Angelo Coast Range Reserve

Angelo Reserve is participating in UC Berkeley's Big Give day. Please consider making a donation to help us continue being a site for world class field research! https://biggive.berkeley.edu/

Just wanted to give a shout-out to Talia Rose and her page of wildlife photography along the South Fork Eel River, County Line Wild. Some amazing photography, especially of river otters.

Tomorrow night at 7:30 on KQED: about the Eel River CZO project at Angelo

Mating ball of Rough-skinned Newts (Taricha granulosa). Water has been around 10 C (50 F) for the last month. Lot of aquatic species think its spring.

Over the hump The Lodge Lightning Complex fire is 96% contained. Resources are being pulled out and sent home or off to other fires. I saw 5 pick up loads of hose go by my house this evening. Air quality still and issue and likely to remain that way off and on for several more weeks as the fire slowly burns itself out within the containment lines. CalFire is now in full suppression repair mode. About 1,000 acres of Reserve land was within the burn area, but no structures or n...eighbor's structures were lost. So, I'm breathing a lot easier, at least when the air clears. I've got researchers back at work here. I'm impressed with CalFire and how they handled this incident. We are working together to ensure minimum erosion from the fire breaks. -- Peter

Good news all around. Fire is up to 11,100 acres, but is now 45% contained. Many other fire-lines are very close to containment. Quite a few hotspots yesterday, but they've been contained and kept to under 50 acres. Still a couple of problem sections along the fire-line near the Reserve, but those are likely to be resolved today. The north end of the active fire front is most problematic, burning in wilderness with no access. Still some evacuation orders there and very poor... air quality but prognosis is looking better. Air quality will continue to fluctuate from day to day for many weeks due to infill burning of islands of vegetation. Forecast is good for two days. Highs in 70's, some cloud cover & light winds. Suppression repair efforts are ramping up big time. Almost out of the woods. -- Peter

Well, it's good news bad news. Good news is the fire breaks protecting the Reserve and neighbors are holding. Fox creek ridge firebreak (dark blue on the map) is finished with a hose line. A hand built fire break line (dark purple on map), from Fox ridge down to Horseshoe Bend, is almost complete. It it to help isolate 3 buildings in case the fire comes south. Also, we are getting heavy air support: 2 sky crane chappers and a big DC10. They will be hitting the fire hard, whe...n they are able to fly. Visibility is terrible, so no flying yet. The bad news is that in the last 24 hours, the fire expanded east up Brush Mt (due north of reserve). This is what CalFire has feared most. Map shows this morning fire perimeter in yellow, last night - orange, 1 day - red. Winds picked up & shifted. 8 fire fighters suffered minor burns. Fire is working its way west and now south to Ten Mile Creek. There was a report of fire spotting on the south side of Ten Mile Creek. Not good. Evacuation orders have been issued for areas east of Brush Mt. Even at 2,000 people, fire fighters are still short of the personnel. Other northern fires still demanding resources. Fire is up to 7100 ac and 30% containment. Still feeling guardedly optimistic for the reserve, but worried for folks east of Brush Mt. Sure hope I see the sun, unfiltered, soon. -- Peter #LodgeLightningComplex http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info

Some photos from the front lines.

Update: It is raining, a light sprinkle, but it is raining. It’s been cool & overcast all day. The fire has really calmed down. Air quality awful most of the day, but better now. Fire is up to 3,600 acres, 15% contained. The southern fire-line protecting the Reserve and western fire-line along the Elkhorn Ridge road are holding and have hoses extending to the river. The north and east have virtually no containment (wilderness). Still, right now the only active fire on the ...east side of the Eel river are 4 spots downriver from Tenmile confluence, and they are small. Within the Reserve, Fox Creek ridge has been dozed as a backup fire line and the plan it to begin blacking this is on Thursday. Thanks to all for all your good wishes and offers of support and helping hands since this incident began. Very, very much appreciated. Still in the woods, but that's a good sign, for obvious reasons. - Peter #Lodgelightningfire See more

Update on #LodgeLightningComplex wildfire. Still only 15% contained and now at 3,000 acres. Below is a map showing at risk structures within the Reserve and homes nearby. It also shows a time-series of fire-perimeters. White is July 31 through dark red which is today Aug 4. Thick colored lines are bulldozed firebreaks. Brown square is an area where the firefighters set back fires in Barnwell Creek area. Peter Steel is onsite coordinating with the firefighters. He reports that it is mostly an understory fire - no major crown fires. Wind is still calm. So far, we are cautiously optimistic.

#LodgeLightningComplex wildfire is threatening the Reserve. All researchers and personnel have been evacuated. As of this post, it is only 20% contained and has moving into Barnwell Creek watershed. 650 firefighters on the scene. CDF page http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info and GeoMac Fire Support (Jump To Wildfire: Lodgecomple,CA) http://www.geomac.gov/viewer/viewer.shtml

Graduate student Nick Burnett (Koehl lab, Integrative Biology, Berkeley) identified the first known invasive snail that we've seen on the Angelo Reserve during a field trip on August 24, 2013. It is Radix auricularia - an invasive European snail already reported in several other states, but not yet in Northern California. Since Nick's discovery, we have seen a few more Radix at Angelo. They are quite abundant, however, at the mouth of the Eel River near the Fernbridge. Ma...ry Power has seen them in shallow water, and Patrick Higgins reported that they carpet the floor of deep pools just downstream from the Fernbridge (~ 10 km upstream from the mouth of the Eel). We don't yet know what the impact of Radix might be. We have 3 native snails: ram's horn snails (Helisoma sp.), an operculate snail (Juga sp., we think), and another pulmonate snail, Physella gyrina. Physella is the most similar to Radix--both are air-breathing pulmonate snails without opercula. Physella has a more oval lower whorl, and the top two whorls, while smaller than the lowest, are proportionately larger, whereas Radix has a nearly spherical lower whorl, pronounced spots, and its top two whorls are miniscule. See more

Abandoned bird's nest next to Urisula (douglas fir, 44m).