Latest News and Updates from Audubon in California
California Condor. Photo: Scott Frier/USFWS
Great article in the Los Angeles Times about how recent rains have brought the struggling Yolo Bypass near Sacramento back to life.
Great video about our efforts at the Audubon Center at Debs Park to involve the community in making Los Angles a better place for birds.
It's no secret that habitat loss has put a number of sensitive birds at risk in San Francisco Bay. Center stage is the endangered Ridgway's Rail (formerly known as the California Clapper Rail). A new study from the USGS, co-authored by Audubon California's John Takekawa, notes that habitat loss has so isolated different populations of rails that it is impacting the species' genetic diversity. This puts this imperiled species at even great risk. The good news is that, thanks to the voters of the Bay Area, a serious effort to restore wetland habitat in San Francisco Bay will be launched in the coming years.
Looks like our Barn Owl pair has laid their first egg of the season at the Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary. With all the rain we've had lately, there should be good conditions for chicks. Watch it all live.
We've just received word from our friends at the Plumas Audubon Society that funding for its terrific nature education programs has been effected by the sudden freeze of grants from the Environmental Protection Agency. The chapter was receiving an EPA grant to develop and implement its Plumas Environmental Education Program (PEEP) was funded by an EPA grant, and is now scrambling to keep the program going. This is just one of many terrific programs the chapter offers to kids in their local community.
That funding has been frozen by the new administration, and it is unclear whether the chapter will lose this source of support entirely. Either way, they need the funding now to operate the program, and are asking for donations from the public.
This is going to be a make-or-break year for the Salton Sea, as state officials attempt to figure out how to deal with the effects of wtaer diversions expected to kick in beginning in 2018. This is expected to have major implications not only for bird habitat, but for the hundreds of thousands of people who live in the area. Andrea Jones recently visited the Salton Sea to talk about the current situation, and what Audubon California is doing to help. Learn more about our work at the Salton Sea.
Congress is making moves to gut the Endangered Species Act.
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