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Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Check out our latest stories...   Oregon silverspot butterfly The Oregon silverspot butterfly, listed federally as threatened since 1980, is only found in four places in the world. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Arcata and Newport offices are working with various partners to include multiple zoos, universities, non-profit organizations, local parks and others in an to attempt to save the species with the hope of eventually taking it off the endangered species list. Credit: Christine Damiani/USFWS  'Whittling down' non-natives crucial to save beautiful and rare species By John Heil April 24, 2018  The Oregon silverspot butterfly is beautiful and rare. Unfortunately, that beauty and rarity is at risk due to habitat degradation. And while the danger is real, there is a plan to address it led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and their partners. The butterfly, listed federally as threatened since 1980, is only found in four places in the world: North of Lake Earl, California, and the Siuslaw National Forest, Mt. Hebo, and Cascade Heads. Additionally, the butterfly will be found in Saddle Mountain where they will be reintroduced for the first time this spring/early summer and in Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge, where they will be introduced this summer after being extinct since the 1970s. Currently, the Service's Arcata and Newport Fish and Wildlife offices are working with various partners to include multiple zoos, universities, non-profit organizations, local parks and the U.S. Forest Service to attempt to save the species with the hope of eventually taking it off the endangered species list. Continue to full story...   NATURE'S GOOD NEIGHBORS Series: Where cattle graze and salamanders roam Tom and Ed Sparling at Sparling Ranch near Hollister, California. Credit: Ashley Spratt/USFWS   Sparling Ranch Conservation Bank a win-win for ranchers, developers, wildlife By Ashley Spratt April 23, 2018 Amid the rolling grasslands and oak woodlands of Santa Clara and San Benito counties lies Sparling Ranch, just outside the small town of Hollister, California. On warm summer days, herds of cattle graze and rest on the sloping hillsides. Tom and Ed Sparling are cousins and reminisce about the history in these hills, where their families have ranched, hunted, and fished for six generations. Their great-great grandfather was T.S. Hawkins, who traveled hundreds of miles by wagon from Missouri to California and originally settled the land at the turn of the century. His critically acclaimed book, "Recollections of a Busy Life," recounted that journey. Continue to full story....   Stay Connected with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region     This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region · 2800 Cottage Way · Suite W-2606 · Sacramento, CA 95825

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Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Check out our latest stories: Reaching the 'coldest water' Northern California's Deer Creek may have a common name, but as a habitat for fish, it is far from ordinary. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, more than 600 identically named creeks and streams are found throughout the United States, but this tributary to the Sacramento River is a special place: Deer Creek supports the Central Valley's second-largest naturally reproducing population of spring-run Chinook salmon. Credit: Steve Martarano Two decades in the making, Lower Deer Creek fish passage project finally complete By Steve Martarano April 19, 2018 Fish Biologist Tricia Parker recalls vividly her first visit to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Red Bluff office. What stood out in her memory was a fish ladder repair project that was needed at Lower Deer Creek Falls in Tehama County. That was in 1996. Parker, who started working in Red Bluff shortly thereafter, was put in charge of that critical effort to rebuild the failing fish ladder. This includes funneling the fish over a waterfall and bringing threatened spring-run Chinook salmon and other imperiled species back to a key spawning creek located about 35 miles northeast of Chico. Continue to full story...   Record number of steelhead return to spawn during 2017-2018 season at Coleman National Fish Hatchery More than 10,000 steelhead returned to Coleman National Fish Hatchery during the 2017-2018  season, nearly triple the largest return seen at the hatchery since roughly 3,600 steelhead  returned during the 2014-2015 season. Credit: Laura Mahoney/USFWS Unprecedented numbers attributed to California's back-to-back wet years By Laura Mahoney April 17, 2018 Unprecedented. That's the word to describe the 10,000 steelhead that returned to Coleman National Fish Hatchery during the 2017-2018 season. While dealing with the large return presented huge challenges for hatchery personnel, anglers will be happy to see the fish released into the Sacramento River after they have been spawned. Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are the anadromous, or ocean-going, form of rainbow trout found throughout the Sacramento River system and its tributaries. The fish were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1998. Continue to full story...   Nature's Good Neighbors Series: Toads and trails — Restoring habitat, reviving the local economy Landowner David Spicer hitting the trails on his ranch near Beatty, Nevada. Photo courtesy of David Spicer/STORM-OV   This week, the national "Nature's Good Neighbors" campaign features a story about David Spicer, a landowner in Beatty, Nevada, who is working with the Service's Partners Program to protect Amargosa toads while developing his land into a recreational destination for hikers, bikers and runners. Continue to full story... Stay Connected with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region     This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region · 2800 Cottage Way · Suite W-2606 · Sacramento, CA 95825

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Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Here are our latest stories:    After long absence, endangered winter-run Chinook salmon return to restored Battle Creek Jeff Freund at Coleman National Fish Hatchery scoops winter-run Chinook salmon on March 2 before they were trucked to Battle Creek later that morning. Approximately 29,000 salmon were released into the North Fork of Battle Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River where they once thrived. The fish are from the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery captive broodstock program. Credit: Steve Martarano/USFWS   By Steve Martarano March 28, 2018 Robert Barker, a fish culturist at the Coleman National Fish Hatchery, had just helped complete something historic and he knew it, spontaneously raising his arms in touchdown-like fashion. "I was thinking "yeaaaa! We did it!" Barker said. Barker's enthusiasm was shared by many. He was directing the release hoses that had just helped reintroduce 29,000 Sacramento River endangered winter-run Chinook salmon into a restored section of the Battle Creek tributary on the upper Sacramento River for the first time since the 1990s. The juveniles released the morning of March 2 were the first group from the approximately 215,000 fish that were the result of a captive broodstock program at Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The release, which has received national attention, reached a major milestone reached after years of rearing the fish and its listing as an endangered species under both federal and state law. The project was a multi-agency effort to plan and restore the Battle Creek salmon and steelhead habitat, marking a major step forward toward the species recovery. Continue to full story...   Meet the little flower adopted by a small town Pretty in pink — The endangered Yreka phlox (Phlox hirsuta) is the topic of a guided nature program on April 4 presented by the Yreka Fish and Wildlife Office. The program is open to the public and meets at the Chinese Cemetery kiosk east of Yreka on Highway 3. Credit: Serena Doose/USFWS   The Yreka phlox, a perennial shrub found in just five locations within Siskiyou County and nowhere else in the world By Susan Sawyer March 28, 2018 Each spring on the dry, rocky hills around Yreka, California, a small native plant comes to life with colorful flowers ranging from bright rose pink to white. The Yreka phlox (Phlox hirsuta) is a perennial shrub no more than six inches high, grows only on serpentine soils, and is found in just five locations within Siskiyou County and nowhere else in the world. China Hill, which overlooks Interstate 5, is one of the five known phlox locations, and where the Yreka Fish and Wildlife Office offers an annual guided 'phlox walk.' Nadine Kanim and Sheri Hagwood, biologists for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, lead the walk as part of the Yreka phlox recovery effort to educate the community about this delicate little plant. This year's walk is set for April 4 from noon until 2 p.m., and is open to all ages. Continue to full story...   Stay Connected with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region     This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region · 2800 Cottage Way · Suite W-2606 · Sacramento, CA 95825

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Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Our latest stories: Home free: A recently released desert tortoise takes in its new surroundings as the translocation team looks on. Credit: USFWS 'Homebuilders of the desert' Desert tortoises are an essential part of their desert habitat — their burrows provide homes for lizards, snakes, owls and other creatures Multiple agencies are currently collaborating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to raise the number of Mojave desert tortoises in areas where the populations are too low to be sustainable. The tortoises are brought in from areas where they have been displaced by human interference to protected areas with lower populations. There are many conservation efforts in place to protect the Mojave desert and its inhabitants. However, even with these programs, sometimes more assistance is needed. Tortoise populations are naturally slow to increase when their population has dwindled. One of the ways that conservation experts are helping is to make use of translocation, a method of moving an animal from one place to another. See the full story...   The tidal marshes that meet the edge of Silicon Valley community of Alviso, California are part of a major salt pond restoration effort that began in 2003 when the salt ponds were added to the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge. The Service, in partnership with the California State Coastal Conservancy and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, among many other private and non-profit groups, committed to restore up to 90 percent of these salt ponds to tidal marsh as habitat for migratory waterfowl. Credit: USFWS   Tidal marsh restoration helps build coastal resiliency in Silicon Valley By Meghan Snow March 23, 2018 Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, serves as a natural buffer between the corporate headquarters of high-tech companies in Silicon Valley, like Google and Facebook, and the open waters of San Francisco Bay. The Service, along with dozens of partner organizations, is working to restore former commercial salt ponds lining the bay to tidal marsh that will provide habitat for fish and wildlife, enhance recreational opportunities, and help protect businesses and nearly four million people who live in nearby communities from coastal flooding. Throughout the refuge, a series of levees separate the edges of the bay into ponds. These non-engineered, earthen berms were originally built by Cargill Salt and its predecessors beginning in the early 1900s to create the ponds for commercial salt production. Salt production required the shallow edges of the bay to be dredged, creating mud piles that formed earthen berms. Over the years, the berms have earned the title of levee as they breakup large waves from the open bay, and trap water that crests the tops into the salt pond "reservoirs." The levees, however, were not designed to serve as flood protection barriers. See the full story...     Stay Connected with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region     This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region · 2800 Cottage Way · Suite W-2606 · Sacramento, CA 95825

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Check out our latest feature stories... Women in Science 2018  Meet the "Women of Science" in the Klamath Falls Fish and Wildlife Office In honor of Women's History Month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service interviewed three Klamath Falls field office women with varied backgrounds culminating in successful careers in conservation of fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats.       The Lion in the Tree: A botanist's mission to save our natural landscapes As we celebrate inspirational women in science during Women's History Month this March, we delve into the inspirational life and career of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service botanist Connie Rutherford, and the plants she helped save from the brink of extinction.         Pacific Southwest Region Highlights Improving the monarch count LiDAR could make all the difference for monarchs and our understanding of their population         Winter Wings Festival 2018 "Participants are blown away by the sight and symphony of thousands of ducks and geese in one place." – John Fitzroy         Restoring western monarch overwintering habitat Conservation partners release western monarch overwintering site management plan         During Peace Corps Week, Pacific Southwest Region recognizes employees who served as volunteers For more than five decades, Peace Corps Volunteers have worked abroad with community leaders to solve critical challenges. Some, inspired by their service, return home to join civil service.     Stay Connected with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region     This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region · 2800 Cottage Way · Suite W-2606 · Sacramento, CA 95825