It was great to get a field tour of some riparian native grass planting ideas from the master, John Anderson at Hedgerow Farms. This afternoon, John was kind enough to give us some recommendations as to what types of grasses and forbs should be planted around the refurbished marsh complexes on Conservancy land. It was inspiring. The biggest surprise is the vast use of forbs by butterflies, bees and other beneficial insects. We’ve got some beautiful forbs on Conservancy land, but nothing as diverse as John has on his, or that he recommends for us. We’ve clearly got our work cut out for us.

At least two burrowing owls have moved onto the Conservancy's Elsie tract. They're occupying one or more burrows in a ditch enhancement project we constructed there last summer.

Mindful of the need to work constructively with the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District (did you see that the Conservancy won the District’s “Ecological Mosquito Management Award” for 2007 for “innovative mosquito reduction management practices”?), the Conservancy recently installed “bat boxes” on its Betts and Silva tract preserves.

The January and February wind and rain storms have been a real challenge. As the attached photos show, two of the Conservancy’s barns took some very serious roof damage. Water leaked through the big barn on the Silva tract, and fell on to a nice stack of native grass hay. At least the outer portions of the hay stack are likely damaged. Duke, one of the guard dogs on site, also ran away, and I believe it was the lightning during the January storm that sent him running. Thankfully some brave animal rescue folks found him and he was safely repatriated to his post. The storm also caused a short on the electric fence that surrounds the Betts, Kismat and Silva tracts. This fence is used to keep livestock contained. Two trees and several tree limbs fell on fence lines as well,  and these needed a quick clean-up response. Luckily, the Conservancy’s livestock count was pretty low at the time, and we didn’t have too much trouble keeping all the four-legged lawnmowers (goats, that is) on the preserve.

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It is with some great pleasure that I record that the large marsh complex channel-clearing project for 2007 has been completed as of September 10, 2007. This project primarily consisted of the Lucich North and Frazer North tracts along the Natomas Cross Canal. The NBHCP requires that the Conservancy maintain the marsh channels. The channel-clearing was required after siltation and eutrafication began filling in the channels, reducing their functionality for giant garter snake use. The cleared channels now look spectacular, and Conservancy biologists have found that several giant garter snakes have re-entered the preserves soon after their staged completion throughout the summer.

On September 6, 2007, I personally saw 11 Sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) on the Kismat tract in the Conservancy’s Central Basin Reserve Area. This is the first time these birds, some having wing spans of 80 inches, have been seen on Conservancy preserves. While the birds are not one of the HCP’s “covered species,” they are nonetheless striking in their beauty and sheer size, and at least in recent history, are unusual in the Natomas Basin. The group was wading in water control structure “K” on the preserve, and white faced ibis (an HCP covered species) were in the same area. Truly a breathtaking scene.

The team that keeps grass height to levels appropriate for Swainson’s hawk foraging (these raptors need to see and be able to access prey, and taller vegetation constrains both) run on four legs and weigh about 40 pounds. Their work to control vegetation height is cheaper and safer than herbicides, field crews using string trimmers, controlled burning or even a tractor with a mower on it. But they need containment. We’re talking goats here. And containment is the issue.