Rangeland Watershed Initiative- Point Blue Conservation Science
As a Partner Biologist with Point Blue Conservation Science (PBCS) and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) I work with farmers and ranchers to enhance, restore and conserve wildlife habitat on private lands.I work closely with producers to plan and implement NRCS conservation practices that are both ecologically sound and financially beneficial for the landowner. Additionally, I work closely with the Rangeland Monitoring Network to evaluate changes in the bird and vegetation communities and soil health as ranchers engage in new grazing practices on California rangelands. I recently gave a presentation at the California Resource Conservation Districts 74th Annual Conference in Redding, California on how the partnership between PBCS and NRCS improves soil health on California rangelands. .
Barn Owl Nest Box Selection in Napa Vineyards
For my Master's research I examined if habitat around barn owl nest boxes predicts nest box occupancy. I measured habitat variables at three spatial scales (nest box, vineyard, home range) around 297 nest boxes in Napa Valley vineyards. I found that the characteristics of the nest box itself and the habitat composition at the home range scale around the nest box (1 km radius) are the most important factors when predicting nest box occupancy. Management practices on the vineyard did not influence occupancy. Barn owls preferred nest boxes constructed out of wood, facing north and mounted 10-15 feet above the ground. In addition, barn owls in Napa preferred nest boxes that were primarily surrounded by open grassland habitat.
There is potential for barn owls to provide farmers with pest removal services if appropriately designed nest boxes are placed within suitable landscapes. Although vineyard owners do not have control over where established vineyards are located on a landscape scale, they do have control over the nest box design and placement at a local scale, which may improve occupancy rates and therefore increase biological control of rodents. This was the start of a long term monitoring effort. We are continuing to monitor 150 nest boxes annually.
The abundance of barn owl nest boxes in Napa Valley suggests that farmers support the idea that barn owls are beneficial predators in vineyards. To further examine this observation, I sent written surveys to farmers to assess their motivations for installing nest boxes. In addition to the biological benefits of attracting barn owls, wineries may experience economic benefits from the positive public image that comes with “going green.” I found that most farmers install nest boxes for the biological benefits more than the economic benefits.
Click Here for a link to my full thesis. And check out current current barn owl research at HSU on Facebook (barn owl research Humboldt)
Mesocarnivore Activity in the Ma-le'l Dunes
I worked with a group of undergraduate students at HSU to measure mesocarnivore activity in a Northern California dune ecosystem. A large part of the Ma-le'l dunes is dominated by invasive European beach-grass (Ammophila arenaria) but about half has been restored, by removing beachgrass, which allows for a natural experiment to study how vegetation impacts animal communities. A previous study found that mesocarnivore activity was greater in restored dunes even though rodent abundance was higher in dunes still dominated by European beachgrass. However, the authors acknowledged a confounding factor in their study design; the restored dune was closer to a patch of coastal forest, which may have skewed their results. We set out to test if mesocarnivore activity was influenced by distance to the coastal forest.
We deployed two transects of baited camera traps and one transect of trackplates to measure mesocarnivore activity at different distances from the forest edge and within sites with varying microhabitat. We found that mesocarnivore activity decreased further from the forest edge and there was no relationship between microhabitat and mesocarnivore activity. We detected striped skunks, feral cats, raccoons, gray fox and opossums using the dunes. Feral cats were the most abundant detections in the camera traps. Feral cats impact native wildlife through disease transmission, competition for resources and directly killing and maiming small mammals, reptiles and birds. The results from this study indicate that managers with BLM and USFWS may need to manage for cats in this dune ecosystem.
Birds in Kenyan Coffee Farms
For my undergraduate honors thesis, and as a field technician, I researched bird and insect communities in Kenyan coffee farms in collaboration with the National Museums of Kenya. In the neotropics, small migratory song birds feed on enough coffee pests to significantly reduce berry loss from such pests as the coffee berry borer beetle. We examined if similar trends held true in Kenya with a completely different suite of birds. We captured birds, using mist nets, in coffee farms with adjacent forest patches. We placed mist nets at intervals (0, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150m) extending out from the forest edge into the coffee to measure bird abundance and species diversity with increasing distance from the forest edge. We were particularly interested in insectivorous birds because those species may feed on insect pests in Kenyan coffee.
We found that bird abundance increased with distance to the forest edge. There were more birds using the coffee than the forest edge, but species diversity was greater closer to the forest edge and there were more insectivorous birds found nearer to the forest. We also compared bird communities in sun and shade coffee farms and found higher bird abundance and lower species diversity in sun coffee, primarily driven by an influx of grainivorous birds feeding on weedy vegetation.
In addition to measuring bird communities we also sampled insect and ant communities within the coffee farms. We conducted a sentinel pest experiment where we deployed real caterpillars pinned to coffee leafs. We monitored the bait stations with motion sensor cameras to see what birds removed the caterpillars.