2005-2006 Annual Report                      August 2006

The Landowner Stewardship Program was founded on the belief that private landowners are crucial to preserving California's natural heritage. Since 1999 we have collaborated with more than 50 farmers and ranchers on habitat restoration projects compatible with their agricultural operations. Audubon California and these land owners share a lasting commitment to land stewardship. Our partnership creates an important message: private land owners and conservationists do have common goals, and we can work together to keep California both economically and ecologically healthy.

We would like to thank our generous supporters for making our work possible. A detailed list of our donors can be found on the Landowner Stewardship Program website found in "quick links" to the left.

The 2005-2006 year was both challenging and fruitful. Please read on to learn more about our accomplishments over the previous year.

During the 2005-2006 season we were able to implement a number of new and innovative conservation projects on private and public lands. Highlights included: 1) Completing the second year of the Bobcat and Blue Oak Ranch project with 7,100 acres of blue oak woodland restoration; 2) Implementating the Citrona Farms project that featured pollinator friendly planting on two miles of creek habitat. Students from Florin and Davis High Schools helped make this innovative project a reality; and 3) Executing the first year of a study of the avian community in tomato fields funded by Unilever, Corp. The study shows that Swainson’s hawks, a state listed species, may depend on tomato fields after breeding. More results will arise during the second year.

Rangeland Stewardship Program: We are pleased to report that we finished the CALFED funded $1.8 million dollar rangeland stewardship project in 2005! We implemented restoration and research projects in the Willow Slough watershed of Yolo County which included: 1,429 acres prescribed burns; 1,005 acres native perennial grassland; 4.4 miles riparian restoration 300 high school students participated in hands-on restoration SLEWS; and 36 research hypotheses related to rangeland stewardship were tested.

Click here to read more about the Program

Yolo County. We began to collaborate with the County of Yolo on a number of habitat restoration and conservation planning projects in the Cache Creek Watershed. The Payne-Grube project will restore 24 acres of riparian habitat that have suffered from severe erosion. The project is a collaboration between two landowners, NRCS, Audubon, Center for Land-Based Learning and Yolo County Resource Conservation District.

Pollinator Conservation. In 2005 Audubon worked with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and U.C. Berkeley to hold two workshops on the importance of pollinator conservation. We also began to implement and test on-farm restoration practices for pollinator conservation. Funded by CS Fund and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the project includes increased monitoring to further evaluate the benefits of habitat restoration to native bee species, incorporation of bee friendly plant species into our planting palette and interpretive signage at the Farm on Putah Creek.

We are excited to announce that the Landowner Stewardship Program has begun working with farmers and ranchers in the Imperial Valley, home of the Salton Sea. The ecosystem is a Globally Important Bird Area that provides habitat for over 400 bird species, more than two-thirds of all the bird species found in the United States and Canada.

Vance Russell is the program's director and has 20 years of experience working in agricultural and biodiversity conservation fields. Chris Rose has over 12 years of experience in habitat restoration in Northern California and is considered one of the leaders in the field of private land restoration. Miles DaPrato has more than 3 years worth of experience working on riparian and wetland restoration projects in the Central Valley. He worked at Restoration Inc. in the Delta prior to coming to Audubon. Jaime Hartman is a staff restoration technician. She worked extensively with bat sampling and conservation and the Yolo RCD prior to Audubon. Dave Batcheller is a local farmer and has worked with the program with projects of his own and as a technician since our inception. Rodd Kelsey, program ecologist, is the newest addition to our staff. He is finishing a Ph.D. in ecology examining crossbill population dynamics. Betsey Ballash is the program's bookkeeper.

Thank you for your generous support of our program. For more information, please see the Landowner Stewardship Program link on the ca.audubon.org website. If you would like to donate to the program, please contact me at the e-mail address below.

Vance Russell
Audubon California
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