Land Policy Regulations and Human and Wildlife Behavior in Endangered and Threatened Bird Habitat

Participatory Science
Poster Presentation

Prepared by C. Giudice
Orange County Coastkeeper, 3151 Airway Ave Unit F-110, Costa Mesa, California, 92626, United States


Contact Information: [email protected]; 949-374-9825

ABSTRACT

Orange County Coastkeeper is a nonprofit clean water organization that serves as a proactive steward of our fresh- and saltwater ecosystems. The Santa Ana River Monitoring project focuses on the wildlife management area and convoluted jurisdictional boundaries located at the river mouth in Newport Beach. The Santa Ana River Mouth is a 13.2-acre parcel of land that is owned by four agencies: the California State Lands Commission, California State Parks, the County of Orange, and the City of Newport Beach. The river channel is a sensitive wildlife area and is home to the endangered California Least Tern and the threatened Western Snowy Plover. Due to the abundance of human and dog visitors on the beach and often in the channel, these bird populations have been significantly impacted.

OC Coastkeeper enlists volunteers and staff members with science backgrounds to acquire the data for this project and provides research and community outreach opportunities to students and other community members. The research surveys are split by the differing jurisdictions so, when the data is analyzed, it is made clear which agency requires more enforcement. This research focuses on bird abundance and possible disturbances that occur due to human and dog behavior. These disturbances include “flushing events,” where a group of birds leave the area in response to a stimulus by a human or dog.

Our research found that there were significantly more bird disturbances in the Orange County Flood Control boundary. This area located inside the channel is where most of the birds observed rest and forage and it also had the second highest number of off-leash dogs even though it is illegal to enter the channel. Our research reflects that when there are more people and off-leash dogs present, there are fewer birds present. With our research, we plan to encourage the establishment of consistent enforcement in this area in order to make the channel a safe home for its native bird species.