Treesearch

The nearly 100 papers in these proceedings are aimed at a diverse audience of resource managers, environmental con-sultants, researchers, landowners, environmental activists, and a variety of user groups. Some of the papers explain how streams interact with the plants and animals at their margins and with the land that they occupy to accomplish a range of important functions, including protecting the banks from erosion, reducing the impacts of flooding, providing wildlife habitat, protecting instream habitat for fishes, producing forage for livestock, and enhancing human lives. Biological...

Birds were censused concomitant with revegetation efforts on the Kern River Nature Conservancy Preserve during spring and summer 1987. Three types of sites were surveyed: naturally occurring cottonwood (Populus fremontii)-willow (Salix spp.) habitats, one 10-ha revegetation site implemented in 1986, and two 10-ha revegetation sites implemented in 1987. Six natural-history criteria were used to compare bird species found in naturally occurring habitat with species found in recently revegetated habitat. These data are extremely useful in discerning species responses to revegetation across...

Avian abundance and diversity were measured at 5 sites in the riparian zone of the Carmel River, selected to represent different conditions of riparian vegetation, in the spring of 1983. Vegetation varied from lawn (golf course) to mature, undisturbed riparian forest dominated by black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa). Birds were counted along 700-meter transects on 10 occasions. The abundance and diversity of birds varied directly with the abundance and diversity of the riparian vegetation. A narrow strip of riparian trees tripled the number of species observed at golf courses. Scattered...

Mountain meadows provide critical habitat for California's dwindling population of Willow Fly-catchers (Empidonax traillii) and for many other breeding birds. Most meadows in the western United States are managed for livestock production or other consumptive uses rather than for wildlife. The potential threats to Willow Flycatchers and their habitat are discussed, and suggestions to protect and enhance mountain meadow habitat for this and other riparian species are offered.

Abundance of resident cutthroat (Salmo clarki) and rainbow (Salmo gairdneri) trout was generally 1.5 to 3.5 times greater in unconstrained reaches than in con-strained reaches of Lookout Creek, a fourth-order tributary to the McKenzie River, Oregon. The presence of adult rainbow trout depressed juvenile abundance in pools with little habitat complexity but had no effect in pools with more heterogeneous structure. The greater abundance of trout in unconstrained reaches was related to habitat structure, the influence of the riparian canopy on stream productivity, and the effect of channel...

Can a natural flowing creek be increased in drainage capacity to protect an adjacent community from flooding while still maintaining a natural habitat? San Luis Obispo constructed one such project on over a mile of Creek as a part of a housing development. The City found that some of the mitigation measures included in the project worked while others did not. In the years since, the project has been evaluated and improvements recommended. We will probably do another such project but in a different way as described in this paper.

The California Wildlife-Habitat Relationship (WHR) system was tested for birds breeding in the Valley-Foothill Riparian habitat along California's Sacramento and South Fork Kern rivers. The model performed poorly with 33 pct and 21 pct correct predictions respectively at the two locations. Changes to the model for 60 species on the Sacramento River and 66 species on the Kern River are recommended. Special problems, such as differences in habitat suitability among study areas and how the model treats threatened and endangered species, are discussed and solutions are suggested.

Planted ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws. var. ponderosa) seedlings in young plantations in California are at a disadvantage compared with competing shrubs, forbs, and grasses. In many instances, roots of competing plants begin expanding and exploiting the soil earlier and in greater numbers, thereby capturing the majority of available resources and lowering pine survival and growth. Competition thresholds or "how much is too much?" are: for treatments where a cleared radius is prescribed, no weeds are acceptable within the space needed for maximum growth of pine seedlings...

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