February 2007

En Español

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Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife Office offers Conservation Partnership Program
By Samatha Marcum

The Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife Office’s (Carlsbad Office) Conservation Partnerships Program (CPP) facilitates cooperation with a variety of partners throughout southern California to restore, protect, and enhance habitats for the benefit of Federal Trust species. Federal Trust species include migratory birds, inter-jurisdictional fish, federally listed, and other declining or imperiled species. The Carlsbad Office serves southern Los Angeles County, southwestern San Bernardino County, and all of Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and Imperial counties. 

The primary focus of the CPP is to provide technical support and locate funding mechanisms for voluntary conservation actions within southern California. The main funding sources of the CPP are the Partners for Fish and Wildlife cost-share program and the nationally competitive Private Stewardship Grant program. Both of these funding sources are specifically used for habitat restoration or enhancement on private lands. However, as with most grants and cost-share programs, a variety of partners, including private landowners, businesses, Tribes, non-profit groups, schools, and government agencies may contribute funds, technical assistance, or in-kind services to a project. 

Volunteers for native tree planting at Dinwiddie Preserve, Project funded
by the Fallbrook Land Conservancy and Partners for Fish and Wildlife,
Photo Courtesy of Mike Peters 2005

The CPP provides technical assistance and funding, when feasible, to interested participants in the programs mentioned above as well as other programs such as the Landowner Incentive Program, North American Wetland Conservation Act grants, Natural Resources Conservation Service grants, Tribal grants, and any appropriate funding source to put projects on the ground. Technical assistance includes project design, grant review/writing, locating appropriate funding mechanisms, and assisting with Federal and State regulatory compliance. 

Some of the typical projects undertaken by the CCP include: removal of invasive plant species and planting of native vegetation; restoration of upland habitats; riparian and wetland hydrology restoration; removal of fish migration barriers; and installation of livestock exclusion fencing to protect sensitive habitat.

Since its inception in 2001, the Carlsbad Office’s CPP has successfully facilitated more than 1400 acres of habitat restoration and protection to benefit numerous wildlife and plant species, including the federally endangered arroyo toad, Palos Verdes blue butterfly, Quino checkerspot butterfly; the federally threatened coastal California gnatcatcher; and other native species such as the cactus wren, golden eagle, white-tailed kite, Bells sage sparrow, rufous-crowned sparrow, white-tailed kite, grasshopper sparrow, and western spadefoot toad.

For more information about the Carlsbad Office’s CCP, please contact:
Samantha N. Marcum
Conservation Partnerships Program Coordinator
Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife Office
6010 Hidden Valley Road
Carlsbad, California  92011
Ph: 760.431.9440 x 350
Fax: 760.918.0638

New free resource for SJV partners
Birders’ Exchange, a program of the American Birding Association, is pleased to announce the availability of its Spanish language version of the highly acclaimed book, A Neotropical Companion, An Introduction to the Animals, Plants and Ecosystems of the New World Tropics by John Kricher.

If you work in the Sonoran Joint Venture region and would like one or multiple copies of this resource for yourself or organization, please email a brief request to Jennie Duberstein with the following information:

1. Your name.
2. Contact information (mailing address and cell/office phone number.)
3. Email address
4. Number of books that you are requesting.
5. A brief description (2-4 sentences) of how these books will be used.

If you are a Latin American biologist or educator working outside of the Sonoran Joint Venture region, you may request copies of the book by contacting the Birders’ Exchange. 

Scholarships available for bird monitoring course

The Sonoran Joint Venture, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are offering five scholarships for Mexican biologists who work in the SJV region to attend a “Survey and Monitoring for Nongame Birds” workshop. The workshop will take place in Sierra Vista, Arizona from 30 July – 2 August 2007.

The workshop will include monitoring techniques for bird species and their habitats, conducting point count inventories, incorporating priority habitats into management plans, field exercises daily to practice species identification and data recording, and field exercises to focus on difficulties encountered in monitoring, using local species for the training. Upon completion of this course students will be able to understand the rationale behind the use of the point count method for bird monitoring, discuss the history, objectives, structure, and role of Partners in Flight, and learn bird identification techniques and use these techniques to correctly identify bird species during daily field sessions.

Scholarships cover the workshop tuition, but students will be responsible for paying for their own travel, food, and lodging costs during the workshop (the SJV will assist in making hotel arrangements).

Requirements:

• Applicants must be Mexican nationals working in the Mexican portion of the SJV region (Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California, or Baja California Sur).
• Applicants must be currently working or preparing to work on a bird monitoring project in the SJV region.
• The workshop and all materials will be entirely in English. Applicants must be able to read and speak English proficiently.

To Apply:
Send an email with the following information to Jennie Duberstein:

• Complete name
• Complete mailing address
• Email
• Phone number (daytime/nighttime)
• Cell phone number
• Organization for which you work, school where you study, etc.
• Area where you are working (e.g., Alamos, Sonora; El Palmito, Sinaloa, etc.)
• A brief description of why you want to participate in the workshop and how you will use the information from the workshop in your own research. Applicants who show that participation in the workshop will have a direct positive impact on their research will be given preference.