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

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

3. HABITATS
We manage to protect and enhance native habitats and wildlife

4. Conservation Targets Management Actions Compliance
Fundamental research questions are luxuries here

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

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

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

14. Invasive Surveys

16. Over 4000 populations in total

17. Sensitive Plant/Floristic Surveys

18. 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

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

20. 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

21. FOCAL RESOURCES

22. 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.