Kerncrest Audubon Society Daniel Burnett– The Kerncrest Audubon will hold their November program on November 17 at the Maturango Musem.
Two nearby desert streams under management responsibility of the Ridgecrest Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management are now Wild and Scenic Rivers. Cottonwood Creek in Inyo County was so designated in 2009, and after many years of dissention between conservationists and off-road-vehicle enthusiasts, Surprise Canyon Creek was designated (finally!) in 2019.
To provide a baseline distribution and abundance of birds, especially threatened and endangered species, the Institute of Bird Population set out to test Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs). Multiple ARUs were set out along reaches of both streams, capturing recordings for a few hours in the morning and evening in the spring and summer of 2021. In person point count surveys were also performed to compare ARU sampling units to assess strength and weakness of the ARU approach. The data collected will help provide the BLM with current bird population data and help the BLM to manage sensitive habitat.
Our speaker, Priscilla Watson-Wynn, graduated from Cal State East Bay in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in biology with a concentration in ecology and conservation and a minor in chemistry. Since then she has been working with public lands with agencies such as the National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service working in visitor services as a park guide and then transitioning to wildlife biology. In 2019, she moved to Ridgecrest to work as a contract field biologist for the Bureau of Land Management Ridgecrest field office and was hired on permanently as a natural resource specialist in 2022. Her focus now is on land health and the effects of cattle and sheep grazing.
Come to the Maturango Museum at 200 E. Las Flores Ave. at 7 pm.
