Irvine Ranch Conservancy Monitoring on the IRNL Heli survey 15 days Missing last four days (ended on

The Irvine Ranch Stewardship For a Sustainable Tomorrow 4/20/2018 October 2004 Update

HABITATS We manage to protect and enhance native habitats and wildlife

Conservation Targets Management Actions Compliance Fundamental research questions are luxuries here

↑ FIRE FREQUENCY ? Smog Human Access Loss of Predators Climate Change Invasive Species Climate Change Loss of Predators Habitat Loss & Degradation Smog ?

IRC MONITORING APPROACH We try to make monitoring QUESTION-BASED and informative for adaptive management

Measure Success of Our Adaptive Management in: Increasing native habitat diversity, structure & function Decreasing key invasive species Decreasing impacts of frequent fires Maintaining wildlife & sensitive species Minimizing human access impacts

BIODIVERSITY AND SYSTEM HEALTH What are the thresholds for community stability and resilience in relation to relative levels of non-native abundance and to other threats? 3400 endemic plants in the CFP. USGS USGS 8

BIODIVERSITY AND SYSTEM HEALTH Habitat-specific long-term monitoring (CSS, oak woodland, perennial grassland) Invasive species surveys Vegetation mapping Aerial photo analysis / long-term photos Floristic inventories (post-fire / opportunistic) Wildlife monitoring

Habitat Monitoring CSS Grassland Oak woodland Transects across a gradient of cover Transects within burned and unburned CSS (SDNHM small mammal arrays) Other long-term transects? Grassland Polygon-level post-fire grassland survey Oak woodland

Random selection using a number generator Locations within the 2007 Santiago Fire Burn Area. GIS Suitability Criteria: 1) >30m from “in-tact” CSS (>60% shrub cover) 2) >30m from pure non-native (>90% cover) stands 3) One of three common CSS types (Jones & Stokes 1992) Sagebrush-black sage Sagebrush-buckwheat Mixed sage 4) 30 – 300m from roads 5) Habitat area of at least 100m2 Random selection using a number generator

Restoration Monitoring Point intercept transects CNPS rapid assessments Quadrats Photo-points Some external soil flora monitoring Arthropod monitoring

Invasive Surveys

Over 4000 populations in total

Sensitive Plant/Floristic Surveys

BIODIVERSITY AND SYSTEM HEALTH Periodic small mammal surveys (post-fire and 3-5 yr) Raptor surveys (annual) Wildlife activity (quarterly) External surveys (e.g., Sea and Sage quarterly bird counts) Luxury surveys Trapdoor spiders Butterfly transects

STRESSORS AND IMPACTS Wildfire occurrence/extent/impact On wildlife, rodents, raptors, habitat etc. Human recreation impacts Wildlife response to stressors

How does human activity affect wildlife activity, movement patterns, and persistence? How do these patterns vary over spatial scale and over shorter versus longer term time frames? χ2 = 81.79, df = 2, P < 0.01 Prop. Days Obs. Daily Human Access

FOCAL RESOURCES

OUR LONG-TERM NEEDS Long-term and experimental data to address management concerns about habitat trajectories. Collaboration with establishing, maintaining and analyzing long-term studies designed to address both management and fundamental research questions. Updates to researcher study sites and findings.