This Year's Drought is Making Climate Change Real

By Lisa Micheli, PhD

Often when people learn I work on climate change they ask me how I can avoid becoming depressed. I don't get depressed because humanity has demonstrated over and over again its capacity for change. But honestly sometimes I do get frightened looking at what the next century and beyond may hold for our children and theirs, especially if we do not take actions to stem the pace of climate change now. This year in particular, when each new catastrophic headline points to the impact of a weather extreme, it feels eerily like the climate models I've been staring at since about 2007 are starting to unfold in our material world. And now concern about how we will actually handle our local climate extremes is not limited just to me and my in-the-know colleagues, but is one of the chief topics being debated at cafés, gas stations and grocery stores throughout my neighborhood in light of the California drought now fully upon us. (While last weekend’s storm has brought some immediate relief, we are still in a drought!)

In science we know that all models are wrong, but some models are useful. I estimate that back in the early 90s I was approximately the last person let into an Earth Sciences doctorate program without any computer programming experience. I lived through a transition in my chosen field of hydrology from an emphasis on measuring the planet to a fixation on modeling the planet. When I was at UC Berkeley I had the honor of belonging to the Energy and Resources Group, probably one of our most prestigious energy and climate think tanks. But at the time my interest was zeroed in on urgent challenges in water resources. I spent my time in with the geomorphology research group both in the field and on the computer researching how to restore California's rivers, a problem we faced in the moment, not something projected for the future by a computer model. I simply left the question of climate change to my colleagues.

It took the extreme heat waves of 2007 (over 115 degrees Fahrenheit in Sonoma) to steer my attention towards the inevitability of climate trends, and in turn, the necessity for conservation practitioners like myself to start to take climate change seriously. I perceived this as an obligation particularly because we were engaged in building habitat restoration projects that would take centuries to mature and fulfill their promised potential. Soon after I helped to found the North Bay Climate Adaptation Imitative which will be working with the County of Sonoma on a Climate Ready regional climate vulnerability analysis under the auspices of the State Coastal Conservancy and Pepperwood this year.

Scientists know that our climate system is complex enough that we cannot point to a single event and say this was caused by greenhouse gas emissions, and by copping to that we create fodder for a lot of debate in the media. But now there is increasing certainty around climate trends that recent advances in computer modeling can customize to local regions like our own, and now our weather station measurements are increasingly confirming those modeled trends.

One of my roles at Pepperwood is to facilitate scientific teams like the Terrestrial Biodiversity Climate Change Collaborative (TBC3) which I co-chair with Prof. David Ackerly of UC Berkeley. We just completed a two-year study thanks to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The cornerstone of TBC3's 2013 products is a set of climate projections for the Bay Area crafted by the USGS' Lorraine and Alan Flint in concert with geospatial analyst extraordinaire Dr. Stuart Weiss of the Creekside Center for Earth Observation. Under the expert guidance of IPCC scientists, this team selected 18 climate futures that represent the full statistical extent of the IPCC's global analyses. Then we “downscaled” these projections to 18-acre "pixels" for the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, land and water managers in the Bay Area finally have climate projections at a scale they can incorporate into their long-term planning processes.  (You can now access a subset of the TBC3 climate futures data at bayarealands.org via the Explorer Tool's new Climate Portfolio Report for your own region of interest.)

The trend for the Bay Area we identified in our original 2012 publication was that despite the potential range in total quantities of winter rainfall projected for the future, our watersheds are going to be prone to becoming more arid. In other words, there is a risk of increasingly short winter wet periods and increasingly extended dry periods, also known as droughts, as in exactly what we are experiencing this year in Northern California. One of the tools developed by Dr. Weiss to visualize the Flints' Basin Characterization Model data set are water cycle diagrams that depict seasonal fluctuations in rainfall and its products. Below is a graph of the average annual water cycle for the Upper Sonoma Creek watershed, using historical data (1980-2009).

Upper Sonoma Creek - Average Annual Water Cycle (1980-2009)

The total height of the "wave" moving through each month of the season is equivalent to the total rainfall received over that month. The area in light green evaporates directly to the atmosphere or through plant respiration. The area in dark green is the water that stored in the soils for plants to use. The area in dark blue refills our underground groundwater basins. The area in light blue is the water available to feed our streams and reservoirs. The area in red that grows at the end of the summer season is the climatic “water deficit,” a measure of drought stress.

Now below is the same diagram representing the drought of 1975 to 1976 on Upper Sonoma Creek. As you can see it is almost all light green and red – meaning that all the incoming rainfall, which was very limited that year, was used up by plants with almost no water left to recharge the groundwater or feed streams. And that is similar to what is happening to our watersheds this year.

 

Upper Sonoma Creek (1975-1976) Drought Event

It's interesting to me that those of us who wear water goggles all the time – i.e. we look out at the world through the lens of water – probably considered us to be in trouble at the end of last year's wet season, when despite experiencing flood conditions in November, the absence of any further rain left us in a drought by May. Now in May we didn't know what this winter would hold, but there's always a chance of another dry year following a drought year, and when this happens three years in a row the water managers consider this an emergency. Dr. Weiss's preliminary analyses of the climate futures for the Bay Area suggests that three-year droughts could be a more frequent event.

I was reassured to have recently learned from a sociologist presenting at the Nature Conservancy's annual science symposium that what I felt in my gut about people was true. That is that while there can be relatively predictable divisions along political lines regarding the theory of climate change, there is in fact almost unanimous bi-partisan support for ensuring that communities in the US are prepared to deal with natural resource crises such as this year's drought. We see this as our community comes together to face this challenge, to support the ranchers who cannot feed their cattle because there's no water to make the grass grow, to support the water districts in their need to stretch a stressed supply. However that is one of the mysteries to me about our social response – why are we just starting to talk about water conservation measures now, when it was clear last May we were already facing risks to our water security?

Thanks to Dr. David Ackerly's TBC3 long-term forest monitoring project at Pepperwood, we will have data to evaluate hypotheses about how this drought is impacting our forests. Informed observers say things like "the forest looks stressed to me," or "I think I am seeing more brown tipped leaves," or "I think species X is having a really hard time." I now have some rigorous measurements in place to test these emerging hypotheses. Thanks to Dr. Ackerly and his laboratory at Berkeley's Department of Integrative Biology, there are 50 sites at Pepperwood where every single plant has been identified and measured. Now when we conduct our repeat measurements we will have actual data capable of showing the impact of the drought on plant composition and survival. This kind of scientific research will be absolutely critical to better understanding how our natural resources will respond to increasing climate and water stresses.

What the TBC3 project at Pepperwood does is provide a high resolution portal on local changes in the context of global climate science. Fran Ulmer, chair of the US Arctic Research Commission recently shared upon release of the Arctic Report Card 2013  the following perspective: The Arctic is not like Las Vegas: whathappens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic. 

So while my personal mission is one of equipping our communities to be resilient in the face of climate change based on real-time local data, the magnitude of the challenge we face will be directly proportional to our ability to steer our energy consumption patterns away from carbon-based fuels. Another catchphrase which has been in the forefront of my mind is the following. There are known alternatives to fossil fuels. There are no known alternatives to water.

TeenNat Provides Workforce Experience Through Real Life Science and Art

By Sandi Funke, Education Director

Across Sonoma County, organizations are opening their doors to provide unique learning opportunities for students. These work-based learning experiences are allowing students to hone their skills as they explore career interests. They are able to apply their knowledge and abilities in real-world settings as they practice so called “soft skills” like critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. Work-based learning experiences are helping ensure that today’s students are prepared to become Sonoma County’s future workforce and that they have the skills required for success.

Motivated by a desire to serve teens and help develop a more diverse workforce able to address our natural resource challenges, last summer Pepperwood launched TeenNat. TeenNat mis a teen internship that teaches youth about natural science careers and exposes them to real science-in-action as they help gather data critical to preserving our area’s rich biodiversity. During the internship, 28 youth learned how to collect biological data using digital cameras and GPS units as well as how to take artistic photographs. These photographs were displayed in Pepperwood’s gallery.  


The data interns collected was uploaded to an online database of species called iNaturalist.org that is used by researchers across the globe.  TeenNat participants helped our mpreserve management team identify areas on the preserve where invasive species were present and where populations of rare species were located. Our redwood forests were also surveyed and the data collected was sent to Redwood Watch. Time was also spent identifying species, hiking, and learning about careers in the natural sciences. Throughout the program, local scientists and professional photographers were on hand to guide learning and assist with expeditions on the preserve.

"TeenNat is a place where young adults gain hands-on experience in working on a preserve, where we are exposed to various careers such as environmental educators and ecologists. We learned how to use our Canon cameras and how to capture picturesque photographs. We learned how to react when there is a tick on us and how to correctly and safely remove them if we are bitten. We learned how to take the DBH of redwood trees, procuring the first data of Redwood trees for Pepperwood ever. We learned about iNaturalist, the Facebook for naturalists, and how it benefits scientists globally. We learned how to identify some invasive plants such as the yellow star thistle and how to properly dispose them. The amount of information that we learned is extremely vast and seemingly ineffable." 
- TeenNat Intern Tommy Nguyen

This summer, thanks to support from funders including the Kimball Foundation, Save the Redwood League, and Toyota’s TogetherGreen, Pepperwood is again offering the TeenNat internship. Teens ages 13-17, who are interested in spending time outdoors, taking photographs, learning technical skills, and gaining experience collecting data for ongoing scientific research can apply. The internship will run 3 days a week for 5 weeks in July and takes place at Pepperwood’s 3,200 acre nature preserve located off Mark West Springs Rd., adjacent to Safari West in Santa Rosa.  At the completion of the program, the participants keep their new digital camera and fulfill 90 hours of community service. Applications can be obtained at www.pepperwoodpreserve.org and are due by April 25^th. 
To learn more about Sonoma County Office of Education’s efforts working with businesses to provide workforce experience for teens please visit their website. 

SCIENCE is the 2013 Word of the Year!?

By Lisa Micheli, PhD, Executive Director

Geeks everywhere are pumped that as part of the New Year’s media blitz the dictionary publishers Merriam-Webster crowned science as the word of the year! (See here). Science, a word users looked up 176% more than the year before, was followed by other popular lookups including ecology’s niche coming in at number four. It caught me by surprise, since 2013 struck me as a year full of doubt and questioning authority, but perhaps that’s part of science’s growing appeal?

“The more we thought about it, the righter it seemed in that it does lurk behind a lot of big stories that we as a society are grappling with, whether it’s climate change or environmental regulation or what’s in our textbooks,” said John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc. (Read the article here).

As a scientist who spends a fair bit of time trying to explain what we know and what we don’t about things like our water supply, wildlife ecology, and climate change, I am heartened by 2013’s word.

My only worry is whether looking up science on the web will provide eager neo-geeks the reassuring knowledge they seek….or is there the risk of finding a bunch of confusing misinformation that may only deepen rifts between entrenched, distinctly unscientific, points of view?

Many of Pepperwood's research projects utilize data from this
weather station, pictured here with Pepperwood Steward Dave 
Andersen (right) and Preserve Manager Michael Gillogly (left)

As an experiment I “googled” climate science to see what I would find. Instantly I was gratified that the top links were actually research-based, including sites hosted by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  But I realized while there was a lot of late-breaking research findings there, honestly it was at such a high technical level I suspected someone without an earth science PhD would likely find it pretty confusing. 

Only a couple search products below the hard-core science news stuff, however, I was disappointed to find international media sites featuring cutting edge science articles serving apparently as primarily a prod for renewed mudslinging. Below the actual news pieces slews of comments were posted that rapidly devolved into science-free personal epithets traded between seasoned extremists…and I found that disheartening.

I don’t mean to disrespect the internet with my cursory experiment, but being kind of old school I always rely on knowledgeable individuals to filter on-line data sources for me. Colleague Dr. Andy Gunther who coordinates the Bay Area Ecosystems and Climate Change Consortium (BAECCC) has a bunch of links up to climate science resources, including the State of California’s succinct climate science summary located here. For those who want greater depth, I am a fan of  NOAA’s Climate.gov which includes a real-time climate “dashboard” on the front page.

So in honor of the word of the year, I ask what does it mean when millions around the globe are searching for meaningful information regarding science?

Preserve Ecologist Michelle Halbur conducts TBC3 research

To me it suggests that people are ready to make scientific knowledge their own, to seek reliable information to provide a middle ground for understanding, and to provide meaningful explanations to the sometimes puzzling events around them.

Recent surveys indicate that people’s number one preferred way to get scientific information is from scientists themselves—ideally in person—and those are the kind of rare opportunities we aim to provide at Pepperwood through our programs that link citizens and scientists.

At our pilot climate adaptation workshop for land managers last fall, our TBC3 scientists were on hand and in the field to present their data in nature’s context and to answer key questions. Our scientists in turn wanted to hear from range and conservation managers what their priorities were to guide the next phases of TBC3 research to make sure it will have meaning for those who need it most.

We aim to provide this kind of transparent access and exchange via every class, workshop, lecture and hike folks participate in at Pepperwood. Please join us in making science the word of the day everyday at Pepperwood!

2013 Mayacamas Christmas Bird Count for Kids

By Sandi Funke, Education Director

In the spirit of the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count which is celebrating its 114^th year, Pepperwood, along with Sonomabirding, Safari West, and the Petrified Forest joined forces to launch the Mayacamas Christmas Bird Count for Kids. The count was held on the chilly morning of Saturday, December 7^th, 2013. The purpose of the event was to get young people out engaging with our local environment in a meaningful way while also having fun. The data that was generated will help scientists answer questions critical to the conservation of local bird species.

Our young scientists, expert birders from the community, and staff gathered at Safari West early that Saturday morning. The youngsters ages 7 to 17 and their families started the day at “Binocular Bootcamp” with Tom Rusert and Darren Peterie, founders of the Christmas Bird Count for Kids. Outside the Café at Safari West participants learned the basics of how to operate binoculars as well as how to spot birds using strategically placed signs with laminated pictures of birds . They learned how and where to look for birds!

After learning about binoculars it was time to head out.  The chilled but excited group formed five teams and ventured forth to survey woodland, forest, chaparral, pond, and meadow habitats at Safari West, Pepperwood, and the Petrified Forest. Once reaching their sites, they spent 90 minutes in the field identifying and counting birds. The teams then returned to Safari West. Pepperwood staff and the participants tabulated the results at a celebration lunch. After the tabulation, the teams of young people named the “Juncos, Bald Eagles, American Coots, Living Dodos, and Stellar Juncos” presented their results to the entire group. Afterwards participants enjoyed a visit with an American kestrel and a great horned owl brought over by The Bird Rescue Center of Sonoma County. Safari West staff then ended the event with a walking tour of Safari West where folks could go to meet birds from other parts of the world.

The teams of young people, staff, and seasoned area birders did a fantastic job on this bitterly cold morning getting out and counting our local birds. The teams counted 54 species and over 900 individual birds. Some of the biggest groups included a murder of crows, several hosts of sparrows, and a paddling of mallards numbering 40! Several unusual birds were spotted including an accipiter, two northern harriers, and a purple finch. Some of the participants included Pepperwood’s TeenNat interns, siblings Ben and Emma Hoffman. Speaking about the experience Ben shared, “We both enjoyed ourselves quite a lot. It was pretty humbling to hear this one particular bird watcher name off birds as they flitted by. On the whole a very interesting experience and nice to get back with the TeenNaters that were able to come.” Ben’s favorite bird was a red tailed hawk that was in a tree about 30 feet away from the group.

Lisa Hug, one of our expert birders shared her thoughts about the experience, “The kids I had were a little older - mostly teens. They were fantastic. I was impressed with how they took charge of the situation and worked together on things. They passed the clipboard around by themselves and planned their presentation totally on their own. They were very ‘into’ the birds and appreciated them even though they were very cold.”

The data the teams collected is being uploaded to the eBird database. eBird is a real-time, online checklist program. Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, eBird’s goal is to maximize the vast number of bird observations made each year by bird watchers. It is amassing one of the largest and fastest growing biodiversity data resources in existence. For example in  just one month in 2012 over 3.1 million observations were uploaded. As explained on the eBird site, “When you submit a checklist to eBird, you make your observations available to the global community of researchers, educators, conservationists, birders and anyone else with an interest in birds.” Dozens of scientific publications have used the eBird data to further our understanding of the biodiversity of the planet!

The Mayacamas Christmas Bird Count for Kids was a collaborative effort between Pepperwood, Sonomabirding, Safari West, and the Petrified Forest. WE enjoyed getting to know each other more and brining this valuable experience to our community’s young people. We hope to make it an annual event so stay tuned next December for our 2^nd annual bird count!

 Special thanks to Steve Murdock for sharing his wonderful photographs of the event!

Lyme Disease in California - Avoiding Ticks Where They Live

By Sandi Funke, Education Director

Yuck! When we initially scheduled our lecture on Lyme disease held earlier this fall we were worried. Would anyone come? Do folks want to be empowered by the latest research or do we collectively want to put our heads in the sand about this devastating disease? Well, folks did come and were very interested! Personally, I have been touched in so many ways by Lyme disease. My brother has suffered from the disease for many years from a tick bite most likely contracted hiking with me in Big Basin Park near Santa Cruz. Staff members have been bitten by ticks and contracted the disease in Sonoma County and in the midwest. It’s a big problem but, as it turns out, the adult ticks and nymphs that carry Lyme disease have certain habits and preferences that can help inform where and how we spend time in nature.

According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected black legged ticks. Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans which makes a bulls eye pattern. If left untreated, the infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system. Some believe Lyme disease can also cause long term chronic symptoms, though there is no complete consensus in the medical establishment on this.

This fall Dr. Robert Lane from University of California Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, spoke at Pepperwood about Lyme disease, tick life cycles, and his research on the spread of the disease in California. As explained by Dr. Lane and detailed in Pest Notes - Lyme Disease in California, ticks have four life cycles: the egg, larva, nymph and adult stage. In California, only the nymph and the adult female of the western black legged tick transmit the bacterium to humans.

Unfortunately, the western black legged tick is the most abundant of the 47 species of ticks known to live in California. It is very small. The nymphs are only the size of a poppy seed and the adult females are only about 1/8 of an inch. The nymphs transmit most of the disease in California. Nymphs are found in forests and woodlands carpeted with leaf litter or fir needles. They occur within the leaf litter and crawl onto tree trunks and logs. They tend to transmit the disease from March to July.

Adult ticks occur on low vegetation most commonly in grasslands or chaparral. Strangely, they are also more abundant on the uphill margins of hillside trails. More adults are also found in the margins between different habitats. Adults transmit the disease November to July. Adults tend to be active in the early morning and late afternoon.

There are several steps we can take to avoid getting bit by a tick. When in forests and woodlands avoid sitting on logs or leaning against tree trunks - bring a chair! If you are hiking in a potentially tick infested area, stay towards the middle of trails and stick to the downhill margin of the trail. Wearing long sleeved shirts and pants and tucking in pant legs and shirt tails can also help. Dr. Lane recommends considering use of repellant - some have been shown to be up to 85% effective. You should also always do a tick check after hiking paying special attention to exposed areas of skin on arms, legs, behind ears, and on the scalp. If you have pets you should also check your pet for ticks.

It may not be possible to completely eliminate all risks of exposure to Lyme disease in California. However, we can take certain steps to reduce contact to ticks. By getting more informed we can all feel a little safer exploring and working outdoors in California.

Exploring the World of Lichen with Shelly Benson

Photo by Pepperwood volunteer John Hibbard.

Lichens in our region are often seen on oak trees, covering their branches with a frosty white-green color or dangling down like Spanish moss. But did you know they are actually composite organisms consisting of a fungus and a photosynthetic organism (usually a green algae or a bacteria)? Sonoma County lichenologist Shelly Benson is president of the California Lichen Society has been studying lichen for 14 years. Pepperwood's Education Director Sandi Funke asked Shelly some questions about these fascinating life forms and how she got involved with them.

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How did you get into studying lichens?

Somewhat by accident…a summer job as a botanist on an ecological research project gave me some experience identifying lichens. It turns out that once you have a little experience in this area you’re way ahead of the rest of the competition. I landed several other jobs that required lichen identification skills, including climbing trees in Canada to study arboreal lichens. I ended up staying in Canada to complete my graduate research on arboreal lichen ecology. When I moved to California, I got involved in the California Lichen Society and continue to work with lichens.

Photo by Joel Cervantes.

Why do you think lichens are important to pay attention to?

Many ecologists will say that they can read the landscape by observing which plants grow where. The same is true for lichens. Lichens are sensitive to microclimate conditions and respond to gradients in temperature and moisture. The mix of lichen species growing near the coast is distinctly different than the mix of species growing in the Central Valley, which is distinctly different than the mix of species growing in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Additionally, lichen community composition shifts in a similar way in response to an air quality gradient. Some lichen species have been identified as indicators of clean air and others are known to indicate elevated levels of nitrogen-based pollutants. Observing the relative proportion of pollution-sensitive lichens to pollution-tolerant lichens can inform you about the air quality in your area. I find the process of becoming lichen literate fascinating!

Photo by Joel Cervantes.

How hard is it to differentiate between different types of lichens?

For the most part, if you have a good eye for detail, it is pretty easy to differentiate between different species of lichens. Once you learn the various lichen structures to look for, you’ll be able to sort out different species. However, putting a name on each of those different lichens is a little more difficult. One of the biggest challenges is finding a key that works well for your area. Currently, there is no lichen equivalent to the Jepson Manual, a key to the vascular plants of California. I often use keys from several different regions (e.g. the Pacific Northwest and the Dessert Southwest) to identify a specimen collected from the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Additionally, some lichens require the use of chemical tests for identification.

What is one of your favorite lichens and why?

Lace lichen, Ramalina menziesii, is a favorite lichen of mine.  It is one of the pale greenish hair-like lichens that drape the branches of trees throughout western California. The architecture of this lichen is amazing! Many of the lichen’s long, slender strands have lobe-like branches with a beautifully intricate lace-like pattern. The beauty of this lichen and its wide distribution throughout the state are reasons why the California Lichen Society has started a campaign to make this the California state lichen.

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On Saturday, October 26th, 2013, Shelly will teach a class on lichen at Pepperwood. Click here to register or learn more about the class.

Phenology - Studying Plant and Animal Life Cycles

By Tom Greco, Communications Specialist

An acorn on one of Pepperwood's many oak trees

It is autumn at Pepperwood. Deciduous trees like black, Oregon, and blue oaks are all losing leaves. Squirrels and acorn woodpeckers are busy gathering acorns – the latter stuffing them into their granary trees. Our big leaf maples, found along creeks and seeps, are turning a brilliant yellow. Ravens are foraging on figs at our homesteads by the dozens. Bucks are shedding their summer camaraderie and beginning to scuffle for dominance as rutting season begins. It is a great time to examine phenology.

Phenology is the study of plant and animal life cycles and biological events as they are influenced by environmental factors like changing seasons, variations in climate over time, and localized elements like soil composition and elevation. If there is unseasonably little rainfall one winter, for example, that may affect the life cycles of certain plants. They could experience a later bloom than average, or perhaps produce less seeds that year. If a plant blooms late, that could in turn affect the life cycle of an insect that relies on it for food. In this way, phenology can also be used to examine the relationships between plants and animals within their environments.

Examining a budding plant to determine what life cycle
stage it is in.

The study of phenology is not new, but it is becoming increasingly important in the face of our changing climate. As average annual temperatures and other climatic factors begin to shift, they will undoubtedly affect the life cycles of plants and animals. In order to measure the impacts of a changing climate, a baseline for current temporal patterns of biological behavior must be established. This means taking regular observations of life cycle events like bud burst in plants, or the first appearance of butterflies or migratory birds or animals. Over time we can determine the correlation between shifting climatic factors and phenological responses in our flora and fauna.

Dr. Susan Mazer explains the California Phenology Project's 
monitoring protocols to Pepperwood staff and volunteers 

Because of the great diversity of plant and animal life, especially in our region, collecting phenological data can be a time consuming and labor intensive process. Fortunately, advances in technology have made it much easier for researchers to collect this data with the help of citizen scientists, who are often nature-enthusiasts volunteering their time. The California Phenology Project (CPP), which was launched in 2010 with funding from the National Park Service, was created to help streamline the collection of phenological data by offering resources and creating a central database where organizations and individuals can contribute their work. Dr. Susan Mazer of UCSB, founder of the CPP, visited Pepperwood in August to advise on Pepperwood’s current monitoring program and how it can be tied into the CPP.

Many of Pepperwood’s research efforts, including our Vital Signs monitoring project, involve the study of phenology. Each year we collect data via our Reptile and Amphibian Survey, Grassland Monitoring, and Acorn Monitoring projects, to name a few. This year, we are working with the Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) to apply for funding from the National Science Foundation for a long-term Phenology Project at Pepperwood that is aligned with protocols set by Dr. Mazer and the CPP. This is the focus of SRJC student Prahlada Papper, Pepperwood Steward and the inaugural Stephen J. Barnhart Herbarium Intern, who is working with Pepperwood staff to establish a transect model that could be replicated in other locations throughout our region.