Renewed habitat brings back rare bird after 2007 wildfire

Jeff Lasky, Allison Horn

4:04 PM, Oct 2, 2018

6:19 PM, Oct 2, 2018

ESCONDIDO, Calif. (KGTV) - A hillside devastated by 2007’s Witch Creek fire has become a habitat for a rare local bird species with the help of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

“There was basically no vegetation. It was just gray moonscape and skeletons of melty-looking cactus,” said conservation specialist Christa Horn of the Escondido landscape.

The fire left no place for the coastal cactus wren to live. There are believed to be only a few dozen birds left in the area.

Three years after the Witch Creek fire, Safari Park staff members planted new cactus to bring the birds back. It was a careful process for everyone involved, including volunteers and children.

Continued  

Back from extinction: The Mallee emu wren makes a comeback in South Australia

ABC Riverland 

By Sowaibah Hanifie

Posted Sun at 5:43am

After a series of catastrophic wildfires in 2014, the Mallee emu wren became extinct in South Australia, but the birds are making a comeback in the state with the help of environmentalists.

When the tiny bird — weighing only as much as a 10 cent piece — could no longer be found in SA, there were still numbers that existed in parts of Victoria's north-west, but they were listed as endangered.

In one of the three national parks where they remained, Victoria's Wyperfeld National Park, their numbers were only in the hundreds.

Researchers were concerned a severe bushfire season would threaten the remaining population.

Numerous organisations in South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, together with the support of the South Australian Government, devised a breeding program over four years to boost the birds' numbers.

Continued  

New research on avian response to wildfires

The varied ways birds respond to fires of mixed severity

Date:  June 22, 2018

Source:  Point Blue Conservation Science

As we enter another wildfire season in California, attention will turn to the inevitable fires and efforts to extinguish them. After these fires burn, land managers are tasked with deciding how, where, and when to act to manage these new conditions. It is vital that land managers use the latest science to understand the effects that fire has on the ecosystem and the wildlife species that inhabit them. New research Point Blue Conservation Science explores these effects, looking at impacts of the severity of fire on birds and how that changes as the time since fire increases. Scientists looked across 10 fires up to 15 years after they burned through forests in the northern Sierra Nevada. Key among the findings is the observation that wildfire had a strong effect on the density of many of the bird species that were studied.

Continued 

Protection considered for bird that needs wildfire

By JEFF BARNARD AP Environmental Writer

Posted:   04/08/2013 03:12:04 PM PDT

Updated:   04/08/2013 06:27:26 PM PDT

GRANTS PASS, Ore.—A woodpecker that depends on intense wildfires for the standing dead trees where it feeds on insects is being considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday it will take a closer look at the black-backed woodpecker. A decision is due in a year but could take longer due to budget cuts.

Fish and Wildlife is considering two populations of the woodpecker—one inhabiting the Sierras of California and eastern Cascade Range of Oregon, and another in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. Another Northern Rockies population is not under consideration.

The agency said conservation groups that petitioned to protect the birds presented substantial scientific information that they were suffering a loss of habitat because of fire suppression, salvage logging that removes fire-killed trees, and thinning to reduce the intensity of wildfires.

The decision is giving conservation groups hope the bird can force changes in national wildfire policy the same way the northern spotted owl overhauled the idea of logging old-growth forests.

Chad Hanson, staff ecologist of the John Muir Project of the Earth Island Institute, said the woodpecker has already figured in lawsuits to stop salvage logging.

"We hope as a result of this, the Forest Service will in fact not only pay more attention to species like this, but do a proactive job of educating people that when fire happens, it is not a bad thing, wildlife rely upon it," Hanson said. "These notions of catastrophic wildfire are really just politics and ignorance, and reflect outdated thinking."

Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers said the agency's wildfire policy was not changing because the bird was not yet listed as a threatened or endangered species. He added that the agency already took "science-based actions to protect its habitat."

The agency has also said budget cuts this year will force it to let more fires burn—a prospect Hanson said would benefit the woodpecker and a broad range of species.

Continued:  http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_22981392/protection-considered-bird-that-needs-wildfire

Fears for golden eagle nests as wildfires sweep Highlands

Dozens of golden eagle eggs and other rare bird nests may have been destroyed in Highland wildfires, experts warned.

RSPB Scotland said it was seriously concerned about the impact on the species, which nests in open moorland.

There have been almost 200 wildfires in the Highlands over the past week, with fire crews still battling a large blaze in Wester Ross.

There are also concerns for thousands of migrant birds that are due to nest in the area in the next few weeks.

“The loss of one nest is serious. The loss of double figures will potentially have a huge impact”

James Reynolds, RSPB.

There are thought to be about 400 golden eagles in Scotland, mainly in the Highlands.

James Reynolds, of the RSPB, said the loss of nests could have a devastating impact on the population.

"It is absolutely certain that we will have lost a number of golden eagle nests," he said. "How many we don't know, but for a population that small, even the loss of one nest is serious.

"The loss of double figures will potentially have a huge impact.

"Numbers are already very low, this will just hold them back further."

The RSPB has sent experts to the Highlands to try to assess the extent of the damage.

Mr Reynolds added that white-tailed eagle eggs may also be at risk, as well as those of migrant birds such as short-eared owls, dotterel, golden plover and wheatears, which are due to nest from mid April.

Read on:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-22026768