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2010
On March 24, Heath Bartosh will be giving a presentation to the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Socitey on Nomad's focused rare plant surveys conducted within the City of San Francisco's Alameda Watershed. The talk is titled "On the Edge of the Mount Hamilton Range: The Alameda Watershed's Rare Plants of Late Spring". During these surveys Nomad botanists recorded 514 plant species, 150 of which are considered rare locally and/or statewide.
2009
In October, Erin McDermottpresented at the California Invasive Plant Council Syposium in Visalia, California. Her presentation focused on the results of Nomad's landscape-scale weed inventory of the City of San Fancisco's Peninsula Watershed.
During the month of August, Heath Bartosh and Erin McDermott lead a team of volunteers in conducting a population census of Livermore tarplant (Deinandra bacigalupii) on the City of Livermore's Springtown Preserve. The population of Livermore tarplant is the largest of only four known populations of this very narrowly distributed Alameda County endemic. This effort will support the preparation of a listing petition to pursue the listing of Livermore tarplant as Endangered under the California Endangered Species Act. This petition is anticipated to be complete during 2010.
From the months of March through October, Heath Bartosh conducted a post-fire floristic study of North Coast Ridge Road along the Big Sur Coast in Los Padres National Forest. This area was burned during the Basin Complex Fire of 2008. During those months he recorded 262 plant species and made 94 voucher specimen collections. In December he gave a presentation of his study at the Wayne Roderick Lecture Series hosted by the Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Berkeley, California. On February 18, 2010 he will also be making this presentation at the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum for the Monterey Chapter of the California Native Plant Society.
In January Heath Bartosh gave a presentation at the California Native Plant Society Conference on "Utilizing Simple Geographic Information System (GIS) Techniques to Inventory, Analyze, and Prioritize Botanical Hot Spots in the East Bay Chapter". This presentation is based on the Botanical Priority Protection Area project that he initiated for the East Bay Chapter of CNPS.
2007
Since 2003, the Jepson Herbarium's Jepson Flora Project has been hard at work to develop a scientifically revised edition of the 1993 Jepson Manual, California's "authoritative floristic reference." Anticipating the need to update and digitize the Jepson Manual's earlier Map of the Geographic Subdivisions of California, the Jepson Flora Project invited Nomad botanist and GIS specialist Heath Barosh to revise the manual's familiar endpaper map depicting California's geographic subdivions and floristic provinces. The revisions include updating and digitizing the map to make it compatible with BerkeleyMapper.
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Nomad is pleased to announce the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's issuance of a (10)(a)(1)(A) recovery permit to handle and conduct surveys and population studies for the federally Threatened California red-legged frog. With "Service-approved" biologists on staff, Nomad can better serve your needs pertaining to California red-legged frog, and California tiger salamander by performing protocol-level surveys, site assessments, construction monitoring, and regulatory compliance oversight.
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In May, Nomad welcomed Erin McDermott to our team of biologists as co-principal. The inclusion of Ms. McDermott will allow us to provide new services like tree surveys and tree inventories.
Erin is a practiced arborist, botanist, and wetland ecologist with over seven years of experience conducting biological assessments, botanical surveys, focused surveys for rare, threatened, and endangered plant species, wetland delineations, tree surveys, and habitat assessments. She integrates her extensive biological field experience with a diverse background in a range of plant-related disciplines including botany, ecology, soil science, wetland ecology, weed science, restoration ecology, arboriculture, and horticulture.
Through the International Society of Arboriculture, Erin is an ISA certified arborist with experience conducting tree inventories and surveys throughout California to document and evaluate tree resources in compliance with regional tree ordinances.
She also volunteers her time as the Vegetation Committee Chair for the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society.
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On April 20 and 21, Nomad biologists Jerry Roe and Heath Bartosh participated in the Irish Canyon BioBlitz sponsored by Save Mt. Diablo. Nomad's biologists were two of the 16 biologists that helped document a preliminary count of 273 flora and fauna species at Irish Canyon, the 320-acre Clayton property that represents one of SMDs newest acquisitions.
Visit the Valley Sentinel to read the feature article - "BioBlitz" Reveals Large Local Biodiversity (cover) (article) - and learn more about the Blitz.
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This year, Nomad is debuting a resource site with monitoring and survey protocols and digitized field survey forms. Among our newest resources are the Arid West Region's Wetland Determination Data Form, a digitized version of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Laboratory's Interim Regional Supplement to the Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation Manual: Arid West Region (ERDC/EL TR-06-16) data form that automatically calculates worksheet data in real-time based on user-entered data, and the Western Pond Turtle Nest Survey Form, a digital survey form to record nest and nest-site characteristics for western pond turtles (Clemmys marmorata). Visit our Resources page to learn more about these and other resources.
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On Tuesday, February 6th, Nomad principal/biologist Jerry Roe was a guest on UC Davis' The Weekly Science Talk Radio Program [KDVS 90.3 FM] to discuss his involvement with the Snow Leopard Conservancy studying the elusive snow leopard in the Himalaya, Karakoram and Ladakh mountain ranges in Asia. Download the TWIS Podcast to hear the audio MP3.
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Working together with biologists R. Bruce Bury, Laura C. Patterson, and Glen M. Lubcke, Nomad biologist Matthew Bettelheim published a note in the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptile's Herpetological Review documenting evidence of invasive red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) successfully breeding in the waters of northern California:
Bettelheim, Matthew P., R. Bruce Bury, Laura C. Patterson, and Glen M. Lubcke. 2007. Trachemys scripta elegans (Red-eared Slider). Reproduction. Herpetological Review 37(4): pp 459-460.
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2006
This Spring, Nomad biologist Matthew Bettelheim co-authored two notes in the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptile's Herpetological Review, the first reporting nest architecture and depredation characteristics of western pond turtle nests:
Bettelheim, Matthew P., Christopher H. Thayer, and Dana E. Terry. 2006. Actinemys marmorata (Pacific Pond Turtle). Nest Architecture/Predation. Herpetological Review 37(2): pp 213-215.
...and the second describing a heretofore undescribed vegetation community - Oakley sand stabilized interior dunes - within which California legless lizards have been recorded:
Bettelheim, Matthew P. and Christopher H. Thayer. 2006. Anniella pulchra pulchra (Silvery Legless Lizard). Habitat. Herpetological Review 37(2): pp 217-218.
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In late December, Nomad principal/botanist Heath Bartosh received a plaque in recognition of his outstanding volunteer work with the Bay Area's Muir Heritage Land Trust.
