Tadpole Release to Bolster Endangered Population

November 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
USGS ecol­o­gist Adam Back­lin pours a few more tad­poles into the stream. Image credit: Becca Fenwick

Endan­gered tad­poles were released into a stream near Idyll­wild, Calif., today with hopes that the South­ern Cal­i­for­nia pop­u­la­tion of the moun­tain yellow-legged frog Rana mus­cosa will thrive again.

This is the sec­ond release of tad­poles into the same stream at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia James San Jac­into Moun­tains Reserve in River­side County, which is part of the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia Nat­ural Reserve Sys­tem. The release was done in col­lab­o­ra­tion with part­ners includ­ing the U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey, U.S. For­est Ser­vice, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice, the Cal­i­for­nia Depart­ment of Fish and Game, and the San Diego Zoo Insti­tute for Con­ser­va­tion Research. [Read more…]

Filed Under: James San Jacinto Mountains, Reserves Tagged With:

Snow Patrol

November 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
State of the Bird (Western) Snowy Plover By Kenn KaufmanWest­ern snowy plover nests are pro­tected at Coal Oil Point Reserve. Image credit: Kenn Kaufman

Two deter­mined South­ern Cal­i­for­nia biol­o­gists are on a mis­sion to save one of our cutest, and most besieged, birds. Jog­gers, surfers, and dogs had bet­ter watch out.

by David Sei­de­man, Audubon Mag­a­zine

It seems remark­able that Cristina San­doval and Stacey Vigal­lon had never met, never even talked on the phone, till the day I bring them together on Sandoval’s home turf in Santa Bar­bara, Cal­i­for­nia. For the past few years the two biol­o­gists have com­mu­ni­cated only through email chains about a cause to which both have ded­i­cated their pro­fes­sional lives: staving off the extinc­tion of the west­ern snowy plover. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Coal Oil Point Reserve, Reserves