Winged Restoration Project to expand monarch habitat

by Suzanne GillCommunications and Outreach Coordinator While the monarch butterfly is among the most beloved wildlife species in the U.S., populations of both the Eastern and Western monarch have declined precipitously since the late 1990s. By 2019, the Western monarch population was estimated to have plummeted to just two percent of the total recorded 22 years earlier, in 1997. The […]

The Conservancy Uses eDNA to Find Threatened Amphibians

A mass of California Red-legged Frog eggs rests at the surface of a pond on The Preserve. Photo by Alix Soliman. May 11, 2022 By Alix Soliman A major development in fish and wildlife monitoring, Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a scientific method that can tell us whether a species is present in a given area by testing the water, soil, [...]

The Plight of the Nomadic Tricolored Blackbird and its Life on The Preserve

Photo by Dr. Christy Wyckoff. A male tricolored blackbird perched in tall grasses. June 24, 2021 By Alicia Khuon, Field Technician They “darken the sky for some distance with their masses” wrote an observer in 1853 about tricolored blackbirds (Agelaius tricolor). Unfortunately, this is no longer true. The tricolored blackbird has been listed as threatened under the California Endangered Species [...]