| ESTIMATING THE EFFECTS OF RESTORATION TO DENSITY OF BELDING'S SAVANNAH SPARROW (PASSERCULUS SANDWICHENSIS BELDINGI) IN A SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COASTAL WETLAND |
| Michael Anguiano; AECOM; Michael.Anguiano@aecom.com; James McMorran, Sheila V. Madrak, Cindy Kinkade, Doug Gibson, Barry Lindgren, Paul Doherty, James McMorran |
| The San Elijo Lagoon (SEL) Ecological Reserve located in San Diego County, California contains one of San Diego's largest coastal wetlands and supports a number of sensitive resident and migrant avian species. The Belding's savannah sparrow (BSSP), a California state-listed endangered species, is a non-migratory resident that nests in dense marsh vegetation found at SEL. The SEL Restoration Project will commence December 2017 to improve physical and ecological functions at SEL. One objective of the project is to enhance the tidal prism of SEL which would result in loss of BSSP nesting habitat - temporary loss of greater than 50 percent and permanent loss of 15 percent. To establish a baseline density in SEL, we monitored the pre-restoration presence of BSSP during the breeding season (March through May) and used distance sampling analyses to estimate density. These data will be compared to monitoring data from BSSP during restoration and post-restoration to determine if restoration affects BSSP density in SEL. It is anticipated BSSP will respond to the restoration as they do to seasonal variability, shifting and contracting territory size to accommodate available habitat. We use specific performance standards established a priori to evaluate the success of the restoration to BSSP density. |
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