents a lightning talk on high-elevation white pine monitoring. Four SIEN • Research on response to drought, climate change, staff gave 5-minute lightning talks along with 11 SEKI staff. the fire suppression legacy, and other stressors is • Science communication is not optional! We need to yielding results that we can build upon to inform reach kids and adults from all walks of life in ways management decisions now and into the future. that help them see the value of parks as well as open • Collaborative Science is the wave of the future. space in their own neighborhoods. Land managers need scientists and scientists --Koren Nydick , Ginger Bradshaw, and Theresa Fiorino need input from managers to produce results with Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks relevance to stewardship issues.

Park Cave Inventory Yields New Millipede Species

The newest species to be discovered in Sequoia documenting two dozen new taxa. In additional National Park is a tiny millipede with 414 legs, 200 cave surveys from 2006 to 2009, Krejca located this poison glands, and four penises. It is a cave-dwelling millipede, and a recently published article introduces creature,discovered in the Marble Fork drainage of the the tiny threadlike (and leggy!) millipede as Kaweah River, in a cave not far from the park’s well- tobini, named for NPS cave specialist Ben Tobin, who known Crystal Cave. once worked at SEKI. Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and Jean The millipede specialists who identified this species, Krejca of Zara Enivronmental LLC conducted an Paul Marek and Bill Shear, immediately recognized its initial inventory of cave organisms in the early 2000s, significance as “the evolutionary cousin of the leggiest on the planet, ”, which lives under giant sandstone boulders outside of San Juan Batista, California. In an on-line news release, article authors Marek, Krejca, and Shear note that “by exploring our world and documenting the biodiversity of this planet we can prevent anonymous distinction, a process in which a species goes extinct before we know of its role in the ecosystem, potential benefit to humanity , or its beauty.“ A recent High Country News article by Anna V. Smith about the millipede quotes SEKI Physical Sciences Branch Chief Annie Esperanza - “It’s exciting as a Extremely leggy millipede from Sequoia National Park cave. scientist that there is more life out there than we even Illacme tobini photo by Paul Marek, Virginia Tech. know. It’s a continuing story of the biodiversity of these parks and these lands we’re protecting.”

10 Sierra Nevada Monitor newsletter