[New post] Scientific Studies on Tuleyome’s Silver Spur Ranch
Carlos Guerrero posted: "In 2016, Tuleyome, a Woodland-based non-profit, purchased 1,280 acres along a portion of the North Fork of Cache Creek. Known as Silver Spur Ranch, the property is located in the heart of the 330,780-acre Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. Sinc" Daily Democrat
In 2016, Tuleyome, a Woodland-based non-profit, purchased 1,280 acres along a portion of the North Fork of Cache Creek. Known as Silver Spur Ranch, the property is located in the heart of the 330,780-acre Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.
Since the purchase, Tuleyome has been working with multiple agencies and partners on several ongoing scientific studies.
The California Department of Water Resources has a water quality monitoring station on Cache Creek as it flows through Silver Spur. The Department of Water Resources California Data Exchange Center installs, maintains, and operates an extensive hydrologic data collection network including snow reporting gages for the Cooperative Snow Surveys Program as well as precipitation and river stage sensors for flood forecasting. The monitor has been collecting data since late 2000.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) uses Silver Spur as one of their annual deer survey locations. Their study utilizes game cameras and the collection of fecal pellets to study DNA.
The annual, five-week study has taken place since 2017, shortly after Tuleyome acquired the ranch. While Tuleyome does not permit hunting on the property, hunters are allowed pass through the ranch to utilize the Bureau of Land Management-managed lands to the west, east, and north.
In 2018, the Pawnee Fire burned through Silver Spur Ranch. Tuleyome applied for and received funding from the Sacramento Zoo to study how wildlife, especially mammals, returned to the area after the burn. A dozen wildlife cameras were set up in different habitat types to monitor the property. The cameras provided us the opportunity to see what happened when humans are not around. It became clear that deer, bear, bobcats, and mountain lions utilize Silver Spur.
The fire in 2018 also put Silver Spur on the radar of Dr. Timothy Stark from the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign. He and his team are monitoring the impact of wildfires on landslides in Lake County. There are multiple landslides of varying sizes - some have burned, some have not. Dr. Stark has installed weather stations on Silver Spur as part of a USDA funded study. The weather stations collect data including precipitation, wind speed and direction, temperature, and soil moisture.
The most recent study to utilize Tuleyome's Silver Spur Ranch is CDFW's Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program. This program is conducting vegetation surveys in Lake County to include in their North Coast and Ranges Vegetation Classification and Mapping Project. They will use the information to create a description of plant communities (vegetation types) and a vegetation map of a section of the North Coast, including Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, and portions of Lake counties.
Tuleyome's Silver Spur Ranch is a gorgeous place in the heart of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. These studies are helping us understand the importance and uniqueness of the Monument and will provide information when the Monument Management Plan is being developed by the BLM and US Forest Service.
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