Tidal Exchange, Spring 2021

Tidal Exchange

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Western Snowy Plover, photo by Lisa Szuch

Yadon’s Rein Orchid growing in maritime chapparal

Volunteer planting Pajaro manzanita at Sand Hill Farm California Tiger Salamander, photo by Dave Feliz

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Above: California Red-legged frog

Rising to the Challenge

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Bee in spineflower, photo by Kiliii Yuyan

Southern sea otter, photo by Kiliii Yuyan

In a time of extraordinary challenges, you have helped the Elkhorn Slough Foundation and Elkhorn Slough Reserve continue to protect and restore this remarkable estuary and its surrounding lands, today and for future generations. This translates into critical habitat for diverse plants and wildlife — including several threatened and endangered species.

As scientists sound the alarm about what may be the beginning of our planet's sixth mass extinction, safeguarding biodiversity and habitat increases in importance each day. By acting locally, you have a global impact during this pivotal moment.

Below: Santa Cruz tarplant at ESF’s Porter Ranch

   Bruce Welden President

Robert Hartmann Vice President

Anne Secker Treasurer

Sandy Hale

Reserve researcher Kat Beheshti, photo by Heather Hayashi

Elkhorn Slough Foundation

Secretary

Anne Olsen

Past President

Gary Bloom Terry Eckhardt Emmett Linder Kent Marshall Hon. Susan Matcham Murry Schekman Laura Solorio, MD Tara Trautsch

Holistic Restoration & New Collaborations

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—

The project will return salt marsh to an area where it was previously lost to diking. Soil from a nearby field is being graded and moved into the diked area to raise the elevation high enough to support tidal marsh. Native coastal prairie grasses will be planted on the newly exposed soil horizon before weeds have a chance to become established.

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 T E Scott Nichols, Editor printed on recycled paper © 2021 Elkhorn Slough Foundation

Graphic Studio

Eelgrass meadows will be restored by taking small plugs from existing dense beds and planting them in the newly restored tidal creeks of the marsh restoration area.

Researchers will monitor the ability of eelgrass meadows to protect new creek banks from erosion

Hege Knutson

831 464 6224

Client: ESF July 27, 2007

Final Logo

Photo by Alyce Bender

This spring, the Elkhorn Slough Reserve received new funding of $1.3 million from the Ocean Protection Council and $980,000 from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Program to support a far-reaching, multifaceted restoration initiative that will bring back an entire coastal landscape — from native grasslands to tidal salt marsh, from eelgrass beds to Olympia oysters.

Southern Sea Otter Enhydra lutris nereis

STATUS Federally Threatened HABITAT Open coast, estuary, and tidal salt marsh

HIGHLIGHTS Sea otters have the densest fur of any mammal…and the Elkhorn Slough has the densest concentration of Southern sea otters anywhere—more than 120 individuals.

The Reserve Otter Monitoring Program, consisting of a large team of Reserve volunteers, is the only current effort to thoroughly track distribution and abundance of otters in the estuary.

Photo by Kiliii Yuyan, www.kiliii.com

“With this effort, we’re using a holistic approach to put the puzzle pieces of an ecosystem together and restore an entire coastal landscape.”

—Dave Feliz, Reserve Manager

Pickleweed

Salicornia pacifica

by slowing wind waves, and examine the role restored habitats play in providing refuge for commercially valuable fish species and for sea otters.

Photo by Alyce Bender

STATUS Tidal marsh habitat is ecologically valuable and rare in California, and has been adversely impacted by human activity — 50% of marsh habitat has been lost in the Elkhorn Slough. Thus, tidal marshes, including most pickleweed marshes, are protected habitats.

In addition to supporting the programs and research of the Reserve, ESF also plays an HABITAT Tidal salt marsh important role HIGHLIGHTS Cores taken through in protecting pickleweed marshes in the estuary sea otter habitat

by Reserve scientists have revealed that some marshes are thousands by conserving and of years old. There are a few restoring uplands yards of ancient marsh peat that drain to the under these marshes, wetlands of the estuary, locking up substantial amounts of carbon. and research has shown improved water quality in the estuary adjacent to Foundationprotected lands.

Though not a listed species, native Olympia oysters are at dire risk of local extinction in the Elkhorn Slough.

To restore these vanishing suspension feeders, scientists bring mature oysters from the slough to an aquaculture facility at Moss Landing Marine Labs, where specialists feed and warm them until they produce larvae. The larvae settle out on clam shells provided by the aquaculture team. When the baby oysters grow to be dime-sized, they will be reintroduced to restored tidal creeks.

Olympia Oyster Ostrea lurida

Forging a novel STATUS At risk of local extinction in partnership, the Elkhorn Slough Reserve Research HABITAT Tidal creeks and mudflats Coordinator HIGHLIGHTS In 2018, a pilot effort to introduce Olympia oysters raised Kerstin Wasson through aquaculture, nearly doubled invited the Amah the existing population in the estuary.

Mutsun Tribal “Oysters have lived in Elkhorn Land Trust to Slough for thousands of years,” collaborate in the says Reserve Research Coordinator Kerstin Wasson. oyster restoration “I don’t want them to project, deepening our disappear on my shared connection to coastal watch.” resources at Elkhorn Slough and beyond.

“This project will provide the Amah Mutsun with opportunities to nurture shellfish and work in wetland habitats on their ancestral lands, and I look forward to learning Zostera marina from their perspectives on coastal STATUS Recognized as Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) and a stewardship,” says Kerstin.

Eelgrass

Habitat of Particular Concern under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1996

HABITAT Meadows in intertidal and subtidal zones of the estuary HIGHLIGHTS Eelgrass beds have been gradually expanding in the estuary after huge losses resulting from poor water quality, but are still only at 40% of the acreage visible in our earliest aerial photos from the 1930s. Recently restored plots increased over 8,000% in area, and were documented to support commercially valuable flatfish.

Stay tuned for more about these exciting collaborations in an upcoming issue of Tidal Exchange. ■ tidal exchange 3

Photo courtesy of NPS

Tidewater Goby

Eucyclogobius newberryi STATUS Federally Endangered HABITAT Brackish coastal marshes, lagoons, and inlets — such as Bennett Slough and Moro Cojo Slough, tributaries of Elkhorn Slough — where salinity and nutrient levels fluctuate with the mixing of freshwater and saltwater.

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HIGHLIGHTS The federally endangered tidewater goby is a 2-inchlong fish that lives at the bottom of shallow coastal embayments.

Spawning season peaks when temperatures warm in spring. Female gobies lay hundreds of eggs in vertical burrows up to 8-inches deep, which the males guard until the eggs hatch, around 10 days later.

After hatching the larval fish live in the midwater, sheltering and foraging in underwater vegetation until they mature.

The lifespan of a tidewater goby is around one year.

Background photo: Bennett Slough, by Clayton Mansnerus

Rising to the Challenge

From the ridgelines to the tidelines — whether through acquiring conservation lands, improving water quality, restoring native habitat, or supporting the recovery of threatened species — here are a few examples of how you make a tangible difference for the threatened and endangered species of the Elkhorn Slough.

Protecting Threatened Lands

Photo by Dash Dunkell. ESF

The views from the ridgelines surrounding the Elkhorn Slough are spectacular — panoramic vistas that take in the Pacific Ocean and the estuary, peaks of the Coast and Gabilan ranges, and fertile farmlands of the Pajaro and Salinas Valleys. These ridges are home to maritime chaparral, a rare habitat type that supports more than its share of endangered and threatened plants, including Yadon’s rein orchid, Eastwood’s goldenbush, and Pajaro manzanita. Yet the scenic location of maritime chaparral also places the ridgelines at risk of development.

Yadon's Rein Orchid Piperia yadonii

STATUS Federally Endangered; CNPS California Rare Plant Rank: 1B.1 (rare, threatened, or endangered in California and elsewhere) HABITAT Maritime chaparral

Because maritime chaparral plants are slow-growing and thrive in a limited range, it is far more effective to protect existing tracts of maritime chaparral than to try to restore habitat after it is lost.

To date, ESF has worked diligently to permanently protect more than 370 acres of maritime chaparral on properties including Sand Hill Farm, El Chamisal, Brothers Ranch, and Elkhorn Highlands Reserve. We map and monitor endangered species on these lands, and remove non-native invasive plants such as jubata grass and eucalyptus, which compete with native chaparral plants for limited water and nutrients.

Improving Water Quality

HIGHLIGHTS Named in honor of Pacific Closer to the tideline, Elkhorn Slough Foundation is in the final stages of Grove botanist Vern Yadon, the otherwise closing escrow on 34-acres of historic wetlanda, expanding our holdings unassuming Yadon’s rein orchid sends up flower spikes in spring. Elkhorn Slough in the Moro Cojo watershed to more than 450 acres. We are acquiring the Foundation protects more than 30% of the property in partnership with Central Coast Wetlands Group (CCWG), who maritime chaparral in our watershed — will enhance the habitat and implement water quality improvements on the providing critically important habitat property, providing critical habitat for a variety of fish and wildlife — including not only for Yadon’s rein orchid, but also for other rare and threatened the endangered tidewater goby, and more than 150 species of birds. plants including Eastwood’s goldenbush, Monterey Previously owned by conservation-minded farmers who work neighboring lands, these spineflower, and Pajaro low-lying areas are unsuitable for cultivation, yet ideal for wetland restoration. ESF and Manzanita.

CCWG have worked with Ocean Mist Farms for the past 15 years to improve inflows to the wetlands of Moro Cojo and the lower Salinas River. Soon our collaboration will reconnect these historic wetlands to the main channel of the Moro Cojo, and restore native rushes and grasses that naturally filter runoff before it reaches the bay. (continued on page 5)

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Santa Cruz Tarplant Holocarpha macradenia STATUS Federally Threatened, California Endangered; California Native Plant Society (CNPS) California Rare Plant Rank: 1B.1 (rare, threatened, or endangered in California and elsewhere) HABITAT Grasslands and coastal terrace prairie; fewer than 30 known sites, almost exclusively in Santa Cruz County and North Monterey County.

HIGHLIGHTS Santa Cruz tarplant is a member of the sunflower family, and is sometimes called Santa Cruz sunflower. On Porter Ranch, our land stewardship team uses managed grazing to prevent tall grasses from overshadowing the tiny tarplant. We look forward to sharing the results of our efforts to expand the existing population of these endangered wildflowers in a future issue of Tidal Exchange.

Photo by Corey Hamza

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Enhancing Habitat In spring, wildflowers like sky lupine, California poppies, and owl’s clover blanket the rolling coastal terrace prairie of ESF’s Porter Ranch. By comparison, the ranch’s early autumn bloom of vivid yellow Santa Cruz tarplant are often overlooked.

Santa Cruz tarplant grows in fewer than 30 populations on earth — among them, Porter Ranch. Through a combination of managed grazing and science-based monitoring, we’re working to expand our population of these endemic wildflowers, and keep them growing strong.

This year, our land team has collected and sown seed in an area of Porter Ranch where tarplant was previously absent. Though Santa Cruz tarplant is finicky and challenging to reintroduce, by sowing in soils and conditions like those in which the flowers are already thriving, we are optimistic about expanding our population of this endemic, federally threatened wildflower.

Restoring Ephemeral Ponds The Elkhorn Slough watershed is home to three species of federally-listed amphibians: endangered Santa Cruz long-toed salamanders, threatened California tiger salamanders, and threatened California red-legged frogs. The seasonal ponds and wetlands required by breeding amphibians were once an abundant habitat in our watershed, yet are now exceedingly rare.

Santa Cruz Long-Toed Salamander Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum STATUS Federally Endangered HABITAT Seasonal wetlands near oak woodlands and coastal scrub

HIGHLIGHTS Santa Cruz long-toed salamanders have a lifespan of about 10 years and life stages that pass from egg to aquatic larvae to adult. Their seasonal breeding ponds have been vanishing over the past century.

Salamander larvae can be difficult to detect at low abundance in big wetlands. With seed money from a generous ESF donor and a major grant from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife The ESF land team is working to protect critical breeding ponds and adjacent Service and California Department of uplands upon which these endangered amphibians depend for their survival.

Fish & Wildlife, the Reserve is exploring environmental DNA techniques to This involves managing and restoring seasonal wetlands, planting native detect new breeding sites. If you or vegetation to enhance habitat and reduce erosion. Through a generous donation friends own a wetland in range of from an ESF donor, Elkhorn Slough Reserve’s biologist Susie Fork is funded to this salamander, please be in touch monitor the success of this work, tracking water quality to ensure ponds provide if you’d be willing to let us do healthy conditions for native amphibians and wildlife, and quantifying the recovery of some DNA sleuthing!

endangered salamanders at our restoration sites.

We're in this together, and thanks to you, the species you’ve read about here, and countless others, stand a fighting chance. ■ tidal exchange 5

ELKHORN SLOUGH FOUNDATION FINANCIAL REPORT Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2020

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A Strong Foundation

Anne Secker, Treasurer, ESF Board of Directors

REVENUE (Fiscal year ending June 30, 2020)

.5% 4% 4% 27%

Despite a year in which Covid-19 disrupted all of our lives in many ways, I am heartened to report that our community and supporters have truly risen to the occasion — and that the Elkhorn Slough Foundation is standing strong.

Conservation work requires investment of both time and financial resources. Our fundraising success in the past year reflects that our community recognizes the acute need for protecting and restoring native habitat, and the biodiversity dependent upon it. While most of our staff sheltered in place and worked remotely, keeping us operating smoothly despite the year’s challenges, our land team has been hard at work in the field, restoring habitat and seasonal ponds for endangered amphibians. You may have seen photos of their work on ESF’s social media, including Facebook (facebook.com/elkhornslough) and Instagram (instagram.com/elkhornslough_org).

I recently rejoined the ESF Board of Directors because, though my previous term had expired, it is an honor to serve an organization that is held in such high esteem by our community for its critical land-saving work.

I speak on behalf of the Board in stating although 2020 was challenging on many fronts, the Foundation remains on strong financial footing. We are confident in the Foundation’s financial position, strength, and our financial reporting transparency.

Presented here is a summary of ESF’s standing for our most recently completed fiscal year, demonstrating that your commitment and gifts are well-invested and well-managed. Thanks to your support, we are positioned to accelerate our protection of critical conservation lands and our restoration of previously degraded habitat in Elkhorn Slough.

We have much to hope for in the years ahead and, with your continued support, we will be able to achieve those goals! ■

64.5%

Contributions & Foundation Grants . . . . . . .$ 1,041,429 Government Grants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 2,514,880 Program Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 21,213 Investment Income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ (25,771) Other Revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 146,712 Land Transfer & Mitigation Fees. . . . . . . . . . . .$ 168,094 Total Funds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 3,866,557 EXPENSES (Fiscal year ending June 30, 2020)

6% 10%

84%

Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 3,261,961 Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 386,169 Fundraising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 213,764 Total Expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 3,861,894 BALANCE STATEMENT (Fiscal year ending June 30, 2020) ASSETS

Conservation Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 28,513,483 Invested Funds: Endowment & Other Investments $ 8,855,458 Property & Equipment (net of depreciation) . . $ 1,590,707 Other Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 1,853,670 Total Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 40,813,318 ACCOUNTS PAYABLE & ACCRUED LIABILITIES

Accounts payable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 529,034 Deferred revenue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 500,723 Note payable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 225,000 Other liabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 795,469 Total Net Assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 38,763,092 Total Liabilities & Net Assets . . . . . . . . . $ 40,813,318 These preliminary financial summaries are derived from the Elkhorn Slough Foundation’s June 2020 consolidated financial statements, currently in the process of independent financial audit.

Background photo: Great egret, by Ellen Nakata-Harper

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Elkhorn Slough Foundation P.O. Box 267 Moss Landing, CA 95039

Elkhorn Slough Reserve is open to the

public Wednesday through Sunday, 9 am to 5 pm. We hope you’ll join us for a visit or a virtual event. For details and safety protocols, or to sign up for an event or workshop, visit www.elkhornslough.org.

April 24,  am–: pm: Teacher Workshop: Aquatic Wild

This one-day workshop takes a deep dive into our aquatic habitats and the critters who inhabit these wet worlds! Teachers leave with the Aquatic Wild guide to hundreds of fun, engaging lessons to lead field investigations at their school or on the Reserve.

April 29, :– pm: Evenings at the Estuary: Watershed Scale Thinking – From the Big Picture to Your Backyard

Join ESF Stewardship Director Dash Dunkell and Digital Mapping expert Kass Green to learn about new vegetation maps of the Elkhorn Slough, our watershed restoration efforts, and how you can take meaningful action in your own area.

May 15-19: Teachers on the Estuary Workshop (TOTE)

This workshop is a fun few days with tons of lesson ideas for engaging your students in topics like: water quality data collection, climate change and plant migration and estuarine science ideas! Our 2021 focus will be on climate change and blue carbon.

June 26,  am–: pm: Teacher Workshop: Aquatic Wild See event decription April 24.

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elkhornslough.org/stay-connected Learn more about our new, interactive vegetation map online at www.elkhornslough.org/mapping-the-elkhorn-slough-watershed

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