San Clemente Island Native Habitat Restoration Program Native Seed Collection, Propagation and Outplanting in Support of San Clemente Island Endangered Species Programs Under Contract With: Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest San Diego, California N68711 -05-D-3605-0077 Prepared By: Emily Howe, Korie Merrill, Thomas A. Zink. Soil Ecology and Restoration Group San Diego State University Research Foundation, San Diego, CA Prepared for: Natural Resources Office Environmental Department, Commander, Navy region Southwest, San Diego, CA Table Of Contents Table Of Contents ................................................................................................................ 2 Table of Figures ................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 4 1.0 Native Plant Nursery ..................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Nursery Inventory .......................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Seed propagation ........................................................................................................... 5 2.0 Rainfall Data Collection ................................................................................................ 6 3.0 Seed Collection .............................................................................................................. 8 4.0 Native Species Outplantings .......................................................................................... 9 4.1 Outplanting Site Installation Methods ........................................................................... 9 4.2 Larskpur Canyon ......................................................................................................... 10 4.3 Mount Thirst ................................................................................................................ 12 4.4 West Shore Road Planting ........................................................................................... 13 4.5 Acorn Sowing .............................................................................................................. 14 5.0 Survivorship and Growth ............................................................................................ 16 6.0 Outplanting Site Retirements ...................................................................................... 17 7.0 Recruitment ................................................................................................................. 19 7.1 Active Site Recruitment .............................................................................................. 19 7.2 Retired Site Recruitment ............................................................................................. 19 8.0 Exotic Species Monitoring .......................................................................................... 21 9.0 Fire mapping ................................................................................................................ 26 9.1 SWAT Fires ................................................................................................................. 36 9.2 Flasher Fire .................................................................................................................. 36 9.3 Ranch Fire ................................................................................................................... 36 9.4 SHOBA Fires ............................................................................................................... 38 10.0 Fuel Moisture ............................................................................................................. 40 11.0 Endangered Species Seed and Herbarium Specimen Collections ............................. 43 12.0 Accomplishments, Conclusions and Recommendations ........................................... 45 12.1 Recruitment ............................................................................................................... 45 12.2 Propagation ................................................................................................................ 45 12.3 Experimental Outplanting Sites. ................................................................................ 45 12.4 Reclamation of the Borrow Pit .................................................................................. 46 12.5 Endangered Species Research ................................................................................... 46 12.6 Dunes Restoration ..................................................................................................... 46 Table of Figures Figure 1. Seedling D. v. kinkiense and M. clementinus ...................................................... 7 Figure 2. Rain Gauge Locations…………………………………………….………………………. 8 Figure 3. Annual and monthly rainfall since 2006. ............................................................ 8 Figure 4. Monthly rainfall .................................................................................................. 8 Figure 5. Historic and New Planting Locations. .............................................................. 10 Figure 6. Larkspur Canyon 2012 planting lines. .............................................................. 11 Figure 7. West Shore Road Planting ................................................................................ 14 Figure 8. 2012 Acorn Sowing Sites. ................................................................................. 16 Figure 9. Yearly Survivorship of Cuscuta Cove, Lines D&E. ......................................... 18 Table of Figures (Cont.) Figure 10. Cuscuta Cove outplanting. ............................................................................... 18 Figure 11. Recruitment at Arizone .................................................................................... 21 Figure 12. Northern invasive species populations treated in 2011 .................................... 23 Figure 13. Central invasive species populations treated in 2011 ...................................... 24 Figure 14. South invasive species populations treated in 2011 ......................................... 25 Figure 15. All fires ignited in 2012. .................................................................................. 27 Figure 16. SWAT 1 and SWAT 2 fires. ............................................................................ 28 Figure 17. Flasher fire. ...................................................................................................... 29 Figure 18. Ranch fire. ........................................................................................................ 30 Figure 19. Bacon fire. ........................................................................................................ 31 Figure 20. China Fire. ........................................................................................................ 32 Figure 21. Ridge fire. ........................................................................................................ 33 Figure 22. Ridge Extension fire. ........................................................................................ 34 Figure 23. OP 1 fire. .......................................................................................................... 35 Figure 24. Monitoring plot showing burned and resprouting L. californicum .................. 36 Figure 25. D. v. thornei just after burn…………….. ............................................................. 37 Figure 26. Same location in 2013, note seedlings. …………………………………………..37 Figure 27. D. v. thornei habitat just after burn..... ............................................................. 37 Figure 28. Same habitat in 2013. .................................................................................... 37 Figure 29. Horse 4 shrike nest tree just after burn . ......................................................... 37 Figure 30. Horse 4 site in early 2013 ................................................................................ 37 Figure 31. China 6 Shrike Site, note burned Prunus. ........................................................ 38 Figure 32. C. grisea. ...................................................................................................... 39 Figure 33. Burned and unburned C. grisea. ...................................................................... 39 Figure 34. A. a. argenteus ............................................................................................ 39 Figure 35. Rhamnus pirifolia ............................................................................................. 39 Figure 36. A. d. traskiae. ........................................................................................................... 39 Figure 37. L. floribundus ................................................................................................... 39 Figure 38. Fuel moisture site locations. ............................................................................. 41 Figure 39. Fuel moisture data from 2007 to present. ........................................................ 42 Figure 40. Fuel moisture data for 2012 ............................................................................