June 4th, 2008

Ron LeValley Resigning as California Coordinator

Ron has many other responsibilities, especially with Mad River Biologists, and needs to give his time to the many other projects he needs to work on. He thinks this position could benefit from someone who is more interactive and has more time to give to it. When he first took on this position, his goal was to finish two projects that CJ Ralph gave him, and also to get people to know what the PCJV was, and that it existed. Most people in Northern California didn’t even know that there was a PCJV. He thinks he has accomplished that, and now most people know that there is a PCJV -- but they don’t know what it does. His contract is up this month, and he has offered to stay on at no cost until a replacement has been found.

March 15, 2007

State of California Wildlife Action Plan final version released.

The California Department of Fish and Game has recently released the final version of the California Wildlife Action Plan.

In 2000, Congress enacted the State Wildlife Grants Program to support state programs that broadly benefit wildlife and habitats, particularly those addressing "species of greatest conservation need." As a requirement for receiving federal funds under this program, state wildlife agencies were to submit a state wildlife action plan to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. California's has now been published and outlines major conservation strategies, both throughout the state, and regionally. This is likely to guide many conservation strategies in California, not just for the State Wildlife Grants Programs.

Further information and a links to the plan can be found at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/habitats/wdp/

March 14, 2007

Waterbirds Around the World

A new book, Waterbirds Around the World,? is raising the profile of the huge range of contemporary challenges to aquatic bird conservation and sustainable use. The book is an outcome of a conference by the same name held in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2004. The aim of those talks was to review the protection, management and study of the world's most important waterbird migration routes.

The conclusion was that urgent action was necessary to halt and reverse wetland loss and degradation, and to strengthen networks of key sites for waterbirds. The book contains contributions from 453 authors from 59 countries; has 264 papers and reviews relating to 614 waterbird species from 162 countries; and presents new data on 170 Globally and Near Threatened species. It is a unique overview of the status of the world's waterbirds at the start of a new millennium.

Papers are available on-line at http://www.jncc.gov.uk/worldwaterbirds as of March 12.