Sequoia Riverlands Trust, a non-profit land trust, has protected more than 20,000 acres in the Carrizo Plain, California’s largest remaining grassland and a hotspot for endangered and threatened species. Since 2015, we have adaptively managed solar mitigation land for several sensitive San Joaquin Valley endemic species including San Joaquin kit fox and giant kangaroo rat. Our long-term wildlife habitat management and monitoring program has had many successes, including tricolored blackbird nesting habitat restoration, shrub establishment in grassland habitat, and giant kangaroo rat population expansion, as well as challenges such as managing non-contiguous conservation lands in a landscape level framework. We will share the story of our conservation work in the Carrizo Plain and lessons learned, with a look forward to future projects.

For an environmental review to predict project impacts to wildlife, the wildlife community must be accurately characterized as part of the environment. Ideally, field surveys would inventory the wildlife community, but inventory requires many surveys using multiple methods at great time and cost. Habitat assessments are performed in reconnaissance surveys and desktop reviews to determine likelihood of occurrence of species on a project site, but they vary greatly in assumptions, methods, and accuracy. We propose standards for habitat assessment, starting with a standard definition of habitat, and the assumption that habitat is present until proven otherwise. Multiple reconnaissance surveys should be conducted at various times of day (and night) across seasons. All occurrence databases should be reviewed; however, absence of occurrence records is not evidence of species’ absence. When comparing habitat associations to vegetation cover on site, refrain from pigeon-holing species into unrealistically narrow portions of the environment. Most wildlife are mobile and use more of the environment than often expected, and both the delineation of vegetation cover and the summary of habitat associations are prone to error and bias. While focus is usually on special-status species, all species compose the wildlife community, which needs accurate characterization to predict impacts.

For an environmental review to predict project impacts to wildlife, the wildlife community must be accurately characterized as part of the existing environmental setting. Biologists seek to accomplish this by reviewing occurrence records and with various types of survey – the most common being reconnaissance survey. However, reconnaissance survey objectives vary, as do methods, interpretation of results, and reporting. We propose a protocol for performing wildlife reconnaissance surveys to maintain flexibility in survey conduct while standardizing specific field and reporting methods to enable the establishment of benchmarks against which to compare and interpret survey findings, and to determine whether the wildlife community has been sufficiently sampled in support of an accurate characterization. We propose that each new species detection be recorded with time into the survey, and that the number of species detected be modeled as a function of time into the survey. The model can predict the number of species theoretically available to be detected during the survey, and it can predict the number of species detected at standardized survey durations. We offer recommendations on objectives, how many surveys to perform, survey duration, times of day to survey, personnel, field techniques, documentation of detections, minimum reporting levels, and interpretation of results.

While discussions may simplify climate change impacts to increased temperature and more extremes in precipitation, scientific literature has long pointed to increased variability. Temporal changes to average temperatures or shifts in major events, such as the timing of precipitation or the quantity of precipitation coupled with varying temperatures, can have major impacts across both terrestrial and aquatic systems. Vernal pools in the mediterranean and semi-arid climates of southern California depend on winter and early spring precipitation for inundation of pools. Well-timed inundation not only starts the life cycle of the many flora and fauna contained within these aquatic ecosystems, including endangered species, but also provides important habitat for listed and common terrestrial species. Temporal variation in precipitation patterns, or otherwise unseasonal precipitation, can have dramatic impacts on vernal pools, such as changes in the development and timing of when vernal pools become inundated, increased water temperatures, altered water chemistry properties, and increased evaporation. These changes can have negative impacts on the species that depend on these vernal pool systems. The consequences will be very site, context, and species-specific and highly dependent on the ability of the species to adapt to the varying conditions over time.

Species reintroductions are often difficult to conduct with some leading to success and some resulting in failure. In some cases, it is not known or well understood why some reintroductions are successful while others are not. Here we present on several amphibian species reintroductions including: the Sierra Nevada Yellow-legged frog (Rana sierrae), the California Red-legged frog (Rana draytonii), the Foothill Yellow-legged frog (Rana boylii), and Yosemite toad (Anaxyrus canorus) in Yosemite National Park. We will present on the planning, monitoring, and measures of success while also addressing challenges during each stage of the reintroduction process. We believe through careful planning, project development, assessment, monitoring and adaptive management can such reintroductions become more successful in an ever-changing environment which includes protected areas like Yosemite National Park.

In Summer 2023, a 0.3-acre seasonal pond and wetland swale were constructed within a grazed grassland parcel (mitigation site) to provide compensatory mitigation for impacts to waters of the U.S./State associated with a nearby development project. The mitigation site occurs within critical habitat for California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) (CRLF) and proximal to critical habitat for California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) (CTS) - both species are known to occur locally. Since February 2024, 13 juvenile and adult CTS and 60+ juvenile CRLF encountered during project implementation have been relocated to the mitigation site. Further, an adult CRLF was observed naturally dispersing into the new wetland, signaling early colonization. Dipnet surveys conducted in Spring 2024 resulted in negative findings for CTS and CRLF, however, surveys will be conducted in Spring 2025 and beyond to document breeding presence/absence within the created pond. The appearance of adult CRLF within the created wetland suggests a promising potential for natural colonization and future breeding at the mitigation site. Compensatory mitigation required for the development project resulted in the creation of aquatic breeding habitat and the opportunity to “seed” the mitigation site with CTS/CRLF, increasing the likelihood of refocusing breeding efforts on land protected in perpetuity.