Job Announcement: Rare Species Ecologist

CNLM is looking to hire a Rare Species Ecologist.

The Rare Species Ecologist will work to conserve the rare prairie and oak woodland habitats of the South Sound Region and the species that are dependent on them.  This position will focus primarily on conserving rare species, including butterflies, birds and mammals, especially those currently proposed for federal listing as threatened or endangered.  The funding for this position supports a cooperative approach to conservation, requiring coordination with multiple partners (such as the Department of Defense and WA Department of Fish and Wildlife), and with the CNLM Prairie Restoration Crew and volunteers.  The Rare Species Ecologist is a fulltime exempt position that is supervised by the South Sound Program Director.

Full position description can be found here.

Deadline: Open until filled, but for fullest consideration please apply no later than March 29, 2013.

Don't Miss the Upcoming CPOP/NWSA Ecoregional Conference

The jointly held Cascadia Prairie-Oak Partnership and the Northwest Scientific Association ecoregional conference is coming up on March 20-23 in Portland. Don't miss the early registration deadline on February 28. CNLM's Americorps Plant Propagation Specialist, Greg Eide is a co-author on the study below, one of many that will be presented at the conference.

"In a study that will be presented at the 2013 NWSA (CPOP) conference, several northwest lichenologists collaborated to survey macrolichen diversity on Quercus garryana. Macrolichens are lichens that are foliose, fruticose, stratified, or unstratified, and that are usually easily identifiable in the field, as opposed to microlichens such as pin and crustose lichens. For this most comprehensive oak lichen survey to date the researchers visited 9 oak stands throughout Washington, not only expanding the known ranges of many oak-associated species (e.g. Normandina pulchella), but also collecting 3 recorded for the first time in the state (e.g Collema quadrifidum). Records from herbaria and other Washington oak lichen studies were compiled to evaluate the rarity of observed species and potentially rare species known from nearby locations.

Normandina pulchella found on a Garry Oak at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (photo taken by Greg Eide).

Lichen communities are very indicative of the air quality in a given area because they rely on dry deposition for all nutrient intake, rather than having a vascular system for transporting nutrients from one part to another like plants. This allows a keen observer to distinguish sites with good air quality from sites with poor air quality by comparing the occurrence of pollution tolerant species to that of intolerant species. Air quality data plots were established at several sites enabling land managers to document air quality changes in the future. Although there are surely oak stands harboring previously undocumented species occurrences, this baseline list and subsequent discussion will help to integratelichens into current restoration and management practices along with just as integral vascular plants and animals.

The authors of the study are John Villella, Daphne Stone, Lalita Calabria, Katherine Glew, and Greg Eide."

Summary of 2012 South Puget Sound Ecological Fire Program

After working through regulatory and administrative issues and developing an infrastructure of trained firefighters and equipment, 2012 marks our fifth scaled-up burn season. Prior to 2008, we were only conducting one to two burns annually. Since that time, the partnership has increased its burning significantly. In 2012, we completed 57 burns totaling 2208 acres on 10 different properties in North and South Puget Sound. Based on the number of operational burn shifts (though not total acres), we continue to be the most active burn program in the state. Primary land managing burn partners include Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife and Natural Resources, Wolf Haven, The Nature Conservancy and Thurston County as well as Pacific Rim Institute in North Puget Sound.

Burn crew at Tenalquot. Reinforced and new partnerships have been instrumental in the progress of our prescribed fire program (photo taken by Adrian Wolf).

A robust and highly active collaborative program has evolved over the nearly two decades to protect and restore the remaining prairie-oak mosaic habitat and its dependent species. As a result of our past efforts, we are now gaining the capability to effectively restore habitat at the landscape-scale. It is generally recognized that prescribed ecological fire is a critical conservation tool in these systems and can provide benefit not only for the ecosystem as a whole but also to many rare species.

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New Quarterly Highlights

Native plants being plugged into Taylor’s checkerspot habitat at Glacial Heritage Preserve. This gives a good indication of the high-intensity of efforts underway to improve habitat for these rare butterflies.

This has been a busy fall for CNLM staff. Our science team is pursuing new research areas, including working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and a local livestock producer, the Colvin Ranch, to examine how rare species can be conserved in working landscapes. Our cooperative conservation team has helped facilitate working group meetings on the Taylor's checkerspot, Mazama pocket gopher, and streaked horned lark. Our field staff just finished planting over 66,000 seedling plugs and over 50 pounds of native seed on Thurston County prairies! Read about our planting strategy for Taylor's checkerspots and more in our latest Quarterly Highlights.