Elkhorn Slough Foundation board of directors Bruce Welden President
Robert Hartmann Vice President
Anne Secker Treasurer
Tara Trautsch Secretary
Anne Olsen
Past President
Gary Bloom Terry Eckhardt Sandy Hale Emmett Linder Kent Marshall Hon. Susan Matcham Murry Schekman Laura Solorio, MD David Warner Mark Silberstein
Executive Director
The mission of the Elkhorn Slough Foundation is to conserve and restore Elkhorn Slough and its watershed. We see Elkhorn Slough and its watershed protected forever— a working landscape, where people, farming, industry, and nature thrive together. As one of California’s last great coastal wetlands, Elkhorn Slough will remain a wellspring of life and a source of inspiration for generations to come.
PO Box 267, Moss Landing California 95039 tel: (831) 728-5939 fax: (831) 728-7031 www.elkhornslough.org Tidal Exchange Scott Nichols, Editor printed on recycled paper © 2021 Elkhorn Slough Foundation
The Reserve Is Buzzing The Elkhorn Slough Reserve is abuzz with activity! Walk through the new gardens that we planted this last winter in front of the Visitor Center and you cannot miss the buzz of busy pollinators. Inside the Visitor Center, Reserve staff have also been busy at work making lots of exciting changes. We hope to have finishing touches in place by the time we get the thumbs up to welcome visitors indoors — meanwhile, we invite you to come walk the extensive trails. Around the Reserve we’ve been just as busy. Reserve Stewardship Coordinator Andrea Woolfolk worked with stewardship and research staff to monitor transects at each of three grazed (test) and ungrazed (control) grasslands, in an experiment to study the role of cattle in managing coastal grasslands. The Reserve Stewardship team is also excited to continue eucalyptus removal. Over the coming year, we will have cleared almost all these invasive trees from Reserve lands to restore native oak woodlands and coastal scrub. The Elkhorn Slough Reserve and the Elkhorn Slough Foundation have been involved in ongoing efforts to restore freshwater wetlands for threatened amphibian habitat on both the Reserve and Foundation conservation lands. In late winter, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) collaborated with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to release 1,200 captive-bred Santa Cruz long-toed salamander larvae into three Reserve ponds. The fruits of this labor have been on display this spring, with monitoring teams witnessing dozens of young salamanders emerging from the wetlands. The Reserve’s Coastal Training Program (CTP) did its part to cross-pollinate knowledge about native salamanders. In May, CTP hosted a virtual workshop on the biology and management of California tiger salamanders for wildlife and resource managers, with in-person field sessions in early June. This is an exciting time to visit the Reserve. If you haven’t been out lately, come out for a walk and witness the buzz of activity! n
