WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:03.100 This is the Pepperwood Podcast, a production 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:05.860 of Pepperwood, a nonprofit conservation organization 00:00:05.860 --> 00:00:09.480 based at a 3 ,200 -acre nature reserve near Santa 00:00:09.480 --> 00:00:12.119 Rosa, California, in the heart of the traditional 00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:15.539 homeland of the Wappo people. At Pepperwood, 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:18.500 we aim to inspire conservation through science. 00:00:18.739 --> 00:00:21.620 And on this show, we talk to scientists, stewards, 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:24.420 and environmental educators about what they do 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:27.649 and how they do it. We hope to give you a glimpse 00:00:27.649 --> 00:00:30.190 into the real experiences of folks who devote 00:00:30.190 --> 00:00:32.450 their lives to taking care of local ecosystems 00:00:32.450 --> 00:00:37.609 and sharing them with others. Welcome back to 00:00:37.609 --> 00:00:40.649 the Pepperwood Podcast. This is Season 2, Episode 00:00:40.649 --> 00:00:43.350 2, and we're going to dive into some science. 00:00:44.539 --> 00:00:46.859 We do an immense amount of data collection and 00:00:46.859 --> 00:00:49.679 analysis here at Pepperwood, creating long -term 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:52.500 data sets that help us monitor what is happening 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:55.439 on the landscape to better understand how things 00:00:55.439 --> 00:00:57.939 are changing through time. That can ultimately 00:00:57.939 --> 00:01:00.719 help us determine what kind of stewardship work 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:03.520 might be the most effective in preserving the 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:06.640 rich biodiversity that we so value in our local 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:09.859 ecosystems. Today we're going to highlight the 00:01:09.859 --> 00:01:14.000 monitoring of abiotic elements, non -living components 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:17.579 of the ecosystems. These can be crucial influences 00:01:17.579 --> 00:01:21.579 on the biotic or living components like the plants, 00:01:21.640 --> 00:01:25.620 animals, fungi, you get it. Tracking abiotic 00:01:25.620 --> 00:01:28.519 conditions helps us understand what might drive 00:01:28.519 --> 00:01:33.459 changes in plants and animal populations. Spearheading 00:01:33.459 --> 00:01:35.780 much of Pepperwood's abiotic data collection 00:01:35.780 --> 00:01:40.060 is today's guest, Ryan Farrell. Ryan grew up 00:01:40.060 --> 00:01:42.620 in Santa Rosa, and he went to UC Davis as both 00:01:42.620 --> 00:01:45.040 an undergrad and a graduate student. He got his 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:48.439 master's in science in soils and biogeochemistry, 00:01:48.540 --> 00:01:52.939 so an abiotic guy from way back. Ryan is now 00:01:52.939 --> 00:01:56.180 our Sentinel site manager, and I started off 00:01:56.180 --> 00:02:01.730 by asking him what exactly that means. The short 00:02:01.730 --> 00:02:03.750 history is I started out as a research technician 00:02:03.750 --> 00:02:06.150 and then a research scientist. And today they 00:02:06.150 --> 00:02:08.430 call me the Sentinel Site Manager up here. I 00:02:08.430 --> 00:02:11.629 still feel like it's a big title that like, what 00:02:11.629 --> 00:02:14.729 does that really mean? And I always tell everybody, 00:02:14.789 --> 00:02:17.270 like, it's a whole lot of things, which is more 00:02:17.270 --> 00:02:20.360 the nature of Pepperwood. Related to the science, 00:02:20.539 --> 00:02:23.240 I often consider myself the abiotic guy, like 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:25.580 think sensors and telemetry networks are like 00:02:25.580 --> 00:02:27.439 radios and there's different kinds of radios. 00:02:27.479 --> 00:02:31.159 How do we get the data back? So hydrology, soils 00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:33.800 and arguments can be made throughout all those 00:02:33.800 --> 00:02:35.520 disciplines that like, oh, there's biology involved 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:37.719 as well. And that's the case with the natural 00:02:37.719 --> 00:02:40.520 world. You can't really focus on one discipline 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:42.199 and just live in that silo because there's so 00:02:42.199 --> 00:02:44.960 many things that interact across that divide. 00:02:46.620 --> 00:02:49.639 But in a nutshell, that's. That's most of my 00:02:49.639 --> 00:02:52.680 science job up here is keeping all that data 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:57.120 flowing. And certainly, as Michelle Halber has 00:02:57.120 --> 00:02:59.060 said, we wear a lot of hats up here at Pepperwood. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:01.919 So I'm always getting tapped to get in on the 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:05.300 ecology and the biological side of things. And 00:03:05.300 --> 00:03:08.599 then stewardship as well. And that's science, 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:10.960 too. We try to implement that adaptive management 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:13.139 plan. So I tell people it's my job to put the 00:03:13.139 --> 00:03:15.800 numbers to the management. And so we make. essentially 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:18.139 data informed management decisions and complete 00:03:18.139 --> 00:03:20.500 that loop. Like, hey, we're trying to do this. 00:03:20.500 --> 00:03:22.939 Did we accomplish this? No. Why not? How would 00:03:22.939 --> 00:03:25.960 we change that? And so it's my job, at least 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:27.939 I tell myself and everybody else, to gather those 00:03:27.939 --> 00:03:31.400 numbers so that we can then, you know, make informed 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:33.259 decisions about our stewardship moving forward. 00:03:33.659 --> 00:03:37.500 What are some of the actual parameters? What 00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:39.439 are some of the data points that you're catching? 00:03:39.900 --> 00:03:42.520 All right, so the big one, and maybe there's 00:03:42.520 --> 00:03:45.659 a bias in here, but the soils and hydrology, 00:03:45.659 --> 00:03:47.580 and they interact together because so often the 00:03:47.580 --> 00:03:49.919 water is within the soils, and that's the medium 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:52.139 that the roots are tapped into, so our plant 00:03:52.139 --> 00:03:54.199 life is tapped into, that the biology and the 00:03:54.199 --> 00:03:58.680 wildlife feed on. But the hydrology metric, you 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:01.360 know, I like to think of things at the watershed 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:04.080 scale and landscape level because, you know, 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:05.639 it's so dynamic. I often say you could throw 00:04:05.639 --> 00:04:07.939 a rock in any direction up here and be in a completely 00:04:07.939 --> 00:04:12.120 different micro ecosystem or environment. But 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:16.019 if you integrate all that chaos and heterogeneity 00:04:16.019 --> 00:04:18.860 and opportunity together at the bottom end of 00:04:18.860 --> 00:04:21.540 that watershed, as defined by one thing, topography, 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:24.699 you get... a value of flow how much water is 00:04:24.699 --> 00:04:27.480 exiting that system and that value has to do 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:29.379 with all the interactions of what's going on 00:04:29.379 --> 00:04:32.180 up above so so you're not sort of lost in the 00:04:32.180 --> 00:04:34.240 weeds you can like zoom way out and like okay 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:37.220 what does all of this produce and that's that 00:04:37.220 --> 00:04:39.759 hydrologic flow measurement how do we measure 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:45.269 that stream flow um we use fixed geometry weirs 00:04:45.269 --> 00:04:47.370 it's like weirs or flumes in this case it's a 00:04:47.370 --> 00:04:50.509 90 degree v -notch weir that has a bunch of empirical 00:04:50.509 --> 00:04:52.810 data behind it and rating curves like hey if 00:04:52.810 --> 00:04:55.449 the water is you know x inches high four inches 00:04:55.449 --> 00:04:57.569 high going through this geometry and you meet 00:04:57.569 --> 00:05:00.170 these conditions laminar flow then we know the 00:05:00.170 --> 00:05:03.430 flow is this um and then all the way up through 00:05:03.430 --> 00:05:05.870 those heights of water going over the equation 00:05:05.870 --> 00:05:10.259 matches it so can i just pause and say what a 00:05:10.259 --> 00:05:12.540 weir looks like. If you stumbled upon it, what 00:05:12.540 --> 00:05:15.279 would it look like in the wild? You'd be rock 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:16.899 hopping down the creek, probably looking down, 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:18.959 looking for dicampidons and other cool stuff 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:21.420 in the creek bed. And all of a sudden, you'd 00:05:21.420 --> 00:05:24.620 walk into a huge concrete wall and be like, oh 00:05:24.620 --> 00:05:26.519 my God, where did this come from? Who put this 00:05:26.519 --> 00:05:29.060 here? What is this? And it's a, yeah, it can 00:05:29.060 --> 00:05:31.800 be a little alarming, I suppose, but I promise 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:34.040 we got the permits from California Department 00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:36.040 of Fish and Wildlife, the Lake and Stream Med 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:38.079 Alteration Agreements, and the Water Quality 00:05:38.079 --> 00:05:40.279 Control Board. they were all thrilled with the 00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:44.120 idea. Because, you know, up here in the mountaintops, 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:45.519 this is where floods are born. It's where you 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:48.300 get most of the precipitation. And lower in the 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:50.120 Santa Rosa Plain, when you get flooding and this 00:05:50.120 --> 00:05:52.139 and that, it's important to know, well, what's 00:05:52.139 --> 00:05:54.259 going on up there? Because that determines what 00:05:54.259 --> 00:05:57.180 happens down here. So anyways, putting these 00:05:57.180 --> 00:06:00.000 structures in. It's kind of a wall, but it's 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.000 a partial wall that has like a very geometric 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:06.399 gap that allows water to pass through. And then 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:09.519 using that gap, you can use that to sort of triangulate 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:11.620 the amount of flow. Is that accurate? Yes, there's 00:06:11.620 --> 00:06:14.319 a pressure transducer. It's a sensor. It measures 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:17.740 the height of water. Based on the high water, 00:06:17.860 --> 00:06:20.240 you know how much water is going over the structure, 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:23.500 the weir. And from there, you just apply the 00:06:23.500 --> 00:06:25.899 equation and that converts that stage or depth 00:06:25.899 --> 00:06:28.779 of water into a flow. So do you have to go manually 00:06:28.779 --> 00:06:32.860 check that or is that transducer sort of automatically? 00:06:33.259 --> 00:06:37.019 Automatic, collecting in. real time every 15 00:06:37.019 --> 00:06:39.860 minutes um so we yeah we get pretty solid the 00:06:39.860 --> 00:06:42.360 amount of water that's moving through this creek 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:45.399 is being monitored every 15 minutes every 15 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:47.819 minutes and up here you know given the atmospheric 00:06:47.819 --> 00:06:51.160 rivers and even the slow base flows this dynamic 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:54.540 place like yeah the point measurements would 00:06:54.540 --> 00:06:57.240 be one off in time would be so difficult that 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:00.379 would have nothing have no relationship to the 00:07:00.379 --> 00:07:03.100 way water moves through so you can see with that 00:07:03.100 --> 00:07:06.779 15 minute data on those uh, sensors and loggers. 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:08.959 Yeah. You get the perfect curve of like, here 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:11.439 comes the rain. You see it jump up real quick. 00:07:11.459 --> 00:07:13.600 And then you see that long tail off as our, as 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:16.079 everything drains off the landscape, which those 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:19.399 response times, um, are critical and understanding 00:07:19.399 --> 00:07:22.360 like how the watershed responds and what flood 00:07:22.360 --> 00:07:25.439 generation looks like downstream. I'd love to 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:27.800 talk gadgets. Like what are some of the variety 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:29.779 of gadgets you use? Like, let's just say just 00:07:29.779 --> 00:07:33.639 for soils and water or the confluence of those 00:07:33.639 --> 00:07:36.220 two. all right let's start with the soils um 00:07:36.220 --> 00:07:40.259 our like bread and butter is your standard soil 00:07:40.259 --> 00:07:43.339 sensor uh campbell scientific makes them but 00:07:43.339 --> 00:07:45.600 a lot of manufacturers do we use a lot of campbell 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:49.180 scientific gear it's the cs655 it's a tdr sensor 00:07:49.180 --> 00:07:53.649 uses time domain reflectimetry, tometry. Anyways, 00:07:53.790 --> 00:07:57.029 it sends a pulse down these rods, and the rate 00:07:57.029 --> 00:07:58.949 at which that pulse returns, and I might be getting 00:07:58.949 --> 00:08:00.449 this a little wrong, but it's my understanding, 00:08:00.649 --> 00:08:03.209 the rate at which that pulse returns is correlated 00:08:03.209 --> 00:08:06.029 to the water content. And these sensors are widely 00:08:06.029 --> 00:08:07.589 used and have gone through multiple iterations 00:08:07.589 --> 00:08:10.269 through Campbell through the years. But we have, 00:08:10.449 --> 00:08:14.370 I think, about 175 of those in the ground around 00:08:14.370 --> 00:08:18.189 Pepperwood. The vast majority of those are these 00:08:18.189 --> 00:08:21.470 water content sensors, those CS655s by Campbell 00:08:21.470 --> 00:08:26.110 Scientific. And for that many sensors, I think 00:08:26.110 --> 00:08:28.470 they're in 42 locations across the preserve. 00:08:28.610 --> 00:08:30.209 I should know. I put them all out there, but 00:08:30.209 --> 00:08:34.870 it's been many years and many holes. And they're 00:08:34.870 --> 00:08:36.909 in stacked arrays. So it's not just like put 00:08:36.909 --> 00:08:38.789 a sensor in at 15 centimeters and call it good. 00:08:38.870 --> 00:08:42.409 They're at 15, 30, 50, and 100 centimeters. So 00:08:42.409 --> 00:08:44.529 having them like that, you can say a whole lot 00:08:44.529 --> 00:08:47.659 about how is water. So hydrology, how is water 00:08:47.659 --> 00:08:49.840 moving through the profile? What's the infiltration 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:53.120 rate? And certainly you can look at things like 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:56.279 porosity and saturation. It's kind of a proxy. 00:08:56.840 --> 00:09:00.039 But ultimately, at the landscape scale, the watershed 00:09:00.039 --> 00:09:02.220 scale, you can say, hey, how much water are we 00:09:02.220 --> 00:09:05.700 storing in this sponge, the soil here in this 00:09:05.700 --> 00:09:08.120 watershed? So it's an important term. as far 00:09:08.120 --> 00:09:10.360 as the water balance goes. So most of your soil 00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:12.379 sensors are also moisture sensors. It's really 00:09:12.379 --> 00:09:14.320 the moisture of the soil that you're the most 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:16.100 concerned about. Are there other elements of 00:09:16.100 --> 00:09:17.960 the soil or other aspects of the soil that you're 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:20.620 also gathering data on? Yes. So we have a few 00:09:20.620 --> 00:09:22.659 of these out there, and I've gone through the 00:09:22.659 --> 00:09:24.460 calibrations to make them work, but I'm not an 00:09:24.460 --> 00:09:26.419 expert. They're called heat dissipation probes. 00:09:26.419 --> 00:09:28.919 So, all right, I'm going to try to do my best 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:32.519 to explain this one. These heat dissipation probes... 00:09:32.830 --> 00:09:35.649 measure with the calibration the matrix potential 00:09:35.649 --> 00:09:38.789 of the soil. That is, how tightly is the soil 00:09:38.789 --> 00:09:42.350 holding on to the water? Because things are competing 00:09:42.350 --> 00:09:44.690 for that water. The soil is holding on to it, 00:09:44.750 --> 00:09:46.990 but also the trees are trying to extract it with 00:09:46.990 --> 00:09:50.350 their roots. And if you can visualize the analogy 00:09:50.350 --> 00:09:53.669 here, you have a sponge in your hand and it's 00:09:53.669 --> 00:09:56.820 sopping wet. Well, at first, you can wring out 00:09:56.820 --> 00:09:58.679 the water in the sponge. It drips, drips, drips, 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:01.059 drips. You wringing that out, that's a lot like 00:10:01.059 --> 00:10:06.000 the roots pulling on that water. Yeah, utilizing 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.779 that water. But eventually, no matter how hard 00:10:08.779 --> 00:10:10.580 you wring that thing out, you can't get another 00:10:10.580 --> 00:10:12.820 drop to come out. But you can still feel that 00:10:12.820 --> 00:10:15.000 it's wet. You know there is still moisture there. 00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:19.700 And so these heat dissipation probes tell you... 00:10:20.649 --> 00:10:22.970 the matrix potential or how tightly the water 00:10:22.970 --> 00:10:24.629 is being held by the soil. And so this will tell 00:10:24.629 --> 00:10:27.330 you things like the permanent wilting point or 00:10:27.330 --> 00:10:29.429 field capacity, these thresholds that have been 00:10:29.429 --> 00:10:32.610 determined where plants can no longer uptake 00:10:32.610 --> 00:10:34.330 water, which is a really important thing for 00:10:34.330 --> 00:10:36.250 phenology and just response in the ecosystem. 00:10:36.509 --> 00:10:38.629 It certainly gets onto fire danger because now 00:10:38.629 --> 00:10:40.049 the trees are really stressed because they don't 00:10:40.049 --> 00:10:42.389 have enough water. They can't get to it. So we 00:10:42.389 --> 00:10:46.230 have a few sets of those out there. But like 00:10:46.230 --> 00:10:48.169 I said, they take a big calibration process and 00:10:48.169 --> 00:10:50.389 I've gone through it. Part of that calibration 00:10:50.389 --> 00:10:53.149 process requires some pretty fancy equipment, 00:10:53.330 --> 00:10:56.129 which I didn't have. So I worked with tech support 00:10:56.129 --> 00:10:59.830 to, hey, how do I make this work? So I kind of 00:10:59.830 --> 00:11:01.490 did the low -budget version of that, but I really 00:11:01.490 --> 00:11:03.250 wanted to go through the process and learn. So 00:11:03.250 --> 00:11:05.710 anyways, that's a pretty cool data set we have 00:11:05.710 --> 00:11:07.889 out here. Well, and that paints a picture for 00:11:07.889 --> 00:11:10.389 me a little bit of what your job entails. It's 00:11:10.389 --> 00:11:13.370 not just putting sensors out. I mean, I'm sure 00:11:13.370 --> 00:11:16.110 that the installation process is substantial, 00:11:16.350 --> 00:11:19.799 but once you've installed them, You're collecting 00:11:19.799 --> 00:11:22.500 data and you're analyzing it. But in between 00:11:22.500 --> 00:11:24.399 that, there's an incredible amount of maintenance 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:26.960 and recalibration that goes into it, right? So 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:29.200 the ongoing maintenance is a big part of what 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:33.269 you do. Mm -hmm. Honestly, the installation process, 00:11:33.490 --> 00:11:35.909 I love because it's brand new. It's clean. You 00:11:35.909 --> 00:11:37.610 can take your time, like get it perfect. And 00:11:37.610 --> 00:11:39.110 like, yes, you have to dig the hole, but you 00:11:39.110 --> 00:11:41.649 know, that's okay. I like working hard and breaking 00:11:41.649 --> 00:11:44.289 a sweat at work. But the ongoing maintenance, 00:11:44.570 --> 00:11:47.190 especially when you start to add up 42 locations 00:11:47.190 --> 00:11:51.350 all over the preserve, 175 sensors, and they're 00:11:51.350 --> 00:11:53.269 all buried. So like if something goes wrong, 00:11:53.350 --> 00:11:55.830 now you get to evaluate, do I dig this up? Do 00:11:55.830 --> 00:11:58.590 I just dig a new hole and put a new sensor in 00:11:58.590 --> 00:12:04.139 at that depth? And so, you know, I often say 00:12:04.139 --> 00:12:06.960 like it could be a full time job just to watch 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:10.440 these data streams. Yes, it comes back in real 00:12:10.440 --> 00:12:12.879 time most of the time, but you still have to 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:14.799 see it and look at it and go, oops, that doesn't 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:16.960 make any sense or that sensor is not responding 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:21.059 correctly. And then dive deeper to evaluate that 00:12:21.059 --> 00:12:23.879 problem. So if you scale that up by 175 sensors, 00:12:24.139 --> 00:12:27.200 yeah, the maintenance required and the like. 00:12:27.549 --> 00:12:29.490 the dedication to watching the data, looking 00:12:29.490 --> 00:12:31.549 at the data. And certainly we've made lots of 00:12:31.549 --> 00:12:34.370 efforts. Like, you know, can we set up thresholds 00:12:34.370 --> 00:12:36.809 within our databases that would then alert us 00:12:36.809 --> 00:12:39.409 or notify us? There's only so much you can automate. 00:12:39.529 --> 00:12:41.590 Yeah, and sometimes there's seasonal thresholds 00:12:41.590 --> 00:12:44.230 in soil moisture, right? You could certainly 00:12:44.230 --> 00:12:47.490 have like 60 % volumetric water content soil 00:12:47.490 --> 00:12:50.690 moisture in the wintertime. And so if you set 00:12:50.690 --> 00:12:53.080 your threshold there... But in the summertime, 00:12:53.220 --> 00:12:55.000 you would never expect to see that around here. 00:12:55.100 --> 00:12:57.740 And so it gets pretty complicated. How do you, 00:12:57.740 --> 00:13:00.799 you know, pre -process and filter that data coming 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:04.080 in and have, you know, flags thrown your way 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:05.840 or email alerts or something like something's 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:07.720 weird about this sensor. So we work on that, 00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:10.460 but it's still, yeah, the maintenance is a huge 00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:15.019 part. Hydrology and the availability of moisture 00:13:15.019 --> 00:13:17.879 for plants and animals is such a crucial element 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:20.220 in an ecosystem. We could have gone on discussing 00:13:20.220 --> 00:13:23.210 it all day. But I didn't want to forget about 00:13:23.210 --> 00:13:25.629 the other equally important environmental metrics 00:13:25.629 --> 00:13:28.309 that Ryan monitors, so we branched out to discuss 00:13:28.309 --> 00:13:31.509 some of those. There's a whole lot of physical 00:13:31.509 --> 00:13:34.090 characteristics of soil like bulk density or 00:13:34.090 --> 00:13:38.389 particle size that soils kind of in the young 00:13:38.389 --> 00:13:40.490 range are 10 ,000 years old all the way through 00:13:40.490 --> 00:13:43.649 a million years old. But certainly I often think 00:13:43.649 --> 00:13:45.509 hundreds of thousands of years old to develop 00:13:45.509 --> 00:13:49.570 and become what they are today. I feel confident 00:13:49.570 --> 00:13:52.529 in like measuring both density, especially in 00:13:52.529 --> 00:13:54.909 our forest environments where we're not grazing 00:13:54.909 --> 00:13:57.129 or there's not a whole lot of impact. You know, 00:13:57.149 --> 00:13:59.350 there's fire on the surface, but you're unlikely 00:13:59.350 --> 00:14:03.590 to change bulk density or porosity or particle 00:14:03.590 --> 00:14:05.409 size. You're not going to change. In the course 00:14:05.409 --> 00:14:07.830 of a year or 10 years or a thousand years. We 00:14:07.830 --> 00:14:10.450 have those data sets. I've done it for like 90 00:14:10.450 --> 00:14:12.490 locations across the preserve, things like bulk 00:14:12.490 --> 00:14:14.330 density and particle size. We have the equipment 00:14:14.330 --> 00:14:17.950 to do it. But I feel pretty confident like you 00:14:17.950 --> 00:14:20.509 could do that once. That's not an ongoing process. 00:14:20.590 --> 00:14:24.149 The way that water and hydrology is maybe more 00:14:24.149 --> 00:14:26.190 of a dynamic system that needs you to keep your 00:14:26.190 --> 00:14:29.409 eyes open, so to speak, your sensor eyes. Great. 00:14:29.490 --> 00:14:32.429 Let me throw in one thing there. The soil carbon 00:14:32.429 --> 00:14:35.350 question. We have long been after the carbon 00:14:35.350 --> 00:14:40.210 question. And because we graze and we do a lot 00:14:40.210 --> 00:14:43.200 of restoration planning with... native perennial 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:45.840 grasses with deep roots and we even use fire 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:48.759 you may be able to change carbon in the shorter 00:14:48.759 --> 00:14:52.100 term but you know it's such in small concentrations 00:14:52.100 --> 00:14:55.360 that it's brutally hard to measure and you need 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:57.580 like super precise equipment like we're not going 00:14:57.580 --> 00:14:59.480 to have that but you could partner with with 00:14:59.480 --> 00:15:01.559 different agencies perhaps the universities like 00:15:01.559 --> 00:15:04.830 davis have some cool instruments um So that's 00:15:04.830 --> 00:15:08.429 some fessing up the gap in our knowledge. That 00:15:08.429 --> 00:15:10.950 carbon question has been on the top of my mind 00:15:10.950 --> 00:15:12.309 for seven years, and people have brought it up 00:15:12.309 --> 00:15:13.850 like, oh, we should do this, we should do this, 00:15:13.870 --> 00:15:16.490 especially with respect to our paired grazing. 00:15:16.710 --> 00:15:18.850 Getting above the soil, what are some climate 00:15:18.850 --> 00:15:22.649 elements that you're measuring? Sure. All right. 00:15:22.870 --> 00:15:26.889 So weather stations. There's not exactly one 00:15:26.889 --> 00:15:28.789 definition, like what all goes into a weather 00:15:28.789 --> 00:15:31.190 station, because there's... all kinds of different 00:15:31.190 --> 00:15:33.190 sensors that you could add on there you know 00:15:33.190 --> 00:15:34.830 the standard stuff like temperature relative 00:15:34.830 --> 00:15:37.730 humidity wind speed precipitation like those 00:15:37.730 --> 00:15:39.309 are always top of mind and everyone can kind 00:15:39.309 --> 00:15:41.590 of figure out what those are but things like 00:15:41.590 --> 00:15:44.110 barometric pressure or incoming radiation and 00:15:44.110 --> 00:15:47.629 partitioning that radiation into into different 00:15:47.629 --> 00:15:49.509 spectrums like the photosynthetically active 00:15:49.509 --> 00:15:55.279 your par radiometer So, you know, what really 00:15:55.279 --> 00:15:58.159 defines a weather station? What defines our weather 00:15:58.159 --> 00:15:59.820 station? Our weather station? So I like to tell 00:15:59.820 --> 00:16:02.000 people we have five full weather stations out 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:03.840 there. And they're your classic weather station. 00:16:03.899 --> 00:16:06.179 They're out in the open, so they're not obstructed 00:16:06.179 --> 00:16:10.120 by tree canopy, which is important. So things 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:13.139 like... wind speed and direction and precipitation 00:16:13.139 --> 00:16:16.759 you can't have a tree over top you because it's 00:16:16.759 --> 00:16:17.879 going to obstruct that and you're going to get 00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:19.620 these weird turbulent values that aren't really 00:16:19.620 --> 00:16:22.679 showing the dominant wind patterns or the true 00:16:22.679 --> 00:16:25.500 rainfall amounts so we have five of those and 00:16:25.500 --> 00:16:28.080 they're stratified across the preserve and sort 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:31.059 of in these different regions but But what they 00:16:31.059 --> 00:16:33.019 do is they get at different topographies, different 00:16:33.019 --> 00:16:36.559 aspect and different elevations, which is nice 00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:39.639 because we've seen through all those rain gauges 00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:42.679 in those five different locations, we have vastly 00:16:42.679 --> 00:16:44.700 different amounts of rainfall even over short 00:16:44.700 --> 00:16:46.720 spatial distances. Given the topography here, 00:16:46.860 --> 00:16:48.820 you know, the top of the preserve is kind of 00:16:48.820 --> 00:16:50.419 the mountaintop. So we have this rain shadow 00:16:50.419 --> 00:16:53.299 effect where on the leading edge of the preserve, 00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:56.440 you may get as much as... 30 % more rainfall 00:16:56.440 --> 00:16:58.100 than you do right over here at the Dwight Center 00:16:58.100 --> 00:17:00.100 behind the mountain. We've cited a lot of those 00:17:00.100 --> 00:17:02.820 measurements to represent, first, certainly at 00:17:02.820 --> 00:17:05.259 the watershed scale, you know, we want to represent 00:17:05.259 --> 00:17:06.960 the whole watershed, and a lot of times watersheds 00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:09.420 are split between aspects because they have hydrology, 00:17:09.420 --> 00:17:10.880 a creek running right down the middle, so this 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:13.599 canyon that might be north and south facing. 00:17:15.230 --> 00:17:17.690 So we try to represent the landscape with our 00:17:17.690 --> 00:17:20.009 weather stations. So we have five of those. And 00:17:20.009 --> 00:17:22.450 then we have what I call these micro MET, MET 00:17:22.450 --> 00:17:25.470 short for meteorology or weather station. Sounds 00:17:25.470 --> 00:17:29.210 fancier. We have 15 of those deployed in these 00:17:29.210 --> 00:17:32.289 long -term vegetation plots. Now they're vegetation 00:17:32.289 --> 00:17:34.950 plots. So they're under canopy. So it doesn't 00:17:34.950 --> 00:17:36.930 really make sense to do things like precipitation, 00:17:36.990 --> 00:17:39.210 although through fall is important. It's just 00:17:39.210 --> 00:17:43.190 really difficult to measure. Wind speed and direction 00:17:43.190 --> 00:17:45.250 is not there, and solar radiation, which once 00:17:45.250 --> 00:17:46.970 again, you could make an argument like, well, 00:17:47.089 --> 00:17:49.009 it is kind of important for the herbaceous understory, 00:17:49.029 --> 00:17:50.829 how much sun makes it through the canopy. We 00:17:50.829 --> 00:17:52.549 don't do that, but there's an opportunity there. 00:17:53.509 --> 00:17:57.170 So we do measure temperature, relative humidity, 00:17:57.690 --> 00:18:00.410 leaf wetness, an indicator perhaps of fog or 00:18:00.410 --> 00:18:03.470 dew generation. And at all those locations, we 00:18:03.470 --> 00:18:05.569 also measure soil moisture. And this time, that 00:18:05.569 --> 00:18:07.289 soil moisture is right there in the root zone 00:18:07.289 --> 00:18:11.329 of the forest. Yeah, pretty critical piece to 00:18:11.329 --> 00:18:13.549 our network of soil moisture sensors out there. 00:18:13.950 --> 00:18:15.769 Excellent. So you got those weather stations, 00:18:15.869 --> 00:18:18.630 big and small. Can you tell me about the flux 00:18:18.630 --> 00:18:20.869 towers? Yes. All right. Yeah, I knew you were 00:18:20.869 --> 00:18:24.569 going to go there. Those, in the simplest of 00:18:24.569 --> 00:18:26.750 terms, I tell people, especially if it comes 00:18:26.750 --> 00:18:28.549 to permitting them, because it's a tower, right? 00:18:28.690 --> 00:18:31.130 I tell them like, no, it's just a tall weather 00:18:31.130 --> 00:18:34.349 station. Play it down a little bit. And when 00:18:34.349 --> 00:18:37.250 I say tall, as you know, they're 75 feet tall, 00:18:37.329 --> 00:18:41.940 which is way up there. But a lot of it. is similar 00:18:41.940 --> 00:18:44.480 stuff temperature relative humidity wind speed 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:46.759 and direction we also measure solar radiation 00:18:46.759 --> 00:18:50.299 there we use a net radiometer so that's your 00:18:50.299 --> 00:18:52.220 different components your incoming short wave 00:18:52.220 --> 00:18:54.200 your incoming long wave and your outgoing short 00:18:54.200 --> 00:18:56.460 wave and long wave and so you get a balance of 00:18:56.460 --> 00:18:58.220 like where's the energy going into the system 00:18:58.220 --> 00:19:00.859 or out of the system but the flux part all right 00:19:00.859 --> 00:19:03.160 and this is this is what really sets these apart 00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:04.779 and makes them more than that weather station 00:19:04.779 --> 00:19:08.359 for the permitting office um there's two sensors 00:19:08.359 --> 00:19:12.299 up there paired together that give the flux tower 00:19:12.299 --> 00:19:14.200 its name. They're measuring the flux. In this 00:19:14.200 --> 00:19:16.740 case, it's water vapor and CO2. So there's an 00:19:16.740 --> 00:19:19.480 infrared gas analyzer that shoots an infrared 00:19:19.480 --> 00:19:22.819 laser between two mirrors, and it measures the 00:19:22.819 --> 00:19:25.460 density or concentration they get at both of 00:19:25.460 --> 00:19:28.279 them of water vapor and CO2 in the air. If you 00:19:28.279 --> 00:19:30.759 pair that with a three -dimensional anemometer, 00:19:30.859 --> 00:19:32.980 so this device measures wind speed and direction, 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:37.339 so every velocity possible. So you pair the concentration 00:19:37.339 --> 00:19:41.440 of gas. with the velocity the air is moving and 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:46.000 you do that 60 times a second 60 hertz um you 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:48.579 can then calculate how much water in this case 00:19:48.579 --> 00:19:51.000 for this pair study we're looking at water vapor 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:54.539 as a product of evapotranspiration so we can 00:19:54.539 --> 00:19:55.980 talk more about that but we're looking at how 00:19:55.980 --> 00:19:59.440 much water is exiting the system or coming out 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:01.900 of the system and that's a critical part of the 00:20:01.900 --> 00:20:06.339 water balance so on pause so let me explain this 00:20:06.339 --> 00:20:10.200 one evapotranspiration essentially the uptake 00:20:10.200 --> 00:20:14.640 of water by trees and plants, the forest, they're 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:16.220 using water. So they're an important part of 00:20:16.220 --> 00:20:18.700 the water balance. Byproduct of evapotranspiration, 00:20:18.740 --> 00:20:21.240 when plants open their stomata to take in CO2, 00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:24.500 they release H2O, water vapor, into the atmosphere. 00:20:24.579 --> 00:20:26.680 And that's directly correlated to their water 00:20:26.680 --> 00:20:30.400 use. And so that water vapor moving through... 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:33.200 These turbulent eddies, eddy covariance flux 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:35.799 tower, passes our sensor and we measure it. And 00:20:35.799 --> 00:20:38.339 so that's how it gives us an idea of this biological 00:20:38.339 --> 00:20:41.420 component of the water balance. Hopefully that 00:20:41.420 --> 00:20:44.160 sticks. It's even... No, it's incredible. I'll 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:45.579 probably sit with it for a little while. I love 00:20:45.579 --> 00:20:47.019 it. No, no, but that's a beautiful description. 00:20:47.099 --> 00:20:51.579 Thank you. Wow. Okay. Thank you for giving us 00:20:51.579 --> 00:20:54.079 a little bit of a tour through your gadgetry. 00:20:54.140 --> 00:20:55.980 I know that we, I'm sure we didn't catch everything, 00:20:56.119 --> 00:20:58.950 but that's a pretty good representation. How 00:20:58.950 --> 00:21:01.190 do you think that having this data is going to 00:21:01.190 --> 00:21:03.289 impact the kind of work we do in the long term? 00:21:03.690 --> 00:21:06.269 All right. So it's my dream, and we talk about 00:21:06.269 --> 00:21:09.329 this, specific to how it impacts our work. So 00:21:09.329 --> 00:21:13.210 back to that adaptive management plan. Those 00:21:13.210 --> 00:21:15.750 stream gauges and the flux towers and a lot of 00:21:15.750 --> 00:21:18.049 those soil sensors are part of this paired watershed 00:21:18.049 --> 00:21:21.269 study. One of the watersheds we treated that 00:21:21.269 --> 00:21:24.009 was a lot of thinning work and then followed 00:21:24.009 --> 00:21:26.029 up with prescribed fire like a broadcast burn 00:21:26.029 --> 00:21:28.289 to clean it all up and The other watershed was 00:21:28.289 --> 00:21:31.029 a control which is relative like it has a fire 00:21:31.029 --> 00:21:33.230 history. It's seen raising But for the term of 00:21:33.230 --> 00:21:35.150 this five -year project, we didn't touch it. 00:21:35.230 --> 00:21:37.970 We just left it alone. So it's our control finger 00:21:37.970 --> 00:21:40.930 quotes Like I said trying to put the numbers 00:21:40.930 --> 00:21:44.190 to the management The hypothesis is here that 00:21:44.190 --> 00:21:46.369 if you get in there and you thin out a bunch 00:21:46.369 --> 00:21:48.710 of these trees in this over -encroached forest 00:21:48.710 --> 00:21:51.069 full of more dug fir than you would have had 00:21:51.069 --> 00:21:52.869 historically because we've suppressed fire for 00:21:52.869 --> 00:21:56.769 hundreds of years, right? Those trees all represent 00:21:56.769 --> 00:21:59.329 straws in the bucket. They're utilizing more 00:21:59.329 --> 00:22:01.470 water within the water balance. Our input is 00:22:01.470 --> 00:22:03.210 precipitation. It's fixed. Whatever rainfall 00:22:03.210 --> 00:22:05.930 we got into the system, that's our input. And 00:22:05.930 --> 00:22:08.289 then from there, it gets partitioned into stream 00:22:08.289 --> 00:22:11.900 flow, soil moisture storage. or deep recharge 00:22:11.900 --> 00:22:14.400 if it gets below the root zone and certainly 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:18.299 forest water use evapotranspiration and so by 00:22:18.299 --> 00:22:22.180 removing some of those trees you reduce evapotranspiration 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:24.200 and you shift the water balance away from forest 00:22:24.200 --> 00:22:28.700 use and back into stream flow and that's you 00:22:28.700 --> 00:22:30.720 know it's very important for our riparian areas 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:32.640 which are these like critical refuges of like 00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:36.279 cool moist things when we get into you know late 00:22:36.279 --> 00:22:40.259 summer when it's hot and dry and so We know exactly 00:22:40.259 --> 00:22:43.099 how many trees, what biomass we took out, what 00:22:43.099 --> 00:22:45.440 prescriptions we used in implementing that stewardship. 00:22:46.019 --> 00:22:48.299 And the hope and the idea is that we can actually 00:22:48.299 --> 00:22:51.019 see what that means in the numbers. Did we increase 00:22:51.019 --> 00:22:54.759 flow this year by X thousands of gallons or acre 00:22:54.759 --> 00:22:58.220 feet, whatever unit you want. And so because 00:22:58.220 --> 00:22:59.779 we have these things set up for the long term, 00:22:59.859 --> 00:23:03.480 you can see that impact year one. And then you 00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:05.519 can see year two and three and four. And as the 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:07.619 forestry grows in theory, all of a sudden you 00:23:07.619 --> 00:23:10.220 start to lose those. We'll call them benefits, 00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:13.640 but it's all a natural cycle. You see the water 00:23:13.640 --> 00:23:15.619 balance start to shift back towards the forest 00:23:15.619 --> 00:23:18.079 as it regrows, and you see depleted stream flows. 00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:22.099 And so perhaps in five, six, seven years, you 00:23:22.099 --> 00:23:24.059 can look and be like, hey, our stream flows are 00:23:24.059 --> 00:23:26.480 right back to those low levels, and our evapotranspiration 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:29.940 is way up high again. It's time to implement 00:23:29.940 --> 00:23:32.400 this management again. So you have really this 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:36.140 data -informed management for hydrologic benefit. 00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:39.819 From another lens here, another angle, we talked 00:23:39.819 --> 00:23:42.220 about benefits to the riparian area and stream 00:23:42.220 --> 00:23:45.799 flow. But in all that thinning work, by reducing 00:23:45.799 --> 00:23:47.940 the number of essentially trees in the forest 00:23:47.940 --> 00:23:50.359 and the water demand of the forest, now there's 00:23:50.359 --> 00:23:52.059 more water for less trees. So those trees are 00:23:52.059 --> 00:23:53.920 not competing with each other as heavily. They're 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:56.680 not stressed. They're not as susceptible to fire 00:23:56.680 --> 00:24:02.039 or pathogen like a beetle infestation. And so 00:24:02.039 --> 00:24:04.079 you... It's one of those things where like the 00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:06.339 benefit is in having mitigated the chance of 00:24:06.339 --> 00:24:08.839 wildfires. So you don't, it's like, we don't 00:24:08.839 --> 00:24:10.880 actually see it because it didn't happen, which 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:13.759 is a good thing. Or if fire does come through, 00:24:13.799 --> 00:24:16.039 which is totally fine, it doesn't, you know, 00:24:16.039 --> 00:24:18.539 explode into this huge bonfire of an overstocked 00:24:18.539 --> 00:24:20.259 forest. It might stay on the ground level and 00:24:20.259 --> 00:24:22.400 you get this healthy, low intensity burn that 00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:24.920 just sort of cleans things up. And here's an 00:24:24.920 --> 00:24:26.519 interesting question too. And I'm not sure I 00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:28.019 know the answer, but there's a thought too that. 00:24:28.500 --> 00:24:30.440 fewer and doesn't mean a few there's still lots 00:24:30.440 --> 00:24:34.880 of trees but fewer larger trees um are more efficient 00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:36.900 at carbon storage than having a whole bunch of 00:24:36.900 --> 00:24:38.940 little ones okay i don't know that for sure but 00:24:38.940 --> 00:24:40.599 i've heard that thrown out there and certainly 00:24:40.599 --> 00:24:42.420 that's what pepperwood's management would sort 00:24:42.420 --> 00:24:44.779 of like lead to is hey we're taking out a lot 00:24:44.779 --> 00:24:46.519 of these small encroached furs we're lifting 00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:49.259 up ladder fuels and trying to just reduce the 00:24:49.259 --> 00:24:53.759 density of stems within these units. So all of 00:24:53.759 --> 00:24:57.740 your data collection together is described as 00:24:57.740 --> 00:25:01.079 a Sentinel site. Is that correct? Your position 00:25:01.079 --> 00:25:03.740 is the Sentinel site manager. So then all the 00:25:03.740 --> 00:25:06.059 accumulation of all the data streams that you 00:25:06.059 --> 00:25:09.599 are managing and producing and analyzing is what 00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:12.180 we call a Sentinel site. Is that accurate? It's 00:25:12.180 --> 00:25:14.119 what we call a Sentinel site. And for anyone 00:25:14.119 --> 00:25:16.079 listening, I'm not stepping on any toes here. 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:19.160 It's all an evolving field and definition, but 00:25:20.009 --> 00:25:23.549 Pepper would sort of help define a sentinel site 00:25:23.549 --> 00:25:25.730 and early on said, hey, we're going to set ourselves 00:25:25.730 --> 00:25:29.089 up for long -term monitoring to watch impacts 00:25:29.089 --> 00:25:34.089 from a warming climate or changing hydrologic 00:25:34.089 --> 00:25:37.089 inputs, more severe storms, and certainly fire 00:25:37.089 --> 00:25:41.410 that follows those changes. I kind of love it 00:25:41.410 --> 00:25:44.730 as a term because it makes you picture, you know, 00:25:44.730 --> 00:25:47.829 a sentinel is like a guard or somebody who's 00:25:47.829 --> 00:25:50.549 out there on a watchtower. So we're kind of setting 00:25:50.549 --> 00:25:53.809 ourselves up as a watchtower by watching all 00:25:53.809 --> 00:25:56.730 of these different elements of the landscape. 00:25:56.829 --> 00:26:00.250 We're watching what's going on even as we are 00:26:00.250 --> 00:26:03.210 impacting it and as impacts that we can't control 00:26:03.210 --> 00:26:05.809 are happening to it. So we're one sentinel and 00:26:05.809 --> 00:26:07.819 we can... We can collect what we want to collect. 00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:09.940 But I think there is some partnership coming 00:26:09.940 --> 00:26:12.859 together where we are one of many Sentinels. 00:26:12.900 --> 00:26:16.799 Is that accurate? Yes. So CDFW, California Department 00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:19.579 of Fish and Wildlife, has been actively working 00:26:19.579 --> 00:26:21.759 on defining what is a Sentinel site. Because 00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:24.839 although I've rambled on here for 30 minutes 00:26:24.839 --> 00:26:26.819 or whatever about everything we're doing at Pepperwood, 00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:29.519 we are just a drop in the bucket. It's 3 ,200 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:31.720 acres, but even if you zoom out to the county 00:26:31.720 --> 00:26:33.359 level, that's a drop in the bucket. And if you 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:34.960 zoom out to the state, you don't even see it. 00:26:35.720 --> 00:26:38.559 There's a need, and CDFW recognizes this, to 00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:41.200 like, hey, we need to expand these monitoring 00:26:41.200 --> 00:26:44.700 efforts across the state because it's so dynamic. 00:26:44.859 --> 00:26:47.220 You have, you know, the crest of the Sierras 00:26:47.220 --> 00:26:49.079 all the way to the ocean, Northern California, 00:26:49.180 --> 00:26:51.660 Southern California, different species and ecosystems 00:26:51.660 --> 00:26:55.039 and challenges and opportunities all over the 00:26:55.039 --> 00:26:58.859 state. And so you really want to understand what 00:26:58.859 --> 00:27:01.160 all those different areas look like, how they're 00:27:01.160 --> 00:27:05.920 responding to climate change. and what species 00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:08.039 are there and what opportunities are there. And 00:27:08.039 --> 00:27:11.819 so CEFW has tried to come up with a standard 00:27:11.819 --> 00:27:13.339 definition, because it's important if you have 00:27:13.339 --> 00:27:15.039 all these different areas and people doing this, 00:27:15.099 --> 00:27:17.900 if they're doing things differently, it makes 00:27:17.900 --> 00:27:21.160 a comparison or a regional analysis really difficult. 00:27:21.619 --> 00:27:25.299 And so, you know, it's like from the ground up, 00:27:25.339 --> 00:27:27.829 like, okay. What metrics do we actually collect? 00:27:28.190 --> 00:27:30.630 At what time interval? With what instruments? 00:27:30.910 --> 00:27:33.690 There is so much gained in standardizing those 00:27:33.690 --> 00:27:37.250 protocols. And one of the challenges I, and I 00:27:37.250 --> 00:27:40.210 think they would readily, I don't know if admits 00:27:40.210 --> 00:27:41.769 the right word, but they recognize it as well. 00:27:41.849 --> 00:27:44.609 One of the challenges here is like, we need participation. 00:27:45.509 --> 00:27:48.849 But so how do we make protocols and standards? 00:27:49.879 --> 00:27:52.019 accessible enough that we don't create a barrier 00:27:52.019 --> 00:27:53.819 to entry so we get the right amount of participation. 00:27:54.140 --> 00:27:56.859 But we don't want to lower them so much or, you 00:27:56.859 --> 00:27:59.559 know, put them so low that we're not getting 00:27:59.559 --> 00:28:02.339 what we need and the quality and the data we 00:28:02.339 --> 00:28:05.619 need. And so I recognized that early on. And 00:28:05.619 --> 00:28:08.859 they did as well. And Laura Ward, our conservation 00:28:08.859 --> 00:28:13.240 science director now, is part of the board with 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:15.900 CDFW and Gary Bucciarelli, who's the chair of 00:28:15.900 --> 00:28:17.700 the Sentinel Site for Nature Network, working 00:28:17.700 --> 00:28:20.650 with CDFW. Anyway, so she's tapped in pretty 00:28:20.650 --> 00:28:22.970 well and has been able to bring a lot of Pepperwood's 00:28:22.970 --> 00:28:25.630 thoughts and ideas into that process, which has 00:28:25.630 --> 00:28:29.190 been fantastic. So as one of the original Sentinel 00:28:29.190 --> 00:28:31.809 sites, how we define ourselves, we now get to 00:28:31.809 --> 00:28:36.509 play a pretty important role in helping put together 00:28:36.509 --> 00:28:39.740 this new definition. um the sentinel sites for 00:28:39.740 --> 00:28:41.400 nature all right well you're very generous in 00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:44.140 putting you put very strong quotation marks uh 00:28:44.140 --> 00:28:47.259 with your body around uh the original sentinels 00:28:47.259 --> 00:28:49.880 but as somebody who's been at this for a while 00:28:49.880 --> 00:28:53.099 um you have tried a few things and you figured 00:28:53.099 --> 00:28:55.019 out some things that work and don't work so is 00:28:55.019 --> 00:28:57.720 that something that we're hopefully you know 00:28:57.720 --> 00:29:00.150 through laura through collaboration with other 00:29:00.150 --> 00:29:02.869 people are you able to sort of offer that as 00:29:02.869 --> 00:29:05.430 you know offer what you've learned to other places 00:29:05.430 --> 00:29:07.269 that are setting up these sentinel sites yes 00:29:07.269 --> 00:29:09.730 certainly and um the sentinel site for nature 00:29:09.730 --> 00:29:12.250 network is leveraging the fact that we're able 00:29:12.250 --> 00:29:13.910 to do things here at pepper when we have been 00:29:13.910 --> 00:29:15.569 doing things we've learned a lot of these lessons 00:29:15.569 --> 00:29:21.190 um and a lot of their interest is in the biodiversity 00:29:21.190 --> 00:29:24.440 so They have a lot of things like cameras and 00:29:24.440 --> 00:29:26.220 drift fences, and I'll talk about that a bit 00:29:26.220 --> 00:29:28.599 more. But they kind of want to know what's there, 00:29:28.660 --> 00:29:30.500 which is a fine question to start. It's a good 00:29:30.500 --> 00:29:32.579 place. You got to know what's there. And I do 00:29:32.579 --> 00:29:34.920 know that's part of Pepperwood. You know, Michael 00:29:34.920 --> 00:29:37.480 Gloagley back in his previous episode mentioned 00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:39.799 the fact that Pepperwood as a piece of land is 00:29:39.799 --> 00:29:42.240 really well studied in terms of like which plants 00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:44.859 and animals are here. Right. What is our biodiversity? 00:29:45.440 --> 00:29:48.039 Would you say that the other sites are also interested 00:29:48.039 --> 00:29:51.519 in some of the abiotic data that you are that 00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:54.599 you've been shepherding for a while? Yes, I think 00:29:54.599 --> 00:29:56.480 everyone recognizes it's critically important. 00:29:57.319 --> 00:30:01.579 But, you know, things like sensors and weather 00:30:01.579 --> 00:30:03.559 stations and data loggers come with a bigger 00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:07.839 price tag and a certain knowledge set to like 00:30:07.839 --> 00:30:10.720 pull that off and then telemeter it as in get 00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:14.150 it back in real time. And also, if you see it 00:30:14.150 --> 00:30:16.029 coming back in real time, that takes care of 00:30:16.029 --> 00:30:17.630 most of the maintenance. It's like, oh, it's 00:30:17.630 --> 00:30:19.470 working. I don't have to go out there as opposed 00:30:19.470 --> 00:30:21.190 to like, you don't know. And then you go out 00:30:21.190 --> 00:30:22.849 there a month later and like, oh, it's not working. 00:30:23.109 --> 00:30:25.069 That's bad. Well, something you've already described 00:30:25.069 --> 00:30:27.289 is the fact that like as these data streams come 00:30:27.289 --> 00:30:30.769 in, you can't just. trust them entirely like 00:30:30.769 --> 00:30:32.910 because of the maintenance that's required so 00:30:32.910 --> 00:30:35.289 you have to be a little bit constantly skeptical 00:30:35.289 --> 00:30:37.910 of your data as it comes in and make sure that 00:30:37.910 --> 00:30:40.549 the sensors are working properly and that takes 00:30:40.549 --> 00:30:42.490 that takes you know not to embarrass you but 00:30:42.490 --> 00:30:45.690 that takes having a ryan farrell on staff paying 00:30:45.690 --> 00:30:48.269 attention to these things and having the expertise 00:30:48.269 --> 00:30:51.609 to be able to flag these things when they come 00:30:51.609 --> 00:30:54.450 in so that that is a tough ask you know manpower 00:30:54.450 --> 00:30:58.470 is almost always limiting factor yeah right for 00:30:58.470 --> 00:31:01.849 for any organization right you need to have not 00:31:01.849 --> 00:31:04.250 only a person but a person with expertise yeah 00:31:04.250 --> 00:31:08.190 I do my best trying of course very generous so 00:31:08.190 --> 00:31:13.099 yes CDFW the Sentinel site for nature Group and 00:31:13.099 --> 00:31:15.619 protocol would like to implement some of these 00:31:15.619 --> 00:31:19.720 abiotic things They're just at the moment They're 00:31:19.720 --> 00:31:22.599 they're just starting real baseline base level 00:31:22.599 --> 00:31:24.059 so they can get a lot of people involved But 00:31:24.059 --> 00:31:26.680 they have meetings at least once a month if not 00:31:26.680 --> 00:31:28.359 every other week to discuss. Hey, what could 00:31:28.359 --> 00:31:30.599 we add here? And then they bring in experts to 00:31:30.599 --> 00:31:33.119 talk about it I've presented to them before and 00:31:33.119 --> 00:31:36.569 other people have presented on on certain dna 00:31:36.569 --> 00:31:38.930 analysis all about like hey discovering what's 00:31:38.930 --> 00:31:43.029 here um but at the moment you know they their 00:31:43.029 --> 00:31:46.569 protocol is pretty simple it's a traditional 00:31:46.569 --> 00:31:51.250 game camera um you know for your medium size 00:31:51.250 --> 00:31:54.789 to larger mammals it's a drift fence with a downward 00:31:54.789 --> 00:31:57.849 facing camera so you know think mice wood rats 00:31:57.849 --> 00:31:59.750 a lot of reptiles snakes and lizards things like 00:31:59.750 --> 00:32:01.710 that i've even seen a few skunks poke their heads 00:32:01.710 --> 00:32:05.009 in there As these critters encounter this drift 00:32:05.009 --> 00:32:06.930 fence, they walk along this little plastic fence 00:32:06.930 --> 00:32:09.710 line and they go through this, call it a camera 00:32:09.710 --> 00:32:11.589 trap, but it doesn't trap them. Well, like a 00:32:11.589 --> 00:32:14.230 photo booth. Yeah, a photo booth, exactly. They 00:32:14.230 --> 00:32:16.130 walk through and then this camera within the 00:32:16.130 --> 00:32:18.369 box, downward facing, takes their picture. And 00:32:18.369 --> 00:32:20.509 so you get that sort of size class of critter. 00:32:21.670 --> 00:32:24.130 And then acoustic monitoring. There's a critical 00:32:24.130 --> 00:32:27.349 one because, you know, there's so many birds 00:32:27.349 --> 00:32:29.509 and bats flying around that you, well, you hardly 00:32:29.509 --> 00:32:30.809 ever see the bats because you're not out here 00:32:30.809 --> 00:32:33.650 in the dark. And the birds, you know, it can 00:32:33.650 --> 00:32:35.930 be tucked away and so small, but you do a better 00:32:35.930 --> 00:32:38.470 job of identifying them through listening for 00:32:38.470 --> 00:32:41.750 their different calls. And so, uh, in the springtime 00:32:41.750 --> 00:32:45.269 during like peak breeding bird time, um, when 00:32:45.269 --> 00:32:48.470 they're really vocal, um, that protocol has you 00:32:48.470 --> 00:32:50.849 put out these audio recorders, their audio moths, 00:32:50.869 --> 00:32:54.809 that's the brand, um, and listen for seven consecutive 00:32:54.809 --> 00:32:57.710 days, a time period of each morning. Um, and 00:32:57.710 --> 00:33:01.279 then The bottleneck there is now you need experts 00:33:01.279 --> 00:33:04.099 or AI to listen to those bird calls. And it's 00:33:04.099 --> 00:33:05.859 a whole chorus, right? There's so many birds 00:33:05.859 --> 00:33:07.400 layered on top of each other, a little white 00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:10.779 noise, some other thing running by. And so you 00:33:10.779 --> 00:33:13.599 have to have the expertise or the right AI algorithms. 00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:17.420 I'm not exactly sure to process all that. So 00:33:17.420 --> 00:33:20.079 anyways, there's a lot of work on the back end 00:33:20.079 --> 00:33:22.859 of the data collection and even identifying images. 00:33:23.900 --> 00:33:25.960 You know, Pepperwood might generate a million 00:33:25.960 --> 00:33:28.839 images a year with our cameras. And we have a 00:33:28.839 --> 00:33:31.059 small army of interns and dedicated staff to 00:33:31.059 --> 00:33:34.480 like deal with that. And so trying to figure 00:33:34.480 --> 00:33:36.940 out how do we deal with this if we do this all 00:33:36.940 --> 00:33:38.900 over the state, even if just for a subset of 00:33:38.900 --> 00:33:40.940 10 weeks. And once again, you need expertise 00:33:40.940 --> 00:33:43.220 to like, what critter is that? Or I see the back 00:33:43.220 --> 00:33:47.220 of this thing. What is that? So a lot of work 00:33:47.220 --> 00:33:49.579 within the Sentinel Site Network is determining. 00:33:50.879 --> 00:33:53.440 Or is working on the data processing pipeline 00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:57.240 and then where you put that data. So when it 00:33:57.240 --> 00:33:59.160 comes to like sort of the current definition 00:33:59.160 --> 00:34:01.119 of sentinel sites and the way that the network 00:34:01.119 --> 00:34:04.019 is working, some of that abiotic data is still 00:34:04.019 --> 00:34:06.720 in development, it sounds like. Yes. The first 00:34:06.720 --> 00:34:08.179 question, and it's a fine question, is like, 00:34:08.219 --> 00:34:09.840 what do we have here? What's out here as far 00:34:09.840 --> 00:34:14.420 as biodiversity in our fauna, our animals? But 00:34:14.420 --> 00:34:17.599 I always go, wait a sec. If after a year or a 00:34:17.599 --> 00:34:19.900 couple years you go, hey, we have less bears 00:34:19.900 --> 00:34:24.780 this year. Why? And you don't have the pieces 00:34:24.780 --> 00:34:26.699 in place like, did you measure anything about 00:34:26.699 --> 00:34:29.340 the vegetation? Did you measure anything about 00:34:29.340 --> 00:34:33.619 climatic conditions, your weather? What changed 00:34:33.619 --> 00:34:37.500 that is possibly influencing the behavior of 00:34:37.500 --> 00:34:40.519 our animals? And CDFW knows it's a glaring gap. 00:34:40.619 --> 00:34:42.940 They're like, oh, we need to address this because, 00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:45.940 you know, it just would. Sort of kills me. Like 00:34:45.940 --> 00:34:47.739 you would see the like, hey, where'd all our 00:34:47.739 --> 00:34:50.840 bears go? And have no ability to even start to 00:34:50.840 --> 00:34:53.239 look at that and like answer. You might have 00:34:53.239 --> 00:34:55.119 anecdotes of like, oh, it felt warmer this year. 00:34:55.179 --> 00:34:57.980 But until you really have the data there, it's 00:34:57.980 --> 00:35:00.519 hard to say for certain. And so they're working 00:35:00.519 --> 00:35:03.000 on that. Like they initially they're like, oh, 00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:04.099 yeah, we're all going to have weather stations. 00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:07.340 Well, maybe not in this first round. So they 00:35:07.340 --> 00:35:09.460 recognize it. They're working on it. And they're 00:35:09.460 --> 00:35:11.199 looking to Pepperwood to help inform that because 00:35:11.199 --> 00:35:13.599 for better or worse, we tend to do everything 00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:17.099 out here. You know, we have our vegetation stuff 00:35:17.099 --> 00:35:20.179 that Michelle heads and we have the A -bike stuff, 00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:22.820 the weather station stuff that I head. And we 00:35:22.820 --> 00:35:26.579 actually had, they hired three folks recently 00:35:26.579 --> 00:35:28.599 out of college, some of them graduate degrees, 00:35:28.840 --> 00:35:32.880 postdoc type of folks, to go all over the state 00:35:32.880 --> 00:35:34.679 in the next couple of years and put like 30, 00:35:34.840 --> 00:35:37.440 set up 30 of these Sentinel site for nature sites. 00:35:38.019 --> 00:35:40.780 And they came to Pepperwood last Friday to see 00:35:40.780 --> 00:35:43.159 what our setup looks like because we've already. 00:35:43.840 --> 00:35:45.719 tweaked things just a little bit so that we align 00:35:45.719 --> 00:35:48.000 with this protocol and like yeah we want to see 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:49.820 what does it look like when you set this up for 00:35:49.820 --> 00:35:53.280 the long term and um and i always lead with like 00:35:53.280 --> 00:35:56.400 hey i've made enough mistakes that i tend to 00:35:56.400 --> 00:35:59.460 come out a little close to my little closer on 00:35:59.460 --> 00:36:01.280 my first try than others so you've learned how 00:36:01.280 --> 00:36:03.780 to dodge some pitfalls yeah yeah some of them 00:36:03.780 --> 00:36:06.320 and i used to i still find new ones but anyway 00:36:06.320 --> 00:36:08.420 so they came out and that was fantastic and i 00:36:08.420 --> 00:36:11.579 think that relationship will continue And yeah. 00:36:11.699 --> 00:36:13.579 That's really cool. Well, you say we study everything. 00:36:14.059 --> 00:36:16.380 Is there anything on your wish list of things 00:36:16.380 --> 00:36:18.599 that you wish you could add? Well, the soil carbon 00:36:18.599 --> 00:36:21.400 one would be cool. Right. Especially with respect 00:36:21.400 --> 00:36:25.079 to our grazing and our paired grassland transects. 00:36:25.559 --> 00:36:31.539 I also have this dream about experimenting the 00:36:31.539 --> 00:36:34.880 other watersheds with stream flow because our 00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:36.599 management goes around in these circles like 00:36:36.599 --> 00:36:38.500 every five years. Oh, we're going to. We're going 00:36:38.500 --> 00:36:40.280 to thin and treat the forest over here, and then 00:36:40.280 --> 00:36:41.480 we're going to move over here and here and here. 00:36:41.559 --> 00:36:43.000 So every year we're doing something. It'd be 00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:46.480 really cool. Because we have five sub -watersheds 00:36:46.480 --> 00:36:48.539 here, right? Yeah. So two of them are currently 00:36:48.539 --> 00:36:52.300 streamflow instrumented. So it'd be nice to expand 00:36:52.300 --> 00:36:55.960 that. I can see that. There's another one I can't 00:36:55.960 --> 00:36:59.619 quite remember. There's a tower that Laura has 00:36:59.619 --> 00:37:02.460 talked about. Oh, the Motus Tower? The Motus 00:37:02.460 --> 00:37:04.320 Tower. Yeah, okay, okay. That's part of the Sentinel 00:37:04.320 --> 00:37:06.539 site for nature protocol. But it's kind of like 00:37:06.539 --> 00:37:08.239 if someone else has a Motus Tower close enough 00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:10.280 in your region, you don't really need one. Anyways, 00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:12.880 they put these little, maybe they're pit tags, 00:37:12.980 --> 00:37:14.380 but anyways, they're little tags. And they put 00:37:14.380 --> 00:37:18.440 them on birds and bats and sometimes even bugs, 00:37:18.519 --> 00:37:21.219 believe it or not. And this tower is just a receiver. 00:37:21.260 --> 00:37:24.519 So if that migratory songbird flies by, it doesn't 00:37:24.519 --> 00:37:26.199 have to be a songbird, whatever, it flies by. 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:29.900 it pings the tower and says hey it's here and 00:37:29.900 --> 00:37:32.099 so you can track the migration of these species 00:37:32.099 --> 00:37:35.699 or the holdover spots or yeah any of that wow 00:37:35.699 --> 00:37:38.380 so that'd be a a different set of instrumentation 00:37:38.380 --> 00:37:40.440 that would help us with those sort of with the 00:37:40.440 --> 00:37:43.019 fauna that are moving through here yes and um 00:37:43.019 --> 00:37:45.380 we are a gap up here like they the nearest one 00:37:45.380 --> 00:37:48.090 is down in the napa sonoma marsh there above 00:37:48.090 --> 00:37:51.250 san pablo bay but this north bay region for whatever 00:37:51.250 --> 00:37:53.309 reason there's a hole right here and so we're 00:37:53.309 --> 00:37:55.650 like hey we can see clear to the horizon east 00:37:55.650 --> 00:37:58.929 west and north perhaps even south like we have 00:37:58.929 --> 00:38:00.929 worked on that for several years and now with 00:38:00.929 --> 00:38:03.510 our participation in developing this new sentinel 00:38:03.510 --> 00:38:05.789 site for nature network i think it might come 00:38:05.789 --> 00:38:07.869 true it's coming closer all right we put it in 00:38:07.869 --> 00:38:10.650 a grant so perhaps so a modus tower for pepperwood 00:38:10.650 --> 00:38:15.389 it could happen With every project, or in Ryan's 00:38:15.389 --> 00:38:18.190 case, the complex collection of many projects 00:38:18.190 --> 00:38:20.170 that makes up the Sentinel site, which is his 00:38:20.170 --> 00:38:23.150 purview, I'm always curious about what supports 00:38:23.150 --> 00:38:26.369 the work. So I asked Ryan, what makes the work 00:38:26.369 --> 00:38:29.449 he does possible? You know, as a nonprofit, we 00:38:29.449 --> 00:38:32.610 have very little overhead. So things, money goes 00:38:32.610 --> 00:38:35.670 towards action more than, you know, everything 00:38:35.670 --> 00:38:39.670 else. And we don't have a lot of red tape up 00:38:39.670 --> 00:38:42.150 here. Like I just talked with... with a university 00:38:42.150 --> 00:38:44.510 yesterday hey we want to put fire on the ground 00:38:44.510 --> 00:38:46.570 how do we do that and they're like they won't 00:38:46.570 --> 00:38:48.809 let us because all the red tape and liability 00:38:48.809 --> 00:38:51.070 and i get it we live in that world where you 00:38:51.070 --> 00:38:55.480 just sue everybody um And so the fact that we 00:38:55.480 --> 00:38:57.980 don't have that here at Pepperwood and we have 00:38:57.980 --> 00:39:00.219 all these people that are honestly so good at 00:39:00.219 --> 00:39:03.119 their jobs, like all our coworkers, Devin's a 00:39:03.119 --> 00:39:05.800 burn boss. Michael knows the landscape so well. 00:39:05.920 --> 00:39:08.139 Laura can communicate with anyone like she's 00:39:08.139 --> 00:39:09.780 known them all her life. And I go, how do you 00:39:09.780 --> 00:39:13.019 know all that? And then I pull off a few tricks 00:39:13.019 --> 00:39:14.840 every now and then and the education staff. Anyways. 00:39:15.820 --> 00:39:17.960 We're like a highly efficient team here at Pepperwood 00:39:17.960 --> 00:39:21.559 where everybody like does so much and their efforts 00:39:21.559 --> 00:39:25.119 make my efforts easier and vice versa, I like 00:39:25.119 --> 00:39:30.440 to think. So the team, the low overhead, the 00:39:30.440 --> 00:39:32.500 lack of red tape makes a lot of things possible. 00:39:32.960 --> 00:39:36.760 And, you know, and just the morale around here, 00:39:36.800 --> 00:39:39.579 like everybody's excited and genuinely interested 00:39:39.579 --> 00:39:43.929 in what we're up to. And I think that carries 00:39:43.929 --> 00:39:46.989 over into even the grant world when we're approaching 00:39:46.989 --> 00:39:50.829 possible grantors. Like, you know, we're on the 00:39:50.829 --> 00:39:54.369 map. Like, people know about Pepperwood. And 00:39:54.369 --> 00:39:56.909 this track record of doing some very cool novel 00:39:56.909 --> 00:39:59.650 things and some cool data sets that, you know, 00:39:59.650 --> 00:40:02.409 aren't happening anywhere else makes it a pretty 00:40:02.409 --> 00:40:05.269 attractive place for funders, I think. And if 00:40:05.269 --> 00:40:07.840 it's funded, then it makes the job easy. So I 00:40:07.840 --> 00:40:12.019 think that is incredibly helpful in making what 00:40:12.019 --> 00:40:14.599 we do successful is that track record in our 00:40:14.599 --> 00:40:16.739 staff. That sounds like a nice positive feedback 00:40:16.739 --> 00:40:18.880 loop that you're describing, which is that the 00:40:18.880 --> 00:40:22.619 more innovative things that we try, the more 00:40:22.619 --> 00:40:25.460 capacity we have to try new innovative things 00:40:25.460 --> 00:40:28.519 that might be beneficial. Yeah. That sounds really 00:40:28.519 --> 00:40:30.800 cool. Well, again, thank you, Ryan, for describing 00:40:30.800 --> 00:40:34.000 your work. I love hearing about it. And I know 00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:36.119 we've only tapped the surface of it. So thanks 00:40:36.119 --> 00:40:38.219 again. And yeah, have a good rest of your day. 00:40:38.360 --> 00:40:41.320 Awesome. Thanks, Jules. Thanks again to Ryan 00:40:41.320 --> 00:40:43.860 Farrell for the work he does at Pepperwood and 00:40:43.860 --> 00:40:46.539 for taking time away from that work to talk to 00:40:46.539 --> 00:40:48.900 us about it. If you'd like to hear more from 00:40:48.900 --> 00:40:51.420 Ryan, I have great news for you. He's coming 00:40:51.420 --> 00:40:54.280 back in our very next episode to discuss hunting 00:40:54.280 --> 00:40:57.440 and how it relates to conservation. So stay tuned 00:40:57.440 --> 00:41:00.400 to hear his perspectives as both a hunter and 00:41:00.400 --> 00:41:04.559 a scientist. But this episode is not done yet. 00:41:04.820 --> 00:41:08.539 It's time for the next installment of The Nature 00:41:08.539 --> 00:41:13.340 Sound Guess Who Game. We play a nature sound 00:41:13.340 --> 00:41:16.440 at the end of each episode. You have the time 00:41:16.440 --> 00:41:19.559 in between episodes to guess which animal, vegetable, 00:41:19.619 --> 00:41:23.099 or mineral made that sound. Please don't hesitate 00:41:23.099 --> 00:41:26.500 to email your guesses to podcast at pepperwoodpreserve 00:41:26.500 --> 00:41:30.239 .org or comment on the corresponding social media 00:41:30.239 --> 00:41:32.619 posts either on Facebook, where we're Pepperwood, 00:41:32.719 --> 00:41:35.460 Instagram, where we are Pepperwood Preserve CA, 00:41:35.699 --> 00:41:38.440 or on Blue Sky, where we are Pepperwood Preserve. 00:41:39.440 --> 00:41:41.980 Alright, first let's listen back to the sound 00:41:41.980 --> 00:41:51.510 from last episode. That sound was made by the 00:41:51.510 --> 00:41:57.710 California quail. That is specifically an alarm 00:41:57.710 --> 00:42:00.829 call from the California quail, California's 00:42:00.829 --> 00:42:04.409 state bird famous for its adorable black forward 00:42:04.409 --> 00:42:07.510 curving plume feather on the crown of its head, 00:42:07.610 --> 00:42:10.389 which is particularly large and pronounced on 00:42:10.389 --> 00:42:14.389 adult males. I intentionally chose a vocalization 00:42:14.389 --> 00:42:17.110 from this species that I was less familiar with. 00:42:17.389 --> 00:42:20.730 Like me, you may be more accustomed to their 00:42:20.730 --> 00:42:24.170 advertisement calls or maybe their rally or assembly 00:42:24.170 --> 00:42:27.610 calls. Let's review all of these calls with some 00:42:27.610 --> 00:42:30.510 help from the Audubon Society Field Guide to 00:42:30.510 --> 00:42:34.280 North American Birds, Western Edition. I love 00:42:34.280 --> 00:42:37.739 hearing how expert birders describe bird vocalizations 00:42:37.739 --> 00:42:40.980 using human language. The alarm call that we 00:42:40.980 --> 00:42:44.239 heard is summarized or mimicked using the word 00:42:44.239 --> 00:42:48.380 pit, pit, or wit, wit. Let's see if we can hear 00:42:48.380 --> 00:42:55.280 that if we listen back to the recording. California 00:42:55.280 --> 00:42:58.099 quail advertisement calls are described using 00:42:58.099 --> 00:43:05.389 the word ca, K -A, and sound like this. Those 00:43:05.389 --> 00:43:08.969 advertisements are extended into rally or assembly 00:43:08.969 --> 00:43:12.429 calls, which are described as either cacao cow, 00:43:12.690 --> 00:43:17.010 with the second note highest, cacao cow, or memorably 00:43:17.010 --> 00:43:20.929 as Chicago, like the city. And that is the sound 00:43:20.929 --> 00:43:22.969 that I am most familiar with from California 00:43:22.969 --> 00:43:34.190 quail. Listen in to that. All of those calls 00:43:34.190 --> 00:43:36.730 were recorded by Jeffrey A. Keller and submitted 00:43:36.730 --> 00:43:39.389 to the Cornell Lab Macaulay Library, who were 00:43:39.389 --> 00:43:42.389 generous enough to share them with us. There's 00:43:42.389 --> 00:43:44.610 another sound that I am accustomed to hearing 00:43:44.610 --> 00:43:47.309 from California quail that is not a vocalization, 00:43:47.469 --> 00:43:50.170 but which gives me a near heart attack many a 00:43:50.170 --> 00:43:52.329 time in the shrub habitats of Pepperwood and 00:43:52.329 --> 00:43:55.019 other Sonoma County open spaces. Have you had 00:43:55.019 --> 00:43:57.840 this experience as well? Often when I am approaching 00:43:57.840 --> 00:44:00.860 a covey or a bevy of quail inhabiting a bush 00:44:00.860 --> 00:44:04.619 or a small tree, probably unknowingly, they explode 00:44:04.619 --> 00:44:07.280 out of hiding into the air and the collective 00:44:07.280 --> 00:44:10.300 sound of their wings beating the air is so loud. 00:44:10.599 --> 00:44:13.820 It's like a helicopter propeller. Honestly, if 00:44:13.820 --> 00:44:16.139 I were a predator on the lookout for a quail 00:44:16.139 --> 00:44:19.280 dinner, the start that that noise gives me would 00:44:19.280 --> 00:44:22.039 be more than enough to slow me down and give 00:44:22.039 --> 00:44:24.619 those quail a moment to get away. So very adaptive 00:44:24.619 --> 00:44:27.659 trait. Thanks again to Cornell Lab Macaulay Library 00:44:27.659 --> 00:44:30.019 for granting us permission to use some of their 00:44:30.019 --> 00:44:33.559 incredible bird call recordings, including, spoiler 00:44:33.559 --> 00:44:36.800 alert, the next Nature Sound Guess Who game prompt 00:44:36.800 --> 00:44:39.320 that you will have until next episode to guess. 00:44:39.820 --> 00:44:42.530 Listen closely. If you recognize this, avian 00:44:42.530 --> 00:44:44.849 neighbor, send us your guess either at podcast 00:44:44.849 --> 00:44:47.710 at pepperwoodpreserve .org or comment on one 00:44:47.710 --> 00:44:50.349 of our social media accounts. You can become 00:44:50.349 --> 00:44:53.190 podcast famous because if you send in the correct 00:44:53.190 --> 00:44:55.730 guess, I will shout you out on our next episode. 00:44:56.409 --> 00:45:00.570 Here comes the clip to guess at in three, two, 00:45:00.929 --> 00:45:07.610 one. Here's the second chance to listen in three, 00:45:07.690 --> 00:45:15.530 two, one. So which bird is that? Submit your 00:45:15.530 --> 00:45:17.969 answers, and maybe you'll hear your name on our 00:45:17.969 --> 00:45:21.409 next episode. Thanks as always to Stephanie Antinoro, 00:45:21.610 --> 00:45:23.650 Pepperwood's Communications Coordinator, for 00:45:23.650 --> 00:45:25.789 her ongoing support of this podcast project, 00:45:25.969 --> 00:45:29.070 and thanks to you for listening. Until our next 00:45:29.070 --> 00:45:31.570 episode, keep your ears tuned into nature.