TransectUniversity of California

S u m m e r 2 0 0 2 • V o l u m e 2 0, N o. 2

A few words from the

Director of the NRS

Continued on page 2

6 First Mathias Symposium highlights 2000-01 winners

10 CA Coastal Conservancy support initiates Phase II of San Joaquin Marsh Reserve restoration

12 Legacy of 20th-century explorer Al A. Allanson enriches desert research

Continued on page 16

NRS research that revealed collapse

of island fox population now focuses

on halting species extinction

Developing a sound conservation strategy … depends upon gaining demographicand genetic information for all populations of concern prior to the onset of anyirreversible population declines. — Gary Roemer, 1994

B iologist Gary Roemer and his field assistant, Jeff Howarth, were stuck.January 1995 was the wettest month in recorded history at the NRSreserve on Santa Cruz Island, largest of the California Channel Islands.

The pair were on the island to do fieldwork for Roemer’s UCLA doctoral disser-tation on the island fox (Urocyon littoralis). Twice each month for a year, theyhad journeyed out to Fraser Point at the west end of the island, set up camp inan NRS trailer, and collected data on the social structure and mating behaviorsof a fox population that roamed the bluffs above the point.

T he NRS systemwide MathiasGraduate Student ResearchGrants program, now in its fif-

teenth year, has supported more than200 research projects. In this issue ofTransect, a sampling of such projects isseen in the account of the first-everMathias Symposium (page 6), whilethe opening story (page 1) describes theoutstanding research on the island foxby two-time Mathias award recipientGary Roemer and his colleagues.

In 1993, the estimated populations forthe endemic fox on San Miguel andSanta Cruz Islands were 350 and 1,312adults, respectively. By 1999, only15adult foxes were known to be alive onSan Miguel and an estimated 133 onSanta Cruz. Roemer and his colleaguescarried out a series of meticulous stud-ies from 1993 to 1999 and concluded

In

Th

is Issu

e

Santa Cruz Island fox. Photo by Gary Roemer

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NRS research

Continued from page 1

But once the rain began to fall that January, it didn’t stopall month. “There was literally water running off the hill-sides,” Roemer recalls. Not only was the road to their studysite impassable, the road to the boat landing was also un-derwater. The pair couldn’t even get off the island. So theytook refuge at the field station and waited. “We passed thetime doing data entry,” Roemer continues, “reading books fromthe library, and helping Brian [Guerrero, the reserve steward].”

Roemer was anxious to get back out to Fraser Point. Therehad been a number of fox mortalities the previous year andhe was concerned: “The first mortality was May of ‘94. Thenwe lost three to four more from May through December.”

Even after the rains eased up, the muddy roads were stillimpassable for several months into 1995. Finally, Roemerand Howarth decided to hike to their study site. When theyarrived in February, they discovered there had been threeadditional mortalities during their absence. Roemer was surehe knew the cause.

“The forensic information at the kill sites was clear,” heexplains. “Each animal’s pelt had been pierced, some hadholes in their skulls, and that requires powerful feet andsharp talons. Also, the limbs were often ‘degloved’ [the skinpulled back from the flesh], and the sites were often litteredwith feathers and droppings. There was no doubt in mymind that golden eagles had done the killing.”

The big question was, why now? Golden eagles (Aquilachrysaetos) were a mainland species. Though they had occa-sionally been seen passing over Santa Cruz Island since thelate 1800s, they had never been known to nest there or onany of the other Channel Islands. Now the fox kills wereoccurring so frequently, the birds must have taken up resi-dence on the island. During his two-year study, Roemer lost21 animals, at least 17 of these confirmed golden eagle kills.

Roemer’s discovery triggered a flurry of follow-up researchthroughout the Channel Islands. Five of the eight islands— San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara, Anacapa, andSanta Cruz — comprise the Channel Islands National Park,and Park Service biologists soon discovered similar dramaticdeclines of fox populations on San Miguel and Santa Rosa.As the fox’s dire situation became clear, The Nature Con-servancy (TNC), which owns and protects most of the is-land, and the National Park Service, which manages it,would launch an unprecedented effort to save the speciesand restore the damaged Santa Cruz Island ecosystem.

Present-day Santa Cruz Island

A journey out to Fraser Point, at the far west end of SantaCruz Island, reveals the island’s rugged terrain. Even in thebest of weather, only the sturdiest four-wheel-drive vehiclescan handle the “road” west, which offers gravel- and boul-der-filled riverbed alternating with short sections of im-proved dirt road, open fields, and occasional near-verticalplunges into, and out of, deeply eroded creek beds.

The views along the way are spectacular: to the north, loom-ing out of the haze on the mainland 40 miles away, are theSanta Ynez Mountains; to the south, rugged canyons plungetoward the ocean, their flanks still scarred from decades ofovergrazing by sheep. “There are still places down there I’venever seen,” observes the reserve’s director, Lyndal Laughrin.Quite a statement, considering he’s been working on SantaCruz Island and running its field station for over 30 years.

Fraser Point itself feels almost as much a part of the oceanas of the land — waves pounding on the unprotected coast,cold windy fogs blanketing the bluffs.

“This was one of the two study sites Gary [Roemer] had setup.” Laughrin gestures to the open bluffs above the point.“He had a grid here and another one in the central valley tocompare the populations at the two different sites.” Thefoxes have been the focus of basic research on the islandsince the field station was established in 1965. Lyndal him-self wrote his dissertation on them in the 1970s, before shift-ing his focus to restoration ecology. Three other UC gradu-ate students had also done theses on different aspects of theanimals’ behavior and social organization. None of theseearlier works noted any major declines in their population.

“Back in the eighties, there was a major effort to removesheep from the island,” Laughrin recalls. “Overgrazing hadreally devastated many of the hillsides. We thought withthe sheep gone, the island foxes would do great.”

But ecological matters didn’t play out the way everyone hadenvisioned. Over the next ten years, the fox population onSanta Cruz Island dropped more than 90 percent, from1,300 individuals in 1994, to 133 animals in 1999, to be-tween 70 and 80 today. That translates, roughly, as one lessfox every other day. But what could have caused thisdramatic shift?

Apparent competition

Roemer, whose UCLA graduate research was partiallyfunded by two NRS Mathias grants, is now a professor at

have large, multiple litters each year, and adults quickly be-came too big to serve as eagle prey.

Interestingly, one major winner of this ecological shift wasa true island fox competitor. The island spotted skunk(Spilogale gracilis amphiala) population soared as the foxpopulation declined. When Laughrin conducted his stud-ies in the 1970s, he rarely captured a skunk in his fox traps.Today researchers capture more skunks than foxes.

Feral pigs may have initially attracted golden eagles to theislands, but the foxes turned out to be the easier prey. Stableisotope studies conducted on various Santa Cruz Islandsamples, including eagle breast feathers, revealed that thegolden eagle diet consisted of 51 percent fox, 34 percentpiglet, and 15 percent skunk.

Roemer realized immediately that the foxpopulation on Santa Cruz Island was ingreat peril. In collaborating with re-searchers doing work on other ChannelIslands, it soon became apparent that thesame pattern was repeating itself in thoselocations as well. On San Miguel Island,the number of island foxes was found tobe dropping dramatically —from 450 to40 in four years. By 2001, only 15 foxessurvived there.

The rescue plan

Fast forward to 2002. The current sta-tus of the island fox on Santa Cruz Is-land comes clear on a high ridge over-looking China Harbor. A series of sixlarge chain-link pens — four walls anda roof — have been scattered along theridge as part of a captive breeding pro-gram begun earlier this year. Inside eachpen, hidden among large branches, is apair of foxes. The animals aren’t shy;when humans approach, they peer curi-ously from their den to see if it’s time toeat. One of the pens holds five kits, asingle large litter that represents the onlysuccessful mating so far at the Santa CruzIsland facility. With 17 foxes here, and50 to 60 still in the wild, the populationis on the verge of extinction.

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Continued on page 4

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. In a recent phoneinterview, he recalled the breakthrough. “The first goldeneagle I saw on Santa Cruz I flushed off a piglet it had killed,”he says. “Later, it hit me that the eagle had two prey. There’sa concept called ‘apparent competition’ that was developedin the 1970s. It states that when two prey species share apredator, one of the species may be well adapted to highpredation pressure, while the other species may be morevulnerable.”

In this instance, the two prey species were island foxes andferal pigs, the latter descendants of domestic stock broughtto the island in the 1850s. The two species didn’t competedirectly, but, as golden eagle prey, the fox was at a disadvan-tage. It reproduced quite slowly (one litter of one to fivekits per year) and even the cat-sized adults were small enoughto be prey. Feral pigs (Sus scrofa), on the other hand, could

How an exotic species turned native predatorsinto prey at Santa Cruz Island

(Photo of bald eagle by Brian Latta;

Photos of golden eagle, skunk, pig, and island fox by Gary Roemer)

The feral pig,

whose species is

surviving golden

eagle predation

The island fox — a

predator, but its

species cannot

withstand golden

eagle predation

preys on

The bald eagle

disappears from the

island due to DDT The golden eagle

arrives at the island

and stays because of

readily available

prey, filling a niche

that opened when the

bald eagle

disappeared

The island skunk

— a predator itself,

but largely spared

eagle predation.

as the island fox

population is

depleted, the skunk

population rises

On the next ridge is another nursery: a tall fledging towerthat provides a panoramic vista for four bald eagle chicks.Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) once played a key rolein the Santa Cruz Island ecosystem population and, becausethey fed almost exclusively on fish and carrion washed upon the beaches, they posed no threat to the foxes. In fact,many scientists believe the presence of bald eagles protectedthe island from encroaching golden eagles. But the once-common bald eagles disappeared from the Channel Islandsin the 1950s, a decline believed to be the result of agricul-tural pesticides, primarily the insecticide DDT, dumped offthe coast of Los Angeles into the ocean near Santa CatalinaIsland, about 75 miles southeast of Santa Cruz Island. Thefour bald eaglets on this fledging tower were hatched at theSan Francisco Zoo from eggs taken on Santa Catalina. Theywere brought to the site to re-establish the Santa Cruz Is-land population. More chicks will be brought in over thenext four years, 12 per year for a total of 60.

Elsewhere, predatory bird specialists are working hard tocapture and remove the last three golden eagles nesting onthe island. Since November 1999, 22 golden eagles (12adults, 7 subadults, 3 chicks) have been captured and re-moved. The adults were radio-tagged and taken to the farnortheast corner of the state. So far, none has returned tosouthern California. Each capture, however, has becomemore difficult.

“I knew it would get harder,” says Brian Latta of the Preda-tory Bird Research Group at UC Santa Cruz, “but I didn’tknow it would get this hard. These birds are very smart andvery cryptic. We have to constantly develop new capturetechniques, because they won’t fall for the same trick twice.”The latest strategy — chasing the birds to exhaustion witha helicopter and then netting them when they land — hasproven difficult on the island’s rugged terrain. The first weekof work produced no new captures.

Meanwhile, thousands of feral pigs continue to roam the96-square-mile island, and extracting them from the remotecanyons will be extremely time-consuming. Under a Na-ture Conservancy effort beginning this fall, fences will bebuilt that divide the island into six sections. The plan isthat each year the pigs will be removed from one sectionuntil they’re all gone.

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As often happens in island ecosystems, the islandfox (Urocyon littoralis) evolved as a dwarf ver-

sion of a larger species — in this case, the mainlandgray fox (Urocyon cineroargenteus). Island species tendto be smaller due to limited and uncertain food sup-ply. About the size of a house cat, the island fox is om-nivorous, feeding on insects, mice, birds, eggs, and fruit.Quick and agile, they are excellent climbers.

Their natural history is largely a result of what biolo-gists call “jackpot selection,” a form of evolutionunique to island ecosystems. It’s a jackpot becausethe food chain is created by random chance: which-ever animals wash up on the island and survive be-come part of the system. At Santa Cruz Island, foxesand skunks are the largest surviving land fauna tomake it from the mainland, crossing the channel about15,000 years ago when the sea level was low and thefour northern Channel Islands were a single land mass.

The fox has little reason to fear humans. TheChumash who arrived on Santa Cruz Island about7,500 years ago co-existed with the foxes, even tak-ing them as pets. It was the Chumash who carriedthe foxes to the southern Channel Islands. As late asthe 1950s, humans made pets of the foxes, until theState of California gave them protected status.

The fox is native to six of the eight Channel Islands.Each island supports a genetically unique subspecies,and populations on all of the islands are in extremedanger. Currently, four subspecies have been recom-mended to be listed as endangered — on San Migueland Santa Rosa Islands, where they are consideredExtinct in the Wild (the only surviving animals be-ing bred in captivity), and on Santa Cruz and SantaCatalina Islands, where the populations have dropped90 percent over the last ten years. These recommen-dations were submitted to the U.S. Fish and WildlifeService in December 2000 and are still pending.

Many scientists believe all six subspecies should be listed.They note that the San Clemente Island populationhas dropped 50 percent in ten years, while the SanNicolas Island population is now under 1,000 and con-tains so little genetic variability that it is vulnerableto potentially devastating diseases like distemper, whichwas passed to Santa Catalina foxes by house pets. — JB

The Prey: Island Fox

Continued on page 5

NRS research

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The Predator: Golden EagleNRS research

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Future lessons

Island ecosystems have been crucial in the development ofevolutionary theory. Beginning with Darwin’s work onGalapagos finches, the rapid divergence of island specieshas fueled the fires of scientific debate on how life evolves.Islands have also served as major test cases for conservationstrategies, because small population sizes and lack of ge-netic variation put island species at risk. Birds provide agood example of this. Fewer than 20 percent of all birdspecies are restricted to islands, but more than 90 percentof extinctions of bird species in historic times have occurredon islands, and 39 percent of all threatened bird species areisland species.

Santa Cruz Island will be an important conservation story,because restoring a native ecosystem is like trying to putHumpty Dumpty back together again. All of the pieces mustfit into place — the pigs and golden eagles successfully re-moved, the bald eagles reintroduced, and the island foxesrestored — to reconstruct a species assemblage long since lost.

As animal populations throughout the world become fewerin numbers and more fragmented, the chances of entirefood chains suddenly collapsing become greater. This is whyit is crucial we do basic research on the animals that survivetoday to acquire an understanding of a species before itreaches a crisis.

It has taken eight years for us to assess and respond to theplight of the island fox. During that time, their situationhas become much more desperate. Roemer observes: “Thegovernment has to be able to respond to scientific inputmuch more quickly, in six months rather than four to fiveyears. We also need to facilitate basic research before we getto a crisis like we have today. Without a basic understand-ing of how the system functions, we will be unable to insti-tute any mitigating actions.” — JB

For more information, contact:Lyndal Laughrin, Reserve DirectorMarine Science InstituteTrailer 342University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara, CA 93106Phone: 805-967-2224Email: <laughrin@lifesci.ucsb.edu>

G olden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) are large,with wingspans up to 80 inches, but they’re not

easy to spot. They nest in remote areas and disappearwhen they sense humans around. While hunting, theyusually contour low along the ground, invisible to theirprey (and to onlookers) until the last moment.

In the fall of 1999, researchers Brian Latta and GaryRoemer rappelled down to a nest on a steep canyonwall, looking for conclusive evidence that golden eagleswere nesting on Santa Cruz Island and feeding on is-land foxes. The nest was huge — a foot-deep pile ofsticks and branches, eight feet by three and a half feet,tucked into a “pothole” in the side of the cliff — andfull of prey evidence: piglet bones, cormorant and gullfeathers, and, significantly, two island fox mandibles.No eagle feathers were found that day, but the scien-tists collected a number of eggshell fragments. Testslater confirmed they had belonged to a golden eagle.

Santa Cruz Island is an unusual place to find goldeneagles. Although they range over much of NorthAmerica, from the Canadian Arctic to the deserts ofcentral Mexico, no other population in the WesternHemisphere nests so near the coast. They prefer openwoodlands and savannas, where they prey on smallmammals, such as jackrabbits, prairie dogs, and squir-rels, along with occasional birds and reptiles. One oftheir densest nesting populations is in the San Fran-cisco Bay Area, near Altamont Pass.

The birds mate for life and often build alternate nests.On Santa Cruz Island, Latta later discovered a secondnest right around the corner from the first, which thebirds were apparently using every other year. Whenhe reached it, he found two juveniles. An attempt tonet the female with her young was unsuccessful, soLatta settled for moving the juveniles.

Currently, three golden eagles are still known to re-side on Santa Cruz Island: the female described aboveand two others, thought to be her female offspring.Attempts to capture them will resume this October.Will that be the end of the story? Latta isn’t so sure.“There have been a number of sightings on Santa RosaIsland,” he notes, referring to the next island in thechain. “We’ll have to make sure they aren’t nestingover there.” — JB

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First Mathias Symposium highlights graduate research

Graduate research, like profes-sional research, requiresquick adaptation, hard work,

and careful observation. Its demandsbecame evident when eleven recipientsof the Mildred E. Mathias GraduateStudent Research Grants for 2000-2001 gathered this past March at theNRS’s Motte Rimrock Reserve, outsidePerris, California, to discuss their researchat the first-ever Mathias Symposium.

Mary Brooke McEachern, of UCDavis, planned to study a healthy popu-lation of dusky-footed woodrats nearEagle Lake. When she discovered thepopulation was actually in steep decline,she had to switch gears, but soon adaptedher research to examine the population’sresponse to increased isolation.

When Stephanie Romañach, of UCSanta Barbara, set out to study the so-

cial interactions of pocket gophers(Thomomys bottae), she had no ideashe’d need a backhoe to dig a kilome-ter of trench lined with wire mesh tocontrol the subjects of her study. She’sstill trying to perfect techniques fortracking their extensive tunnel systems.

Aviva Liebert, of UCLA, and her advi-sor wanted to study paper wasps intheir natural environment (rather thanin nests on humanmade structures) inthe Santa Monica Mountains, but shesoon faced a major problem: she couldn’tfind them. Only after much carefulobservation did she discover their nestshanging in cracks in the dried soil.

This first Mathias Symposium was sup-ported by the Kenneth S. Norris Endow-ment Fund for the California Environ-ment provided to the NRS by the Davidand Lucile Packard Foundation. NRS

Systemwide Director Alexander Glazer,who conceived of the idea, was pleasedby the outcome of the weekend event.“The diversity and quality of the pre-sentations was excellent, really tremen-dous,” he observed. “But almost as im-portant was the opportunity the studentshad to interact with their peers and sharetheir research experiences. The contactsthey make at events like this can be ex-tremely valuable later on in their careers.”

Glazer notes that, by participating in theMathias Symposium, students come toappreciate that in addition to belongingto a particular campus unit, they are alsomembers of the Natural Reserve Systemgraduate student community, a commu-nity with high respect for the complex-ity and value of field research.

As well as making their own presenta-tions, participants also had the opportu-

From UC Berkeley —Lisa Grubisha, Analysis of gene flow in mainland and is-land populations of the ectomycorrhizal fungus (Rhizopogonrubescens), at Santa Cruz Island Reserve.

Kenwyn Blakeslee Suttle, Consequences of altered hydro-logic regimes for a north coast California grassland commu-nity, at Angelo Coast Range Reserve.

From UC Davis —Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Size plasticity in Daphniapulicaria: evidence of parasitoid-derived chemical media-tion?, at Eagle Lake Biological Field Station.

Mary Brooke McEachern, The genetic consequences of mat-ing system variation in the dusky-footed woodrat (Neotomafuscipes), at Eagle Lake Biological Field Station.

Evan Preisser, Moisture-mediated interactions in a two-predator trophic cascade, at Bodega Marine Reserve.

From UC Los Angeles —Aviva Liebert, Reproductive flexibility in the paper wasp(Polistes aurifer), at Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Moun-tains Reserve.

From UC Riverside —Sharon J. Coe, How does water availability affect repro-ductive success in desert birds? A test using water supple-mentation in the black-throated sparrow (Amphispizabillineata deserticola), at Sweeney Granite MountainsDesert Research Center.

Amy E. Lindahl, Seasonal and spatial shifts in patterns ofecto- and arbuscular mycorrhizae associated with coast liveoak (Quercus agrifolia) and grasslands in a southern Cali-fornia ecosystem, at Emerson Oak Reserve.

Abby Glenn Sirulnik, Effects of nitrogen deposition on nu-trient cycling in exotic annual grasslands and chaparral com-munities in southern California, at Motte Rimrock Re-serve, Box Springs Reserve, and Emerson Oaks Reserve.

From UC Santa Barbara —Stephanie Romañach, The influence of body size, resourceabundance, and social interactions on movement patterns,at Sedgwick Reserve.

Sean Mark Watts, The evolutionary response of plants toroot herbivory, at Santa Cruz Island Reserve.

Graduate student presenters at the first Mathias Symposium

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nity to interact with two leading fieldresearchers, David Wake from UC Ber-keley and Mike Scott from the Uni-versity of Idaho. Wake and Scott pro-vided feedback on the student presen-tations and discussedtheir own work.

Wake, a professor ofIntegrative Biologyand curator of Herpe-tology at UC Berke-ley’s Museum of Ver-tebrate Zoology, dis-cussed the tremen-dous effort currentlyunderway to identifyamphibians aroundthe world and assessthe factors thatthreaten their exist-ence. A key challenge,he noted, is the lackof adequately trainedresearchers in all areasof the globe and theirtremendous isolation.To foster communi-cation among re-searchers and withthe general public,Wake’s team created awebsite that containsup-to-date informa-

ing students an opportunity to sharetheir career concerns.

Mathias graduate re-search grants provideup to $2,500 to sup-port UC-enrolledstudents conductingindependent andfield science studies atNRS reserves. Sinceits inception in 1988,the program hasawarded 201 grantsworth more than$300,000. Informa-tion on current win-ners, as well as grantapplications andprocedures, can befound on the Web:< h t t p : / / n r s .u c o p . e d u / i n f o /g r a n t s _ a w a r d s /grants.html>. Appli-cations for this year’sawards are due toNRS campus repre-sentatives by October24, 2002. — JB

tion from experts around the world,AmphibiaWeb: <http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/aw/>.

Scott, a professor of Wildlife Resourcesand unit leader of the USGS IdahoCooperative Fish and Wildlife ResearchUnit at the University of Idaho, hasdone extensive ground-breaking workon the effectiveness of current reservesin protecting endangered species.“We’re preserving rocks and ice,” Scottnoted, “while two-thirds of endangeredspecies occur on private property.”Scott proposes the development of acoherent national policy that will maxi-mize the effectiveness of the efforts toprotect threatened plants and animals.

Both men also participated in a finaldiscussion on careers, relating theirown professional experiences and giv-

T he quality of biological field research conducted by UCgraduate students at NRS reserves becomes evident when one

looks at their success with national award programs. For example,the Canon National Parks Science Scholars Program, which sup-ports grad students conducting dissertation research in the NationalPark System, is widely regarded as offering the most prestigiousresearch grants available at that level — $75,000 to each student,$25,000 per year. Of the eight Canon winners selected for 2002,two work extensively at NRS reserves:

Blake Suttle, of UC Berkeley, who also won a Mathias grant for2000-2001, is studying the effects of global climate change in north-ern California grassland communities. He has test plots at Red-woods National Park and the NRS’s Angelo Coast Range Reservein Mendocino County. His goal is to test the predictions of leadingclimate change models by taking measurements of the grasslandplants, herbivores, detritivores, and predators.

Elizabeth Brusati, of UC Davis, who is studying the interactionamong introduced species in salt marshes, works at multiple sites,including the Point Reyes National Seashore and the NRS’s BodegaMarine Reserve on the Sonoma County coast. She is focusing onAtlantic cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), an introduced species fromthe east coast of the United States that is dramatically changingCalifornia’s sensitive marine estuaries. — JB

UC grad students net national awards

David Wake, UC Berkeley, and Mike

Scott, University of Idaho. Photo by

Jerry Booth

The NRS’s Mathias Graduate

Student Research Grants were

named for the late Mildred E.

Mathias, a professor of botany at

UCLA and “founding mother” of the

reserve system. Photo by Norden H.

(Dan) Cheatham

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A long-held dream started to be-come reality for the NRS’sSedgwick Reserve when earlier

this year the J. E. and Lillian TiptonFoundation granted a gift to that5,896-acre, Santa Barbara County site:$1.4 million to cover construction ofits central gathering place, the first ofseveral buildings proposed in its long-range master plan.

Sedgwick Reserve, administered by UCSanta Barbara, has been available since1997 for teaching, research, and pub-lic service activities. Director MichaelWilliams describes the TiptonFoundation’s contribution of hisreserve’s keystone building as “the criti-cal first step towards realizing the col-lective vision of both the surroundingcommunity and the University of Cali-fornia.” In honor of its benefactors, thebuilding will be designated the TiptonMeeting House.

The Tipton Meeting House will hostmore than 6,000 visitors each year,offering a formal classroom area foruniversity classes, research meetings,public workshops, and K-12 outreachprograms. The meeting house will alsofeature a spacious front porch and twosmaller rooms — one intended to holdthe reserve’s natural history collection and

the other designed as a workshop area.The facility will be located prominentlynear the entrance of the reserve.

“To be able to make a gift to theSedgwick Reserve is truly a blessing,”a spokesperson for the J. E. and LillianTipton Foundation said, “for we knowthat this gift will have an enduringimpact on teaching about and pre-serving nature.”

The vision of the Sedgwick Reserve’slong-range master plan blends the char-acter of the historic, 150-year-oldSedgwick Ranch with a modern UCresearch and public education facility.To retain the original “feel” of theSedgwick Ranch, which was named forFrancis Minturn “Duke” Sedgwick andhis wife, Alice de Forest Sedgwick, whoacquired the property in 1952, the ar-chitecture of the Tipton MeetingHouse will be designed in traditionalCalifornia ranch style, an aesthetic ex-pression reflected throughout the en-tire Sedgwick village.

All new construction at the SedgwickReserve will follow sustainable and“green” design principles and, as such,will serve as a design model on the cen-tral coast of California. Use of recycledmaterials and energy efficiency will be

emphasized. Heating and cooling ofstructures will incorporate passive aswell as active systems and will be envi-ronmentally monitored. Constructionfeatures will be highlighted with dis-plays and signage. In keeping with thissustainable design approach, theTipton Meeting House will offer bothenclosed winter space (created using roll-down, wooden doors) and shaded, opensummer space for additional activities.

NRS Systemwide Director AlexanderGlazer summarized the significance ofthe Sedgwick Reserve and the TiptonFoundation’s gift to this site: “TheSedgwick Reserve typifies all that is bestabout the Natural Reserve System. Itattracts and rewards a large and diversecommunity of users from talented sci-entists to landscape painters, fromgraduate students to schoolchildren.This gift will provide not only a facil-ity essential to the reserve’s future, butalso an inspiration for others.” — SGR

For more information, contact:Michael P. Williams, Reserve DirectorSedgwick ReserveP. O. Box 848Santa Ynez, CA 93460-0848Phone: 805-686-1941Email: <m_willia@lifesci.ucsb.edu>

Big gift will make big opportunities possible at Sedgwick

Sedgwick Reserve’s historic buildings are still in use, but the long-planned-for, now-funded Tipton

Meeting House will greatly improve opportunities for all educational, research, and cultural site users.

Art by Margaret L. Herring

But how could Dawson preserve thishabitat and, at the same time, benefitValentine if the land was not to becomepart of the NRS? After making a fewphone calls, he came up with a plan.

Nearby Bakersfield is one of the fastestgrowing metropolitan areas in the state.To mitigate the impact of this growth,the city established the MetropolitanBakersfield Habitat Conservation Plan(MBHCP). Developers pay impact feeson each new subdivision or building,which MBHCP then uses to fund habi-tat acquisition and management. Since1994, the city has used the funds to ac-quire more than 4,000 acres of habitat.

Dawson contacted the MBHCP TrustGroup to see if they would be inter-ested in purchasing and preserving theHaddad property, appraised at$150,500. Their response, after fieldtrips and agency encouragement or-chestrated by Dawson, was positive.Dawson then discussed his idea withMargaret Haddad Abdun-Nur, execu-tor of the Haddad Family Trust. Sheliked the idea of selling the land to ben-efit Valentine.

From that point on, the deal went rela-tively smoothly. The Regents of the

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Land preserved, funds gained for Valentine Reserve

When potential donors con-sider giving land to theNRS, they are often trying

to preserve a threatened ecosystemfrom development. So what can hap-pen when a donor has a piece of eco-logically valuable land that won’t workas an NRS reserve?

Dan Dawson, reserve director for bothValentine Camp and the Sierra NevadaAquatic Research Laboratory (SNARL)— the two component sites of the Val-entine Eastern Sierra Reserve (VESR)in Mono County — faced this di-lemma recently when a representativeof the Haddad Family Trust contactedhim regarding some land the familyowned in the San Joaquin Valley.

“I got a call out of the blue from anaccounting office in Encino,” Dawsonrecalls. “They represented the Haddadfamily, who were prosperous Bakers-field farmers. The parents had passedaway recently and their heirs were nolonger interested in farming, so theywere selling off the land. Already theyhad sold everything, except two par-cels that totaled about 197 acres. Thefamily was interested in donating theseparcels to benefit the Valentine Reserve.”

His interest piqued, Dawson drovedown from his reserves near MammothLakes to look at the Haddads’ prop-erty, located in the Caliente Wash justoutside Bakersfield. He soon realizedit contained the federally listed Bakers-field cactus (Opuntia basilaris) and wasperfect habitat for a number of endan-gered animals — the Tipton kangaroorat (Dipodomys nitratoides nitratoides),the San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotismutica), and the blunt-nosed leopardlizard (Gambelia silus). He also knewThe Nature Conservancy (TNC) hadestablished the nearby 270-acre SandRidge Preserve in 1965 to preservesimilar habitat.

University of California received theland as a gift from the Haddad FamilyTrust, then sold it to the California De-partment of Fish and Game, with fundsprovided by MBHCP. California Fishand Game now holds the land and willmanage it as endangered species habitat.

Because the gift is unrestricted,Dawson has the flexibility to use thefunds to meet his reserve’s most criti-cal needs. His goal is to build up anendowment to fund Valentine in per-petuity. “We intend to use the proceedsas a cornerstone donation to grow asignificant endowment,” he says. “Inthe beginning, the modest annual re-turn on the funds will be used for criti-cal reserve staffing needs, but in thelong term, I hope to put the entire pro-gram on a much stronger financialfooting.”— JB

For more information, contact:Daniel R. Dawson, Reserve DirectorVESR, Route 1, Box 1981016 Mt. Morrison RoadMammoth Lakes, CA 93546Phone: 760-935-4334Email: <dawson@icess.ucsb.edu>

Bleak and windswept, the

Haddad land near Bakers-

field (left) is excellent

habitat for the federally

endangered Bakersfield

cactus. The Bakersfield cactus is shown here (above right) being

examined by Greg Warick, manager of the adjacent Sand Ridge Preserve,

established by The Nature Conservancy in 1965 and now administered

through the Center for Natural lands Management. Photos by Dan Dawson

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The California Coastal Conser-vancy continued its strong sup-port for the NRS’s San Joaquin

Marsh Reserve when, earlier this year,it awarded $330,000 to fund the plan-ning for the second phase of a programto restore the Orange County reserve.

The award will cover the cost of devel-oping a feasibility study, conductingenvironmental reviews, consulting withpermitting agencies, and preparing fi-nal construction designs and contractdocuments to complete the marsh res-toration project. According to FacultyReserve Manager Peter Bowler, onegoal of the Phase II EnhancementProject is to “mimic the historic hydrol-ogy of the150-acre marsh pond systemand establish an upgraded connectionbetween the ponds and other areaswithin the marsh.”

Phase I of the project was initiated in1997 with funding from the Califor-nia Coastal Conservancy, the Leaguefor Coastal Protection, the San JoaquinHills Transportation Corridor Author-ity, and the Irvine and Clarke Founda-tion. The work, which included en-hancement of a number of seasonalponds and restoration of coastal sagescrub habitat, is now largely complete.

The increasing numbers of birds andother wildlife that use the restored areaof San Joaquin Marsh are evidence ofthe success of Phase I. Phase I also hada major positive impact on the reserve’spublic outreach. “Inside the Out-doors,” a K-12 education program runby the Orange County Department ofEducation, uses the restored area as asite for teaching elementary ecology tograde-school children. Last year theprogram brought more than 4,000 stu-dents and teachers to the marsh fromover 50 Orange County schools.

Reserve Manager William Bretz is stillamazed at how well this developmentworked out. “It was real serendipity,”he says. “We were more focused on re-storing the area as a habitat, but it’sideal for introducing kids to the envi-ronment. And because it’s on the edgeof the reserve, they can get in and outwithout disturbing any of the research.”

Karen Bane, the Coastal Conservancy’sproject manager, was very enthusiasticabout providing continued support forthe marsh restoration: “We’ve been work-ing on this project with the Universityfor many years, and Phase II really rep-resents the culmination of all the workup to this point. … I love managingthis project and get down there everychance I can. It’s great seeing the wild-life coming back since the completionof Phase I … the incredible variety ofresident and migrating birds nestingthere. There are herons and ospreys,and California gnatcatchers are nest-ing in the scrub restoration on the bluff.”

Bane has also been impressed by thereserve staff ’s commitment: “Whensome of the initial vegetation thecontractor planted during Phase Ididn’t take, the reserve staff took itupon themselves to replant it. And thishas turned out for the better, because nowthe plants are at different stages of devel-opment, and that’s much more natural.”

In contrast to Phase I, which restruc-tured undesirable sediment elevationsand plant communities, a primary goalof Phase II is to retain a large area ofthe historic, old-growth emergent veg-etation (cattails) and its underlyingsediment sequence, which has irre-placeable values for research into wet-lands biophysical processes, accordingto Mike Goulden, UC Irvine profes-sor in Earth Systems Science. Phase IIwill involve removal of several acres of

unneeded dikes and roadways, as wellas elevation adjustments to create thepossibility for eventual restoration ofnatural tidal influence in the lowestportion of the marsh. Other Phase IIcomponents will provide additionalopen water, better control of watermovement and depth, and improvedconnections between existing ponds.

From a regional perspective, the resto-ration of San Joaquin Marsh is part ofthe Coastal Conservancy’s SouthernCalifornia Wetlands Recovery Project,an alliance of federal, state, and localofficials working with business and non-profit organizations to acquire, restore,and expand coastal wetlands and water-sheds throughout Southern California.

The San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh Re-serve represents one of the last rem-nants of the freshwater wetlands thatonce covered much of Orange County’sfloodplain. Located in an ancient river-cut channel at the head of NewportBay, the reserve supports a variety ofwetland habitats, including freshwatermarshlands, shallow ponds, and chan-nels confined by earthen dikes. Dryupland habitats with a remnant coastalsage scrub community rise on the mar-gins of the reserve. The marsh is a criti-cal stopping place for 100 migratorybird species using the Pacific Flyway.Altogether, more than 200 bird species(20 nesting) have been sighted in thereserve. The marsh is located within aten-minute walk from UC Irvine, mak-ing it convenient for day use by fac-ulty and numerous students. — JB

For more information, contact:William Bretz, Reserve ManagerOffice of Natural ReservesUniversity of CaliforniaIrvine, CA 92697-1459Phone: 949-824-6031Email: <wlbretz@uci.edu>

Southern California marsh restoration receives

another boost from the state Coastal Conservancy

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Over the years, the CaliforniaCoastal Conservancy has of-

fered crucial support to the NRS,providing funds for land acquisition,habitat restoration, and the devel-opment of outreach programs. Justlast year the conservancy contrib-uted $268,392 so that the NRScould acquire 339 acres of inheld par-cels at Quail Ridge Reserve on LakeBerryessa in Napa County. At thesame time, they provided $22,500 toestablish a docent program at nearbyStebbins Cold Canyon Reserve.

Virginia “Shorty” Boucher, whomanages the UC Davis reserves, ex-plains: “Stebbins has a long historyof public access, so they [the con-servancy] decided it would be bet-ter to enhance access there, ratherthan at the biologically more vulner-able Quail Ridge site. These fundshave allowed us to jumpstart theoutreach program.”

Under Boucher’s guidance, theconservancy’s outreach funds (alongwith matching monies from theNRS systemwide office) have beenwell spent. Her first step wasto hire Helen Kota to de-velop the docent program.“When I wrote the job de-scription,” Boucher recalls,“I had this perfect person inmind. And when Helenwalked in the door, she hadit all: she’s well connected inthe community; she’s retired;she’s been an educator herentire life and has run a men-tor program; she’s done K-12outreach around the country.I check in once a week, butshe really runs the programon her own.”

group of docents and coordinatingthe Stebbins efforts with othergroups doing outreach in the PutahCreek watershed.

In the meantime, Boucher and Re-serve Stewards Shane Waddell andDan Tolson mapped out a new trailthat increases visitor access toStebbins. “We financed it withsystemwide funds [matching fundsrequired by the conservancy],” she ex-plains. “All I did was point. Shane andhis crew from a nearby Departmentof Forestry camp did all the work,carrying in huge 4x4s to push thetrail up to the top of the ridge. Nowvisitors can make a complete loop andenjoy dramatic views of MonticelloDam, Lake Berryessa, and the valley.”

“The only problem,” Boucher addswith a smile, “is that I get all thesecalls from people complaining howsteep it is! There are a lot ofswitchbacks,” she concedes, “sowe’re putting out a new trail mapthat includes the contour lines.”

Kota and Boucher are working nowwith the Davis campus anda number of local, state, andfederal agencies to make theStebbins docent programpermanent. — JB

For more information,contact:Virginia “Shorty” Boucher,Reserve DirectorUCD NRSDESP / Wickson HallUniversity of CaliforniaDavis, CA 95616Phone: 530-752-6949Email:<vlboucher@ucdavis.edu>

State Coastal Conservancy’s support to NRS reserve inNorthern California enables a public outreach program

At Stebbins Reserve, docent

coordinator Helen Kota, docent

Shirley Jensen, and volunteer Jim

Plehn examine a tree that is home

to an ant colony. They are tapping

on the tree to bring the ants out.

Photo by Virginia Boucher

Reserve director Boucher sits on a small bridge

that spans a spring intersecting the new trail

she mapped out for Stebbins Reserve. Photo by

Shane Waddell

Conservancy funding pays a quarter-time salary to Kota for two years. Inless than a year, she recruited about 20docents, arranged for their training byUniversity researchers, and set up aschedule of guided tours two days aweek as long as the weather allows. Hercurrent plans include bringing in a new

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NRS desert reserve

becomes heir to

the generous legacy of a

true 20th-century explorer

J im André, who directs the 9,000-acre Sweeney Gran-ite Mountains Desert Research Center in San Ber-nardino County, always dreamed that his reserve

would become a focus for the basic research that deepensour understanding of California’s deserts. Over the last fewyears, his dream has come true … almost too true!

“In just four years,” he notes, “the number of active re-search projects at the reserve tripled from 30 to 90. We’reone of the fastest growing field stations in western NorthAmerica, which is great, but it’s taxed our staff, facilities,and lands, especially on a limited budget that hasn’t changedin nine years.”

Fortunately, an “old friend” has come to André’s aid, pro-viding a much-needed financial boost to help him deal withthe reserve’s growing pains, while also offering a legacy thatbefits a life well lived. The friend is Al A. Allanson, and themost recent chapter of his story begins in 1994, when NRSfounder Kenneth S. Norris decided to renew a relationshipthe pair had established during Norris’s graduate school daysat the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.

In the 1950s, Norris and Allanson had shared numerousadventures in the deserts of Mexico and the southwesternUnited States. Allanson had been a marine technician atScripps, a great outdoorsman, and an intrepid explorer. Heand his wife, Sibyl, had had many adventures working onassignments in such remote locations as Jarvis Island in themiddle of the Pacific Ocean, the Australian outback, andthe Arctic.

Allanson was a passionate man who set exacting standardsfor himself and others around him. His greatest passionwas for Sibyl, but his love for nature was boundless as well.When Norris reconnected with him, Allanson was 75 andliving alone in Colorado, since Sibyl had passed away a fewyears earlier. So Norris did what came naturally to him: heinvited his old friend Al on an adventure.

Ken’s brother, Robert M. Norris, a professor emeritus ofgeology at UC Santa Barbara who also knew Allanson fromhis time at Scripps, picks up the story:

Al Allanson on San Miguel Island, outermost of

California’s Channel Islands, November 1950. Photo by

Robert M. Norris

Al Allanson ready to dive off the coast of Baja.

Photo by Sibyl Allanson

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“In 1995, Ken and I persuaded Alto take the train from Colorado toBarstow to join us on one of oursand dune trips. I hadn’t seen Al inmore than 40 years, but he was eas-ily recognizable… . I took him outto the Bunny Club [the Norrisbrothers’ small cabin] in the Gran-ite Mountains, where we joinedKen and some others for a wonder-ful camping trip down into theAlgodones Dunes in ImperialCounty.”

The trip reignited a spark inAllanson’s life. He soon relocated toCalifornia and moved into a mo-bile home park in Moreno Valley.Allanson had always lived a frugallife — he often told stories of howhe and Sibyl sometimes had to stopand pick vegetables to earn gas moneyso they could get home from trips.

Allanson ’s new passion became theSweeney Granite Mountains DesertResearch Center, both the reserveand its staff. He started volunteer-ing and helping at the reserve.André recalls: “We all loved tospend time with him, listening tohis colorful stories and watchingslides of his travels. Al had takenthousands of photos during his ex-plorations and meticulously orga-nized them into slide shows.”

The staff named the reserve’s labo-ratory center for him and his wife.The Sibyl and Al A. Allanson Li-brary and Center includes a diningcommons and researcher dormito-ries, an automated weather station,a library, a lecture hall, bibliographicand species databases, and plant andanimal collections that support re-search and teaching. And now itholds all of Allanson’s personal ef-

fects as well: 30 years of journals andphotographs that provide a price-less look at the state of the environ-ment in the middle of the last cen-tury. Whether it was the number ofabalone on one of the CaliforniaChannel Islands or the size and lo-cation of a Native American shellmidden in Baja, Al Allanson wasconstantly assessing and recordinginformation.

Allanson passed away in December2001. His final contribution was toleave his entire estate of approxi-mately $600,000 to the SweeneyGranite Mountains Desert ResearchCenter. André recalled his friend’sgreat generosity, achievements, andenduring modesty:

His donation is not just appreciated,it’s heroic. Before he died, I tried toexplain this to him, but he was somodest and downplayed his role, justas he downplayed so many of his lifeachievements, which were extraordi-nary. I think deep down, though, heknew his donation was achievingsomething unique and special. Hisinterest in nature was raw and true.He was simply compelled, so he didn’tunderstand when someone applaudedhis achievements and his observations.

Allanson’s final bequest is appropri-ate, for it will be used to deepen ourunderstanding of the fragile desertthat he loved so deeply. — JB

For more information, contact:Jim André, Reserve DirectorSweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research CenterP. O. Box 101Kelso, CA 92351Phone: 760-733-4222Email: <granites@telis.org>

Al Allanson apparently engrossed in a

copy of The Status Seekers, Vance

Packard’s classic analysis of the nature

and development of social classification

in the 1950s. Photo by Sibyl Allanson

The Sibyl and Al A. Allanson Library and

Center at Sweeney Granite Mountains

Desert Research Center: (top) a

distance shot showing the residence

building and laboratory in their

dramatic natural setting and (bottom)

a closeup of the residence building.

Photos by Jim André

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Explorer and NRS benefactor Al A. Allanson lives onthrough three decades of journals and photographs

The journals of NRS benefactor Al A. Allansonsometimes read like a popular novel — part adven-

ture story, part love story — filled with meticulous ob-servations recorded during 25 years of fieldwork (from1947 through 1972) in the North American deserts andthroughout the Pacific basin. Al was one of the first deep-sea divers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution ofOceanography, and his adventures ranged from beingshipwrecked on an uninhabited island in the Gulf ofCalifornia, to diving in sometimes frightening condi-tions in Alaska, to a three-month stay on Jarvis Island, aremote, treeless atoll 500 miles from Hawaii. Thoughhis formal education ended when he graduated from highschool, Al went on to become a crucial contributor tomajor breakthroughs in our understanding of oceans,deserts, and early Native Americans.

Robert (Bob) Norris, UCSB professor emeritus of geol-ogy who did his graduate work at Scripps, met Al therein 1949 and recalled him in a recent letter: “Once Aljoined Scripps, he quickly developed a reputation forpersonal reliability and meticulous attention to detail.After a run with the buoy boat (used for underwatersurveys), Al would clean it thoroughly, check every de-tail, and be certain it was refueled and ready to go onthe next assignment without delay… . As a result, whenAl was called on to record data, run the boat, or serve inother ways in fieldwork, everyone knew that it would bedone with great care.”

As a marine technician, Al worked with noted ichthy-ologist Carl Hubbs and marine geologist Francis Shepard.He also took another young graduate student, Ken Norris(the late UC Santa Cruz professor and NRS founder),under his wing. Bob Norris recalls: “Ken, who did hisPh.D. under Carl Hubbs, did various collecting tripsfor Hubbs in the Gulf of California, accompanied byAl. They had a series of wonderful experiences, some ofwhich rather taxed Al’s urge to see that everything wasproperly planned and nothing overlooked. Brother Kenwas not famous for that sort of order and planning, andthough Al respected and was devoted to Ken, he had todo what he could to keep disaster at bay, often with con-siderable difficulty.”

Al Allanson with his wife and fellow explorer, Sibyl Allanson, who regularly shared the hardships

and adventures of his scientific assignments in remote locations. (Auto) photos by Al Allanson

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Besides exploration, the other constant in Al’s life washis love for his wife, Sibyl, who contributed regularly tothe journal. Entries from the early 1950s describe a bliss-ful life of poverty in which the couple enjoyed spendinga full day cleaning the engine block of their old pickup.For many years, the pair worked odd jobs and saved allof their money to take month-long exploring trips. Theirideal vacation was a long desert camping trip spentsearching for petroglyphs and stone tools. During onebreak, they had a fisherman drop them off on uninhab-ited San Miguel Island, the outermost of California’sChannel Islands, for three weeks of beachcombing, hik-ing, and exploring the middens for arrowheads, beads,and tools.

Because of his reliability and self-reliance, Al was offeredpositions that required him to monitor scientific equip-ment in remote locales. His only requirement was thatSibyl be allowed to accompany him. “At first,” Norrisremembers, “those offering Al these positions were notkeen on sending Sibyl along, too, but Al made it clearthat he wouldn’t go unless Sibyl also went… . It was notunusual for the two of them to face serious water supplyproblems and sometimes a disgraceful lack of logisticsupport from those that sent them there. But they wereso self-reliant and reliable that the data was collectedwithout flaw.”

Al and Ken Norris shared many adventures, rafting downthe Colorado River, going on field expeditions to Baja,or just “bumming around” the desert. One of Al’s jour-nal entries from 1952 describes in detail how the twobuddies, facing a few days without work, headed for theAnza-Borrego Desert. After a promising start filled withbeautiful stars, intriguing evidence of bobcats, sidewind-ers, and birds, and a number of new archaeology sites,the two soon lost track of their position. It was onlyafter a two-day, 50-mile hike, with little food and nosleeping bags, that Ken (who had sprained his ankle onthis trek) and Al finally limped back to a run-down café.Allanson describes their rough night in the desert:

May 2 – Friday Santa Rosa to Borrego“The Big Trek”Norris and Allanson

…As we slid down the trail we heard toads or frogs and weknew we were at some water anyway. I soon recognizedHidden Springs and told Ken of the firewood I had seenthere last week on my hike.

Refreshed by the cool water and a slice of bread we lay downby the campfire… . As we rested, our muscles became morestiff… . I knew what a long hike awaited us in order toreach Borrego the next day before the intense midday heatbegan. I suggested we walk awhile in the night.

With extreme effort we began hiking again. At a quarter to12:00 we were staggering like drunk men and agreed that wewere expending more effort than it was worth.

Ken built a fire and we slept beside it. A fair amount ofmoonlight had made it possible to make fairly good timewalking, but I knew how far we had to go yet and it causedme concern as I rolled on the cool sand.

A more restless night I can’t remember. I grew colder as thenight wore on. One side of me kept warm while the othershivered. As the fire died down I rolled closer in my half-asleep condition. Ken would awake and throw on some morewood and a few minutes later I would awake nearly on fireby the re-fueled fire.

Jim André, reserve director at Sweeney GraniteMountains Desert Research Center, is currently havingAllanson’s journals transcribed into electronic form tomake them more accessible, an effort that is about halfcompleted. — JB

The Norris brothers, Ken and Bob, played a part in

many of Al Allanson’s adventures.

Left: Ken Norris on the trail with his students

during a UCSC Environmental Studies field

quarter in the late 1980s. Photo by Don Usner

Right: Bob Norris at the Kenneth S. Norris Rancho

Marino Reserve, the NRS’s 34th site (in San Luis

Obispo County), during the spring of 2001. Photo

by Chen Yin Noah

Anthropogenic impacts also enter thepicture. Feral pigs have inhabited theChannel Islands for 150 years, yet thegolden eagle colonization was not de-tected until 1994. It is speculated that,prior to 1994, the golden eagles weredeterred from nesting on the islands bythe larger, native bald eagles. Over time,DDT, hunting, and egg collectionwiped out these fish-eating raptors. Inparticular, from 1947 to 1971, a chemi-cal plant discharged approximately1,800 tons of DDT into the PacificOcean on the Palos Verdes shelf.

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A few words

Continued from page 1

that: “… feral pigs acted as an abun-dant food that enabled mainlandgolden eagles to colonize the ChannelIslands, increase in population size, andoverexploit the unwary island fox.” Insupport, they noted “(1)…that foxpopulations were at high density priorto eagle colonization and declinedthereafter; (2) a decrease in the survivalof foxes that coincided with an increasein eagle presence on the islands [the re-searchers estimate that a single 4-kggolden eagle could consume 125 foxesper year, provided it was feeding ex-clusively on foxes]; (3) physical evi-dence amassed at 28 fox carcasses thatshows that predation by eagles was theprincipal cause of fox mortality; (4) thelack of other potential mortality agents,including micro- and macro-parasites;and (5) a mechanistic model that linksthe pig population to the decline infoxes.” The references that follow offerthe details. This research provides thescientific basis of the island fox recov-ery efforts currently undertaken by theNational Park Service and The NatureConservancy in the Channel Islands,described in this issue of Transect.

References:

Roemer, G. W., Coonan, T. J.,Garcelon, D. K., Bascompte, J., andLaughrin, L. 2001. Feral pigs facilitatehyperpredation by golden eagles andindirectly cause the decline of theisland fox. Animal Conservation 4:307-318.

Roemer, G. W., Donlan, J. C., andCourchamp, F. 2002. Golden eagles,feral pigs, and insular carnivores: Howexotic species turn native predators intoprey. Proceedings of the National Acad-emy of Sciences of the United States ofAmerica 99:791-796.