Oak woodlands are perhaps the most important for wildlife biodiversity and conservation. More than 300 species of wildlife depend on oak woodlands at some stage in their life history, but oak woodlands face threat by urbanization and agricultural conversion. Today only two-thirds of California�s original oaks woodlands remain. �Point Blue Conservation Science has partnered with the USDA�s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to encourage and foster private land stewardship to improve the habitat quality of privately owned oak woodlands while maintaining the economic viability of these working lands. This unique partnership allows Point Blue biologists partner with NRCS conservationists and ranchers to evaluate wildlife resource concerns and guide management decisions to meet their objectives while maintaining or improving habitat for wildlife. For example, Point Blue Partner Biologists provide technical assistance on habitat needs for a wide range of taxa, from leaving a certain density and/or variety of trees and shrubs on the landscape, which trees to select for removal, what snags to maintain, and where to create brush piles. For example, Ash-throated Flycatchers and Oak Titmouse, among other bird species, prefer oak woodlands with higher canopy cover for nesting; bats use sloughing bark on dead and dying trees to roost; and man-made brush piles or jack-strawed small diameter living trees can provide immediate habitat for ground-nesting or understory nesting birds while providing the shrub layer time to re-establish. Additionally, water quality and riparian habitats can be improved through the creation of controlled-access riparian pastures and off-stream water systems for livestock. There is an array of conservation practices that land managers can utilize to meet their objectives and provide multiple habitat elements for wildlife. Using the best available science to manage oak woodlands for wildlife will, in turn, provide a more productive landscape and a healthy, resilient ecosystem for the future.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.