Wildlands Conservation Science

10/02/2019

It's getting to be that time again--save the date for the next California Islands Symposium! See you there!

Bonus, can you name the butterfly on the blooming giant coreopsis?

SAVE THE DATE! The 10th California Islands Symposium is happening November 16-20, 2020 in Ventura. Check back here for updates as the planning committee formalizes dates and schedules.
Photo: Sauces, Santa Cruz Island
Credit: Michaela Miller

09/22/2019

Santa Catalina Island is perhaps the most well known of the 8 California Channel Islands. However, in many ways - Catalina is a story of two islands. From a literal standpoint, longterm global sea level rise projections suggest the island will eventually be split in two along a narrow isthmus linking Catalina’s west end (pictured here in the foreground) from a larger land mass to the east. However, that process is not likely to occur within our lifetime.

While Catalina currently remains one island, it’s land use is most definitely split in two. With approximately 4,000 human residents on the island and more public visitation than all of its seven siblings combined -Catalina Island land managers strive to balance the rights of private residents and wants of vacationers with the varied needs of sensitive insular resources. Regardless of all that, it’s one hell of a pretty island.

06/05/2018

When sitting atop the high mountain ridges of Santa Cruz Island, ‘June Gloom’ feels nothing like the dank and monotonous season that marks the early days of summer along the coast of southern California. From these peaks, the days are punctuated by a recurring battle between the dry inland air and the cool moist marine layer of the open ocean. This pulse of fog is essential to the rehydration of the landscape leading into the drier months of late summer and fall. Without this battle of gradients, much of the lush oak woodland lush chaparral vegetation shrouded in this “fog fall” would convert to a habitat more reminiscent of Baja. With the threat of future climate instability, this process may already have begun. The California Channel Islands have seen a 30% reduction in fog over the past 60 years.

11/09/2017

Yesterday, Wildlands hosted a camera trapping workshop from the unique perspective of photographing exotic species’ incursions to the Channel Islands. Here, WCS biologists Morgan Ball and Katrina Olthof describe tail differences between a non-native black rat (Rattus rattus) specimen and a dusky-footed wood rat (Neotoma fuscipes) specimen—native to mainland west coast only.

Many thanks to our community partners for housing the Island Camera Trapping Workshop for Biosecurity Monitoring and to for the specimen loan. Thanks to the and for facilitating! 📷 Amelia DuVall

10/07/2017

WCS was recently offered an opportunity to compare the past to the present. And guess what? The Now is looking pretty darn good.

Channel Islands National Park acquired a number of aerial photographs taken in 1972 of Santa Cruz Island's coastline. Ecologists from The Nature Conservancy thought it would be a great idea to compare these oblique images in order to demonstrate the recovery of the island following the removal of ungulates. With funding from , this summer we set out to revisit the past on and re-photographed dozens of locations.

These photos show a shift away from eroded, exotic grasslands to native habitats. In particular, maritime chaparral, coastal scrub, and riparian habitats are filling into areas once bare. This recovery is directly related to the efforts of The Nature Conservancy and the Park Service in removing large ungulates such as cattle, sheep, and pigs over the past thirty years.

07/07/2017

Wildlands is pretty lucky to be able to work with many different conservation organizations. This June and July, we had a blast hosting the California Institute of Environmental Studies (CIES) crew out on Santa Cruz Island to perform treatments of remote invasive plant infestations for The Nature Conservancy. Conserving and protecting habitat can't be done alone - it starts with a good team.

Good times on Santa Cruz Island working with Wildlands Conservation Science on helicopter transported invasive w**d eradication. Props to and for all of their hard work & dedication.

05/17/2017

Working under a Section 6 Grant and part of the California tiger salamander round-up organized by the USFWS, we have been performing surveys in the Purisima Hills over the past couple months. The goals are to get a snapshot of this years reproduction success and study potential hybridization with a non-native salamander that has been introduced to the region. Water levels have been very high, hampering survey efforts, but we've found a decent number of larvae this year. Genetic results will reveal the extent of hybridization.

03/24/2017

Vernal pools are a strange and novel habitat. In periods of drought, they are seemingly simple, dry depressions in the earth but can be identified by unique flora. When rain does fall, they transform into a niche ecosystem that support a myriad of aquatic invertebrates that in turn serve as forage for wintering ducks and shorebirds.

This winter's rain provided an opportunity to search for a rare, vernal pool obligate--the federally threatened vernal pool fairy shrimp (Branchinecta lynchi). Over 90-percent of vernal pool habitat that supports this species has been lost since Europeans' settlement of California. The recent expansion of the solar industry within the Carrizo Plain has resulted in additional impacts to remaining vernal pool habitat. To mitigate this loss, the Northern Carrizo Plain Ecological Reserve was created. Wildlands is fortunate to work with California Department of Fish and Wildlife to assist with surveying for this tiny member of California's ecosystems.

02/10/2016

We are pleased to be working this week at the beautiful Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge with support from the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County.

WCS will be performing a detailed survey for rare and invasive plants across this 2,553-acre dune system in an effort to inform future management activities on this ever-changing landscape.

10/05/2015

Please help us support California's Wildlands by supporting the California Invasive Plant Council.