Bay Area Urban Species Search roundup!

Thank you to everyone who participated in or promoted the Bay Area Urban Species Search! All together we made over 2200 observations and found all 24 species & species groups we were hoping to find! Here are some highlights:

• About half of the observations made were within the urban boundary in the Bay Area (the gray area here in the Conservation Lands Network Explorer Tool), which is fantastic!
• Our most-observed species overall was the California Slender Salamander, and within the urban boundary, our most-observed species was the Anna’s Hummingbird
• We’ve increased observations of the Nicklin’s Shoulderband Snail in the Bay Area urban boundary by 50%!

There were some really amazing observations made, like

this San Francisco Garter Snake found in San Mateo County by James Maughn (@jmaughn)

and

this North American River Otter photographed by Cricket Raspet (@chilipossum) in Marin County

and

this seemingly leucistic Eastern Gray Squirrel, spotted in Marin County by Natalie Clark (@olliecat).

And speaking of Cricket (@chilipossum): amazing work, being the top observer and species-finder! They made 122 observations of 28 species, which comprised 21 of the 24 species or species groups we were looking for!

So what’s next? We know that there are important connections across urbanized/urbanizing areas in the Bay Area, helping species move between the Baylands and Uplands and from mountain range to mountain range, and that some species rely on remnant patches of natural habitat within developed areas. We’re using iNaturalist data, like those collected during the Bay Area Urban Species Search, to build distribution models for these 24 species and species groups across the Bay Area to understand how they’re using and benefiting from the urban environment, and where else in the Bay Area they’re likely to be found. This will help position our region to strategically incorporate urban habitat values with the plan to fully incorporate urban areas into the Conservation Lands Network as part of the next version (CLN 3.0, likely in 2025).

Posted on April 7, 2023 05:26 PM by kestrel