The San Gabriel mountains support some of the greatest biodiversity in
the USA. Tons of micro-endemic plants up there. As for animals: ca red-
legged frog, Santa Ana sucker, arroyo chub, bighorn sheep, two-lined
garter snake, San Gabriel salamander, and I'm sure several rodents and
bat species.
Please don't confuse the types of fires that you're hearing about now
with a natural fire regime. These fires are much bigger and hotter,
lead to much greater mudslides and sedimentation in streams, and are
followed by aggressive invasions by invasive plants like mustard. Some
wildlife may benefit but not necessarily. These aren't the fires they
adapted to.
On Aug 30, 2009, at 8:08 AM, Wendee Holtcamp <[email protected]
> wrote:
A couple things.
I'm doing a feature on White Nose Syndrome in bats, but for a Texas
magazine. I'm curious what proactive conservation measures are being
taken
in states that haven't yet been affected by WNS? I know the Forest
Service
closed several caves. Anything else? I did one blog post for Animal
Planet
about this on some cool research but in the states that are affected
rather
than those not affected yet. It affects hibernating bats, and so it's
possible it may not affect bats that don't hibernate at all. then
again as
it appears to be an exotic species, who knows what can happen in
terms of
ecological release etc.
Second - the wildfires in Cali now are a great time now to talk
about the
ways wildfires impact forests positively. I had previously written
about the
impacts on individual animals and animal rescue efforts, and now I
want to
talk about forest regeneration. Anyone out there working in the
vicinity of
the Angeles Nat Forest, and also know what wildlife lives there - any
endangered species or species of concern?
Wendee
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wendee Holtcamp, M.S. Wildlife Ecology ~ @bohemianone
Freelance Writer * Photographer * Bohemian
http://www.wendeeholtcamp.com <http://
www.wendeeholtcamp.com/>
http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com
<http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com/>
~~6-wk Online Writing Course Starts Oct 17, 2009~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm Animal Planet's news blogger - http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_news
