NC-SC-G 97-83
Refer:
August 12, 1997
RECOVERY PLAN FOR INYO CALIFORNIA TOWHEE IS READY FOR PUBLIC REVIEW
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released for public review a draft recovery plan for the Inyo California towhee, a small threatened songbird found only in the southern Argus Mountains of Inyo County, California.
The draft recovery plan addresses conservation needs for the towhee and spells out measures that, if carried out, should result in a self-sustaining population of this bird throughout its range by the year 2010.
Today, there are fewer than 200 Inyo California towhees. The gray-brown, sparrow-like songbird is about seven inches long. Both sexes are a similar color. The towhee does not migrate but stays within its territory year-round.
Historically this bird was widespread in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, but climate changes as early as the Pliocene epoch restricted the towhee to the northern Mojave Desert. Today, its range comprises 107,000 acres between LaMotte Spring and Indian Joe Spring. About 68 percent of the birds live within boundaries of the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake. The remaining birds occur on adjacent lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), California Department of Fish and Game, and a single private owner.
The Inyo California towhee nests and forages in thickets of dense riparian vegetation -- willows, Fremont cottonwood, and desert olive. The birds feed on plants and animals on nearby open rocky and sandy hillsides on just about any seed or invertebrate they encounter.
Degradation or destruction of riparian habitat prompted the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1987 and State of California in 1980 to add the Inyo California towhee to their respective endangered species lists, and it remains the primary threat to the bird's existence today.
Grazing and trampling by feral burros and, to a lesser extent, wild horses and cattle, have significantly degraded these streamside environments. Other threats include off-road vehicle use and water diversion as a result of mining activities, recreation, irrigation, livestock, and rural development.
When the Service added the towhee to the endangered species list, it also designated critical habitat for it. Critical habitat is a regulatory term describing land, water, and air space containing the physical and biological features essential for the survival and recovery of endangered species. This designation helps focus conservation activities by identifying areas which require special management. Critical habitat for the towhee encompasses 5,600 acres -- all on Federal or State managed lands.
Through its management plan for threatened and endangered species at China Lake, the Navy has reduced grazing and trampling threats to the birds by removing burros and wild horses from riparian areas. The Naval Air Weapons Station is also eliminating mining activities and has closed off most lands to public use.
Approximately one-third of the Inyo California towhee's current range covers lands administered by the BLM, including seven critical habitat areas. The bureau designated the Great Falls Basin Area of Critical Environmental Concern primarily for the towhee's protection and its management plan includes protecting water sources, removing burros, managing off-road vehicle use, and removing exotic plants like tamarisk.
Thanks to actions by the Navy and the BLM, threats to the Inyo California towhee have been reduced. Other conservation measures include the purchase in 1994 by the State of California of Indian Joe Canyon, the only parcel of critical habitat under private ownership. The State is developing a management plan to address the recovery needs of the songbird.
The goal of the Endangered Species Act is to recover species to levels where protection under the act is no longer necessary. Recovery plans, which are blueprints for action by Federal and State agencies and private organizations, do not obligate the expenditure of funds or require that actions be implemented.
The recovery strategy for the Inyo California towhee will focus on monitoring the population and habitats, eliminating threats to the habitats, and rehabilitating those habitats that have been degraded or destroyed. Delisting could be considered when the population has reached at least 400 birds and maintained this level over a five-year period. A population of this size should be able to be reproductively self-sustaining and distributed throughout its range. This could occur as early as 2010, according to Fish and Wildlife Service biologists.
Comments on the draft recovery plan are invited until October 10, 1997, and should be mailed to the Field Supervisor, Ventura Field Office, 2493 Portola Road, Suite B, Ventura, California 93003. Requests for copies of the plan should also be sent to this address.
The Service published a notice of the availability of the draft recovery plan for the Inyo California towhee in the Federal Register on August 11, 1997.
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