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| U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY "Science for a changing world..." Biologists with the U.S. Department of Interior's U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are among the many partners working on the Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks. USGS has a field office co-located at the Irvine Ranch Conservancy's headquarters in Irvine and a regional office in San Diego. Three USGS staff work in the Irvine office: Ecologist Adam Backlin, Wildlife Biologist Liz Gallegos and Wildlife Biologist Sara Schuster. "USGS has been conducting studies on the habitats and wildlife of the Irvine Ranch for more than 15 years," says Gallegos. "It is exciting to work with native species in this unique and spectacular landscape, especially knowing that the land has been recognized as a national and state Natural Landmark and will be protected forever." The USGS San Diego Field Station and the Irvine unit focus primarily on Southern California and the Pacific Islands. They work at a landscape level to understand relationships between the ecosystems and the species within them. They assess threats to the survival of Southern California species such as fire, road-kill, and mudslides. The scientists also study threatened and endangered species by gathering data on their current status, distribution and natural history in an effort to help those species survive and even recover. Some of the Southern California species that USGS works with include horned lizards, red-legged frogs, bobcats, coyotes, and many small mammals and invertebrates. "It's been a great experience working with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy team because they are so familiar with the land," says Gallegos. "We work extensively throughout Southern California on native species research and appreciate working with committed partners. It's encouraging to have Conservancy staff collaborate with our studies on the natural diversity in Orange County." The primary goal of USGS is to provide clients and partners with the research, scientific understanding and technology needed to support management of ecosystems in the Pacific Southwest. They work collaboratively with many state and federal agencies and groups. Work on the Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks includes: Western spadefoot toad (Spea hammondii) – CA species of special concern
• Developing low-cost methods to restore breeding habitat; • Studying if and how restoration of breeding pools helps increase the abundance and distribution of this rare species.
to urbanization and now use road ruts and old cattle ponds; • Because dirt roads are graded frequently there are few locations for the spadefoot to breed; • Building and monitoring new breeding pools; • Developed a map that predicts areas and locations good for spadefoot toad breeding.
species (soil type, slope, aspect, and vegetation type) • Used field data on horned lizard presence to develop and refine the map
habitats.
• In 2002, five amphibian and 16 reptile species were found; • Ants were recorded over three years at 172 sites. The study found that 24 percent of the open land in coastal Orange County had been invaded by non-native ants, which have in turn reduced the number of species in some areas by more than 60 percent.  |