Cache Creek, in Yolo County, California. Credit: Michal Venera, Yolo Habitat Conservancy

Santa Clara and Yolo Counties Get Big Financial Boost to Save Endangered Species

Northern California continues to benefit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund's Endangered Species Act grants. Nearly $3 million in funding will go to conservation efforts in Santa Clara and Yolo Counties.

Authorized under Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act, the fund enables states to work with private landowners, conservation groups, and other government agencies to develop projects that protect federally-listed species and their habitats. In some areas, it promotes access to outdoor recreation resources for present and future generations by providing funding to federal, state, and local governments to purchase land, water, and wetlands for the benefit of all Americans.

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These diversion pipes will pump water from the Sacramento River to water users in eastern Yolo County. Credit: Jon Myatt/USFWS

New Fish Screen And Water Intake Facility Will Improve Fish Passage on the Sacramento River

Endangered salmon, steelhead and sturgeon will soon be safe from the deadly pull of water pumps on the Sacramento River in Yolo County now that a new diversion facility has finished construction.

A nearly century old water intake on the river north of Sacramento is being replaced, making way for a new intake and fish screen facility designed to protect threatened and endangered fish species while also providing improved water supply reliability for eastern Yolo County.

Located on the western bank of the Sacramento River immediately upstream from the Vietnam Veterans Bridge on Interstate-5, the intake facility is a collaborative effort between Reclamation District 2035 and the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency and its partners, including the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Reclamation.

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Condor #625, a five year old male, flew over the Blue Ridge NWR on May 1, 2016, in the first documented flight to the refuge. Credit: USFWS

Flight of the Condors: Expanding Their Range

California condors are expanding their territory, which is a significant milestone in their recovery, according to biologists monitoring the species. Two California condors wearing GPS transmitters flew over the Blue Ridge National Wildlife Refuge just outside the western edge of Sequoia National Forest in May 2016. Condor #625, a five-year-old male, flew over the refuge on May 1, and Condor #648 followed two weeks later.

U.S Fish and Wildlife Service biologists say these flights represent the first documented presence of condors on the refuge since they were reintroduced to the wild in 1992 at Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, 125 miles south.

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An island fox from the captive breeding program. Photo Credit: USFWS

Interior Announces Fastest Successful Recovery of an Endangered Species Act-Listed Mammal;
Three Island Fox Subspecies Now Fully Delisted

Representing the fastest successful recovery for any Endangered Species Act (ESA)-listed mammal in the United States, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) today announced the final de-listing of three subspecies of island fox native to California’s Channel Islands. The removal of the San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Island fox subspecies from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife brings the total number of ESA de-listings due to recovery to 37, with 19 of those overseen by the Obama administration.

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Questions and Answers

Monty Bengochia (right), from the Bishop Paiute Tribe, tells a story about pine nut collecting as Steve Nelson, a BLM sage grouse biologist, Grace Newell, Forest Tribal Liaison for the Humboldt-Toyaibe National Forest, Grace Dick from the Bridgeport, Calif., Indian Colony, and Bill Dunkelberger, Humboldt-Toyaibe National Forest supervisor, listen. Credit: Dan Hottle/USFWS

Finding Common Ground: Western Science Meets Indigenous Knowledge at Bi-State Sage Grouse Summit

Searching for common ground, Nevada and California state and federal land and wildlife management agencies met with local tribal members at the Bi-State Traditional Ecological Knowledge Summit, June 28-30 in Carson City, NV, to share stories and perspectives regarding management of the Bi-State Distinct Population Segment of the Greater Sage-Grouse.

Tribal members from several Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe tribes throughout the region where this species of sage grouse occurs met for two days with biologists and managers from the Service and the U.S. Forest Service’s Humboldt-Toyaibe and Inyo National Forests, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

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The most recent population estimate for the California Brown Pelican subspecies (Pelecanus occidentalis californicus) is roughly 70,680 breeding pairs, with the majority breeding in the Gulf of California.
Photo Credit: USFWS

Citizen Scientists, Partners and FWS to Document California Brown Pelicans, Shed Light on Population Declines

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is partnering with the Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology to launch the first ever citizen science survey for California brown pelicans across the Pacific coast. The survey will take place during a two hour window from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. May 7, 2016 across more than 100 sites in Washington, Oregon, and California, and will help conservation professionals collect important data on the distribution and abundance of California brown pelicans across the Pacific coast, and track shifts in population structure.

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The "Redwood condors," Kingpin and Redwood Queen, nuzzle in a tree in Monterey County, Calif., at Big Sur in October 2015. Photo credit: Tim Huntington, Webnectar.com

The REDWOOD CONDORS: Ten Years Later

Ten years ago this month, a small group of biologists searched for a mated pair of California condors in the forested canyons of Monterey County, California. Using radio telemetry, satellite signals and a few days of bushwhacking through poison oak and stinging nettles, they tracked the tagged birds to a remote canyon.

At the time, condors had not been found nesting anywhere in coastal redwood forests and the last known condor nest in Monterey County, or anywhere else in Northern California, was recorded on April 12, 1905.

Today, the pair seems to have carved out a successful life in the coastal redwoods of Big Sur...

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