Since 2001, Audubon Canyon Ranch has collaborated with the Invasive Spartina Project to monitor and remove the non-native, invasive cordgrass, Spartina densiflora, from Tomales Bay.

A lesser-known invasive Spartina that impacts San Francisco Bay and the nearby coast, S. densiflora, grows in expanding clumps that threaten wetlands by eliminating open areas used for foraging, particularly by birds. These dense clusters of cordgrass can alter marsh elevation, especially along the edges of channels and sloughs, by slowing water flow and trapping sediments.

Toms Point, an early Spartina hotspot

ACR’s Toms Point preserve, at the north end of Tomales Bay, was one of the first Spartina hotspots identified along the outer coast. Tomales Bay is an important wintering...

In early 2021, Living with Lions principal investigator Dr. Quinton Martins collared four male mountain lions (P24, P25, P30 and P31) in western and northern Sonoma County near Sebastopol, Healdsburg, Cazadero and Geyserville after each was implicated in the killing of a sheep or goat. In each case the landowner invited Martins to conduct the capture to aid in a better understanding of mountain lion behavior and ecology in our area. For more details, review this article about the benefits of collaring mountain lions responsible for killing livestock. 

Since then we’ve been following the lions, and collecting data, to in part, provide a more informed view...

“Living shorelines connect the land and water to stabilize shorelines, reduce erosion, and provide valuable habitat that enhances coastal resilience.” –NOAA Restoration Center

Living shoreline projects are nature-based approaches that provide shoreline protection services (e.g., long-term mitigation of shoreline erosion) while at the same time enhancing and protecting existing habitats and providing co-benefits such as sequestering carbon (e.g., blue carbon in eelgrass meadows) and promoting native oyster restoration.

What is a living shoreline project?

Unlike a concrete seawall or other hard structure, which impede the growth of plants and animals, living shorelines grow over time.

They are an innovative and cost-effective...

Director of Conservation Science Nils Warnock and Avian Ecologists David Lumpkin and Scott Jennings have been shorebird trapping at Walker Creek Delta on Tomales Bay since November. So far, they have deployed 16 tracking tags on Dunlin, an Arctic breeding shorebird that migrates to and from Tomales Bay throughout their lifespan.

Since November, ACR scientists have been “listening in” to pings from these tags that are automatically recorded by our Toms Point and Cypress Grove Motus receiving towers. In the photo above by David Lumpkin, a CTT Hybrid Tag is attached by harness to a Dunlin. The hybrid tags combine battery and solar power for a lightweight tag, with the potential to last a year or more.

David also recently met near Colusa in the Central Valley with ACR...