Thank you all. Everyone has been so supportive of our wildlife - our community. Thank you!

This is a very hard time for all of us, and it is no different for the mountain lions or other critters. The ACR Mountain Lion Project has 3 lions that have been monitored using GPS satellite collars in the Bennet Valley area. A preliminary observation suggests about 50% of optimal lion habitat across our study area has been burned. In the long-term this will be good with rejuvenation inviting opportunities, but for now it is likely hard for them. I wouldn't say they have been displaced so much as re-routed. I have observed movement of our GPS collared cats cruising through burned areas, as well as avoiding them. Because lion ranges are so extensive (up to 300 square miles for males), they...

The Modini Mayacamas Preserves Stewards are off to a victorious start in their effort to maintain trails, clear invasive species and complete long-range stewardship projects. In late summer, the volunteer crew convened on the Foss Road Trail high above Healdsburg to ready it for a full schedule of fall public hikes. They braved the fog AND the sun to clear out a few major roadblocks, trim the walking path and clip back the blackberry and poison oak.
A few weeks later, our intrepid team began a campaign to control the spread of non-native teasel that is invading our grasslands near Ferguson Spring.

Ongoing stewardship work performed by volunteers is vital for the long-term health of our preserves. To join us, see the next scheduled session for details:...

This past weekend, ACR Mountain Lion Project lead Dr. Quinton Martins noticed GPS cluster points in the Glen Ellen - Sonoma area that indicated a potential feeding site for one of our research subjects, P1, a female adult lion who had a litter of three kittens in April. Excited to know how the kittens were doing, Quinton raced out to set up a camera to document mom and kittens on the kill. On arrival, he found an adult buck neatly cached in a thicket of manzanita, poison oak and blackberry bushes. Footage retrieved the following day revealed that two of the three kittens had survived to the 4-month mark. In this video, one of the kittens...