Mendocino County Research Articles

Alice Walker on Ecofeminist Issues in Her Fiction: An Interview

The setting was the back of Alice Walker’s car, cruising along the winding roads of Northern California on a clear, chilly, star-filled autumn evening.11 Mendocino County, California, November 10, ...

Conifer encroachment study will inform efforts to preserve and restore North Coast oak woodlands

Research news Conifer encroachment study will inform efforts to preserve and restore North Coast oak woodlands O Redwood National Park “It’s one of those things that creeps up on you — not a radical change, but just a clearly shifting trend,” said Dina Moore, a rancher in the Van Duzen River watershed near Eureka. Conifer encroachment on the North Coast mat- ters because it shrinks the already limited acreage of oak woodlands, one of the state’s iconic A 1987 study estimated that 30% landscapes. Oak wood- lands are valuable of the white oak woodlands in one for several reasons, region of Redwood National Park including grazing, hunting and habitat for had been lost to encroachment by oak-associated wildlife Douglas fir since 1850. communities. Several counties are prepar- ing oak woodland conservation plans, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service have been providing grants to landowners to pay for tree removal to counter the trend. But these efforts have been hampered by both a Encroaching conifers poor understanding of the extent of conifer encroach- obscure a stand of ment in the region and a lack of research on the best oak in Redwood National Park. ways to address it. A 1987 study estimated that 30% of 12 CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE • VOLUME 69 , NUMBER 1 Lenya Quinn-Davidson n California’s North Coast, landowners have noticed for decades the steady expansion of conifer stands into grassy oak woodlands. Fire suppression helps to create conditions that allow conifers to sprout and mature among oaks, as in this woodland in Redwood National Park. the white oak woodlands in one region of Redwood National Park had been lost to encroachment by Douglas fir since 1850, but there has been limited re- search since on the encroachment issue. Better information is coming this fall, with the publication of results from a three-year investigation funded by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) and led by UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) researchers. The project, “Tools for a changing landscape: Understanding disturbance and vegetation dynam- ics in Northern California oak woodlands,” is using aerial photography and satellite data to generate the first comprehensive map of oak woodland areas in Humboldt and Mendocino counties. Researchers will compare current conditions with historic photos and other data, along with field measurements of tree ages and other characteristics, to evaluate the extent and impact of Douglas fir encroachment. The project has established field sites in multiple locations to study climate, moisture and other condi- tions that may influence encroachment patterns. The information gathered will also help researchers to

Profiles in History

1899–1992 1923–2012 Hans Jenny at a site along the Ecological Staircase during the 1984 UC–Davis Soils 105 Field Course. Discussing the presence of a mollic epipedon in an ustic aridic soil moisture regime on the Perdiz Conglomerate, Presidio County, TX. From left, Drs. Susan Casby-Horton, Beatrix Haggard, Nelson Rolong, B.L. Allen (rock hammer in hand), and David Weindorf. Hans Jenny stands next to a soil monolith on a marine terrace above the Pacific Ocean in the Ecological Staircase in Northwestern California. He is explaining soil relationships to University of California–Davis students during the summer 1984 Field Studies of Soils in California Ecosystems, Soil Science 105 course. His career in soil science extended almost 70 years, and he maintained a lifelong devotion to education about soils. He was born in Switzerland in 1899 and came to the United States in 1926. He was appointed to a professor position at University of California–Berkeley in 1936. His passion for education about soils became readily apparent to the world after he authored the iconic book Factors of Soil Formation. A System of Quantitative Pedology in 1941. This book has been cited as a reference for soil science publications ever since and shows no signs of abating. He retired in 1967 but continued to pursue his passion for research and education about soil until his death in 1992. The life of Hans Jenny has had a far reaching influence not only on soil science and related disciplines, but also in universities, high schools, and elementary schools where the basic concepts of his system utilizing factors of soil formation are being taught to students. Hans Jenny and his wife Jean pursued their passion for preservation of unique and diverse soils and landscapes in the pygmy forest of Mendocino County, California, which was named the Hans Jenny Pygmy Forest Reserve. Sources: Photo and information courtesy of Kerry Arroues, retired USDA-NRCS Soil Scientist, Hanford, CA. Dr. B.L. Allen was born in Hillsboro, TX in 1923. He taught soil science courses at Texas Tech University (TTU) in Lubbock, TX for almost 50 years and was involved in pedology research at TTU until his passing in 2012 at the age of 88. He was an exceptional combination of a knowledgeable, persistently inquisitive soil scientist and a direct, dapper gentleman. Dr. Allen was most especially a field soil scientist. He was recognized worldwide for his work on arid and semiarid soils, particularly in the areas of soil genesis, soil morphology, soil micromorphology, soil mineralogy (especially pedogenic calcite, gypsum, and silica), and clay mineralogy (particularly sepiolite and palygorskite). He worked closely with range scientists to document and understand the relationships between range vegetation and soils in drier climates. Although his research was focused on the Southern High Plains and the Chihuahuan Desert, he was interested in similar environments worldwide. He was honored with several prestigious awards, including the Soil Science Education Award and Soil Science Distinguished Service Award (both conferred by the Soil Science Society of America). Dr. Allen also coached the TTU Soils Judging Team for 40 years, leading them to five National Collegiate Soil Judging Championships. Dr. Allen received his B.S. in Agronomy (Soils Option) from TTU and both his M.S. and Ph.D. from Michigan State University majoring in Soil Science (Geology Minor), receiving his doctorate degree in 1959. While completing his graduate studies, Dr. Allen also served as an Instructor and Assistant Professor of Agriculture at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, NM. More than anything, Dr. Allen's students are his professional body of work. Dr. John Jacob, who completed his M.S. degree under Dr. Allen, commented that “he took a personal and abiding interest in each one of us. If he took you on as a student, you became a real ‘project’ for him. He saw much more in me than I saw in myself. I am forever indebted.” It is safe to say that this sentiment is echoed by all members of the loyal band of “Dr. Allen's students.” Contributed by Dr. Susan Casby-Horton, TTU Adjunct Professor, retired USDA-NRCS Soil Scientist and Dr. Nelson Rolong, Assistant State Soil Scientist, USDA-NRCS, Little Rock, AR.

Longitudinal analysis of health outcomes after exposure to toxics, Willits California, 1991-2012: application of the cohort-period (cross-sequential) design.

BackgroundAbout 1963, a factory in Willits, Mendocino County (County), California added chrome plating to the manufacture of steel products. After years of residents reporting high illness rates, the State undertook a series of investigations. They found exposures had been high and warranted further research into possible health effects. Applying the seldom-used cross-sequential design, we tested if Willits had an excess rate of adverse health conditions, compared to people of the same sex and cohort living in the rest of county (ROC). This is the first report on long-term health outcomes for Willits.MethodsHospital discharge data for 1991–2012 were searched to find admissions for people born between 1940 and 1989 who ever gave the County as their residence. Diagnoses and procedures were classified to Level 1 (body systems) of the Multi-level Clinical Classification Software (CCS). We analyzed 796,917 diagnoses and 289,980 procedures found on 117,799 admissions of 43,234 patients who lived in the County at some time between 1991 and 2012. Of these, 7,564 lived in Willits. We summarized data to the person-level then the group level over cohort-period (cross-sequential) to control the age by time relationship, then calculated incidence rates, relative risk, and excess case statistics, each with confidence limits. A secondary analysis focused on whether Willits differed markedly from the rest of County (ROC). Specifically, other than the presence of the Plant, did Willits differ so much that those differences could plausibly explain outcome differences?ResultsIllness was excessive in the exposed group (Willits) compared to the unexposed (ROC). Overall number of excess cases attributable to living in Willits was estimated: Men, 301 (95% confidence limit (CL) 200–398), women: 696 (CL 569–820).ConclusionsThis study demonstrates the strength of the cross-sequential design. Willits and ROC had comparable disadvantages relative to the State. Yet, when stratified by cohort, Willits had more illness per population. Little is known about the health effect of chemicals used at Willits on a non-occupationally exposed population. We recommend a follow-up study to evaluate the long-term health of people who lived in Willits during childhood and the reproductive age.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1476-069X-13-88) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Late Holocene Slip Rate and Ages of Prehistoric Earthquakes along the Maacama Fault Near Willits, Mendocino County, Northern California

Abstract The Maacama fault is the northward continuation of the Hayward–Rodgers Creek fault system and creeps at a rate of 5.7±0.1 mm/yr (averaged over the last 20 years) in Willits, California. Our paleoseismic studies at Haehl Creek suggest that the Maacama fault has produced infrequent large earthquakes in addition to creep. Fault terminations observed in several excavations provide evidence that a prehistoric surface‐rupturing earthquake occurred between 1060 and 1180 calibrated years (cal) B.P. at the Haehl Creek site. A folding event, which we attribute to a more recent large earthquake, occurred between 790 and 1060 cal B.P. In the last 560–690 years, a buried channel deposit has been offset 4.6±0.2 m, giving an average slip rate of 6.4–8.6 mm/yr, which is higher than the creep rate over the last 20 years. The difference between this slip rate and the creep rate suggests that coseismic slip up to 1.7 m could have occurred after the formation of the channel deposit and could be due to a paleoearthquake known from paleoseismic studies in the Ukiah Valley, about 25 km to the southeast. Therefore, we infer that at least two, and possibly three, large earthquakes have occurred at the Haehl Creek site since 1180 cal B.P. (770 C.E.), consistent with earlier studies suggesting infrequent, large earthquakes on the Maacama fault. The short‐term geodetic slip rate across the Maacama fault zone is approximately twice the slip rate that we have documented at the Haehl Creek site, which is averaged over the last approximately 600 years. If the geodetic rate represents the long‐term slip accumulation across the fault zone, then we infer that, in the last ∼1200 years, additional earthquakes may have occurred either on the Haehl Creek segment of the Maacama fault or on other active faults within the Maacama fault zone at this latitude. Online Material: Trench logs, discussion of channel B, photographs of compressional features, and table of radiocarbon analyses.

Bags and tags: randomized response technique indicates reductions in illegal recreational fishing of red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) in Northern California

Illegal fishing has detrimental environmental and social impacts, but these effects are difficult to mitigate without reliable estimates of fisher noncompliance. This research makes a case for the use of the randomized response technique (RRT) as a tool to inform conservation policy with respect to regulatory compliance. RRT was used to generate estimates of non-compliance in the Northern California recreational red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) fishery before and after the introduction of new tagging regulations and marine protected areas (MPAs). Anonymous paper-based compliance and sociodemographic surveys were conducted with recreational fishers in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties in August of 2007 and 2011. The 2011 survey found reductions in illegal take across most violation types, and since the introduction of on-animal tagging regulations the proportional daily take limit violation among local residents was found to have decreased from 72% to 43%. The results indicate higher non-compliance rates among visitors than local fishers regarding licensing laws, minimum size limits, and annual catch limits. Locals were proportionately more likely to violate the daily catch limit and the new regulations, though 85% of the fishers surveyed were aware of them. The rule-specific violation estimates RRT generates provide managers with a level of detail about non-compliant behavior that is unique, and can point to opportunities for improving managerial communication and enforcement.

Surveillance for zoonotic and selected pathogens in harbor seals Phoca vitulina from central California.

The infection status of harbor seals Phoca vitulina in central California, USA, was evaluated through broad surveillance for pathogens in stranded and wild-caught animals from 2001 to 2008, with most samples collected in 2007 and 2008. Stranded animals from Mendocino County to San Luis Obispo County were sampled at a rehabilitation facility: The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC, n = 175); wild-caught animals were sampled at 2 locations: San Francisco Bay (SF, n = 78) and Tomales Bay (TB, n = 97), that differed in degree of urbanization. Low prevalences of Salmonella, Campylobacter, Giardia, and Cryptosporidium were detected in the feces of stranded and wild-caught seals. Clostridium perfringens and Escherichia coli were more prevalent in the feces of stranded (58% [78 out of 135] and 76% [102 out of 135]) than wild-caught (42% [45 out of 106] and 66% [68 out of 106]) seals, whereas Vibrio spp. were 16 times more likely to be cultured from the feces of seals from SF than TB or TMMC (p < 0.005). Brucella DNA was detected in 3.4% of dead stranded harbor seals (2 out of 58). Type A influenza was isolated from feces of 1 out of 96 wild-caught seals. Exposure to Toxoplasma gondii, Sarcocystis neurona, and type A influenza was only detected in the wild-caught harbor seals (post-weaning age classes), whereas antibody titers to Leptospira spp. were detected in stranded and wild-caught seals. No stranded (n = 109) or wild-caught (n = 217) harbor seals had antibodies to phocine distemper virus, although a single low titer to canine distemper virus was detected. These results highlight the role of harbor seals as sentinel species for zoonotic and terrestrial pathogens in the marine environment.

Low‐Cost Restoration Techniques for Rapidly Increasing Wood Cover in Coastal Coho Salmon Streams

AbstractLike many rivers and streams in forests of the Pacific Northwest, California north coast rivers and streams have been depleted of downed wood through timber harvest and direct wood removal. Due to the important role of wood in creating and maintaining salmonid habitat, wood augmentation has become a common element of stream restoration. Restoration efforts in North America often focus on building anchored, engineered wood structures at the site scale; however, these projects can fail to meet restoration goals at the watershed scale, do not closely mimic natural wood loading processes or dynamics, and can be expensive to implement. For critically imperiled populations of Coho Salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch in California, there is a strong impetus to achieve as much habitat restoration as possible in priority watersheds in the shortest time and with limited resources, so cost‐efficient techniques are necessary. In this multi‐site project, we investigated unanchored techniques for wood loading to evaluate cost and contribution to salmonid habitat in Mendocino County, California. Over a period of 6 years, 72.4 km of stream were treated with 1,973 pieces of strategically placed wood. We found that unanchored wood loading techniques were much less costly than commonly used anchored techniques, reliably improved habitat, and retained wood at high rates (mean = 92%) in small‐ to moderate‐sized streams, at least over the short term (&lt;6 years). The average cost of design and construction for the unanchored projects was US$259 per log, equivalent to 22% of the cost associated with the anchored wood augmentation methods examined here. Our results suggest that this unanchored wood loading approach has the potential to increase the pace and scale at which wood augmentation projects are implemented in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.Received January 22, 2014; accepted June 25, 2014

Discovery of a New, Disjunct Population of a Narrowly Distributed Salamander (Taricha rivularis) in California Presents Conservation Challenges

A newly discovered population of Red-bellied Newts (Taricha rivularis) in the Stevens Creek watershed in Santa Clara County, California, represents a significant southerly range extension of this species, by approximately 130 km from the nearest records in Sonoma County, California. To investigate the origin of this population we sequenced two mitochondrial genes (ND1, cytochrome b) and one nuclear exon (POMC) from the Santa Clara County population and from the main portion of the range including Sonoma, Mendocino, and Humboldt Counties. Phylogenetic relationships, historical demography, and genetic diversity were used to infer the origin of the newly discovered population and to elucidate the evolutionary history of the species. This species exhibits the lowest genetic diversity of any salamander in coastal California, and we infer unique signatures of population expansion not found in sympatrically occurring salamander species. The newly discovered population, characterized by a ubiquitous mtDNA haplotype found throughout the main range, is not genetically divergent. Although we were unable to determine whether the Santa Clara population is natural or introduced, we consider it to be of potential conservation significance and to warrant management protection. Although it may be unconventional to protect a population that is possibly introduced, this newly discovered population might be a critical assurance colony that will aid in the long-term persistence of this declining species. Because T. rivularis lacks genetic variation, has a small geographic range, and has experienced high levels of habitat disturbance, we recommend that it receive protection throughout its range.

Phylogenetic Relationships and Crossing Data Reveal a New Species ofNemophila(Boraginaceae)

I report a new species of Nemophila growing sympatrically in some localities with N. menziesii Hook. & Arn. var. atomaria (Fisch. & Mey.) H. P. Chandler (sensu Constance 1941) in Northern California. The new species, N. hoplandensis, differs from N. menziesii var. atomaria in both floral and vegetative color. The corollas of N. menziesii var. atomaria range from deep blue to a bluish white. Nemophila hoplandensis has large and unusually bright white corollas and vegetative structures that are a brighter green than those of N. menziesii var. atomaria. I provide support from controlled crosses for treating these populations as a new species; despite sharing pollinators N. hoplandensis is reproductively isolated from N. menziesii var. atomaria via failure of hybrid seed production following artificial crosses. Molecular phylogenetic analyses also clearly differentiate N. hoplandensis within the genus. The newly described species, currently known only from Mendocino and Napa counties, has a range that is more restricted than and lies within the range of N. menziesii var. atomaria.

Tick-borne Pathogens in Northwestern California, USA

To the Editor: In northwestern California, USA, the western black-legged tick, Ixodes pacificus, is a known vector of Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete that causes Lyme disease. B. miyamotoi, which is more closely related to spirochetes that cause relapsing fever, has also been detected in 2 locations in California (1,2) and has recently been implicated as a human pathogen in the northeastern United States (3,4). Other studies may have unintentionally included B. miyamotoi infections among measures of B. burgdorferi if the diagnostics were for spirochetes (e.g., direct fluorescent antibody tests or dark-field microscopy) or genetically targeted for Borrelia spp. (5). To investigate Borrelia spp. ecology in California, we collected adult I. pacificus ticks by dragging a 1-m2 white flannel blanket along vegetation and/or leaf litter in 12 recreational areas in the San Francisco Bay area during January–May 2012 (Table). Habitat varied from chaparral and grassland to coastal live oak woodland. Ticks were pooled for examination by quantitative PCR (qPCR) for the presence of Borrelia spp. We interpreted the prevalence of Borrelia spp. from positive pools as the minimum infection prevalence (i.e., assuming 1 positive tick/positive pool). DNA was extracted from ticks by using the DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit (QIAGEN, Valencia, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer’s protocols and then stored at −20°C until use. DNA was analyzed by qPCR, with use of primer and fluorescent hybridization probes previously developed to differentiate Borrelia spp. spirochetes (5). To identify the Borrelia spp. genotype, we attempted to sequence the 16S–23S (rrs-rrlA) intergenic spacer of each sample positive by qPCR (8). The nested PCR product was further purified by using the QIAquick Kit (QIAGEN) and then sequenced (Environmental Genetics and Genomics Laboratory, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA; www.enggen.nau.edu/dna.html) by using capillary Sanger sequencing on an ABI 3730 sequencer (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY, USA). BLAST (http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi) was used to compare each sequence to other Borrelia spp. sequences available from GenBank. Table Borrelia spp. infection prevalence among adult Ixodes pacificus ticks in northwestern California, USA, January–May 2012* From a total of 1,180 adult ticks, we found 43 samples positive for Borrelia spp., resulting in a minimum infection prevalence of 3.6% (Table). We obtained intergenic spacer sequence data for 27 of the positive samples; 6 samples were B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, 7 were B. burgdorferi sensu lato (both on the basis of alignments of 816 bp), and 14 were B. miyamotoi (on the basis of alignments of 503 bp). The B. miyamotoi sequences for our samples from California and those for isolates from the eastern United States (9) and Japan (8) formed a monophyletic clade that was oriented as a sister clade to the 3 Borrelia spp. that cause tick-borne relapsing fever in the United States (B. hermsii, B. turicatae, and B. parkeri). We found borreliae-infected adult I. pacificus ticks at all 12 sites from which tick sample sizes exceeded 30. When the presence of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto or B. burgdorferi sensu lato was detected (4/12 sites each), prevalence was 0.6%–2.2% and 0.7%–2.5%, respectively. B. miyamotoi was detected at 7/12 sites, and prevalence ranged from 0.7% to 7.5%. A previous survey of B. burgdorferi in nearby Santa Cruz County recreational areas reported an infection prevalence of ≈6% among adult I. pacificus ticks (6); the study did not, however, differentiate between Borrelia spp. and therefore may have included B. miyamotoi among its prevalence measures (5). In our study, B. burgdorferi was found more frequently in woodland habitats, but it was also detected in a grassland–chaparral habitat several hundred meters from the nearest woodland. We did not detect B. bissettii, a species recently implicated as a human pathogen in Mendocino County, California (10). The high level of habitat variation in northwestern California presents a varied risk for Borrelia-associated tick-borne disease in humans because of diverse variations in vertebrate reservoir ecology, tick abundance, and human exposure to ticks. This variation emphasizes the need to understand the local epidemiology and ecology of a disease. In adult I. pacificus ticks in the San Francisco Bay area, B. miyamotoi is as abundant as its congener B. burgdorferi. Human disease caused by B. miyamotoi infection has not been reported in California, and transmission efficiency of B. miyamotoi by I. pacificus ticks is unknown. However, it is possible that B. miyamotoi infections in ticks and humans have not been accurately diagnosed. We advocate for increased scrutiny of the eco-epidemiology of B. miyamotoi in human, tick, and possible vertebrate host populations in northwestern California.

A New Genus and Species of Late Miocene Paleoparadoxiid (Mammalia, Desmostylia) from Calieornia

The Desmostylia are an extinct order of quadrupedal, marine, herbivorous, placental mammals whose closest living relatives are Proboscidea (elephants and their relatives) and Sirenia (sea cows and manatees). Desmostylians lived around the margins of the North Pacific Ocean from the Oligocene until the end of the Miocene. A 10- to 11-million-year-old fossil skeleton, here named Neoparadoxia cecilialina, new genus and new species, was found in the early late Miocene part of the Monterey Formation in Orange County, coastal southern California, USA. This is the geochronologically youngest named species of desmostylian. The holotype of this species is the most complete known paleoparadoxiid desmostylian skeleton and only the second desmostylian skeleton yet reported from North America that includes a cranium. The skeleton is exhibited in the Age of Mammals hall of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Among previously named desmostylians, N. cecilialina is most closely related to middle Miocene (approximately 14-million-year-old) Paleoparadoxia repenningi Domning and Barnes, 2007. The two species share sufficient numbers of characters to warrant transferring P. repenningi to the new genus Neoparadoxia. These species demonstrate that geochronologically late paleoparadoxiids evolved enhanced adaptations for life in water (larger body size, larger manus and pes, enlarged external nares, elevated orbits) and other adaptations related to bulk aquatic feeding (enlarged oral cavity, ventrally turned snout and anterior end of the mandible, larger molars). Neoparadoxia cecilialina has incisors that are flatter and wider than those of any other known desmostylian. Other derived features of N. cecilialina, such as delayed eruption of canines and posterior-most molars, possibly extended its life span, with a result being larger adult body size. Such adaptations in the last known desmostylians may have been responses to competition with dugongid sirenians, also herbivores, that appeared in the North Pacific Ocean after the earlier endemic desmostylians and ultimately supplanted them in that realm. The comparatively small and primitive species, Paleoparadoxia weltoni Clark, 1991, from the latest Oligocene Skooner Gulch Formation in Mendocino County, California, USA, is assigned to the new genus Archaeoparadoxia.

An improved topographic mapping technique from airborne lidar: application in a forested hillside

We developed a robust method to reconstruct a digital terrain model (DTM) by classifying raw light detection and ranging (lidar) points into ground and non-ground points with the help of the Progressive Terrain Fragmentation (PTF) method. PTF applies iterative steps for searching terrain points by approximating terrain surfaces using the triangulated irregular network (TIN) model constructed from ground return points. Instead of using absolute slope or offset distance, PTF uses orthogonal distance and relative angle between a triangular plane and a node. Due to this characteristic, PTF was able to classify raw lidar points into ground and non-ground points on a heterogeneous steep forested area with a small number of parameters. We tested this approach by using a lidar data set covering a part of the Angelo Coast Range Reserve on the South Fork of the Eel River in Mendocino County, California, USA. We used systematically positioned 16 reference plots to determine the optimal parameter that can be used to separate ground and non-ground points from raw lidar point clouds. We tested at different admissible hillslope angles (15° to 20°), and the minimum total error (1.6%) was acquired at the angle value of 18°. Because classifying raw lidar points into ground and non-ground points is the basis for other types of analyses, we expect that our study will provide more accurate terrain approximation and contribute to improving the extraction of other forest biophysical parameters.

Early Lessons and Challenges from the Healthy Mendocino Community of Solution

Northern California's Mendocino County is joining the national movement to upgrade the quantity and quality of local data available for assessing and improving local health. A broad-based coalition in the county has successfully engaged 20 community partners in funding a web-based tool for this purpose. HealthyMendocino.org, launched in January 2013, is designed to support setting local priorities, planning and evaluating the program, and building community by giving easy access to timely data on 90 indicators of local health and its determinants compiled from a range of state and federal sources. This article, written before the site's launch by the Chair of the Healthy Mendocino Steering Committee, describes the community of solution that came together to envision, publicize, raise support for, and bring to fruition this new resource. Mendocino is a rural county with limited financial capacity but rich social assets, including a strong collaborative tradition and an infrastructure of dynamic coalitions. This article outlines the anticipated benefits, early lessons, and challenges of the initiative and explains how the organizers leveraged connections with other communities of solution that already are working to improve the quality of life in the area. The article also notes ways in which this local initiative illustrates and aligns with several of the grand challenges outlined in the modern Folsom Report-specifically, challenges 7, 8, 11, 12, and above all 13, which concerns the use of health information technology to enable the flow of knowledge to the community of solution.

Estimating Abundance and Survival in the Endangered Point Arena Mountain Beaver Using Noninvasive Genetic Methods

The Point Arena mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa nigra) is federally listed as an endangered subspecies that is restricted to a small geographic range in coastal Mendocino County, California. Management of this imperiled taxon requires accurate information on its demography and vital rates. We developed noninvasive survey methods, using hair snares to sample DNA and to estimate abundance and survival at two sites, Kinney Beach and Alder Creek, within Manchester State Park. We extracted DNA and genotyped 371 hair samples resulting in the identification of a total of 54 individuals during annual sampling from 2006–2009. Estimated population numbers were small, ranging from 9–18 individuals at Kinney Beach and 14–18 individuals at Alder Creek. Neither location demonstrated a trend in abundance over the 4-year sample period. There was weak support (evidence ratio 2.15) for higher apparent survival probabilities at Alder Creek (0.75) than Kinney Beach (0.59) and no support for time or site effects on recruitment. Recruitment ranged from 0.25 to 0.46 and was highest during the same interval (2007–2008) at both locations. The time series of estimates from 2006–2009 does not suggest that abundance at either study site is declining; while reassuring, concern still remains due to low total numbers at this, one of the few protected sites for this endangered subspecies.

RISK FACTORS FOR EXPOSURE TO FELINE PATHOGENS IN CALIFORNIA MOUNTAIN LIONS (PUMA CONCOLOR)

The primary challenge to mountain lion population viability in California is habitat loss and fragmentation. These habitat impacts could enhance disease risk by increasing contact with domestic animals and by altering patterns of exposure to other wild felids. We performed a serologic survey for feline pathogens in California mountain lions (Puma concolor) using 490 samples from 45 counties collected from 1990 to 2008. Most mountain lions sampled were killed because of depredation or public safety concerns and 75% were adults. Pathogens detected by serosurvey in sampled mountain lions included feline panleukopenia virus (39.0%), feline calicivirus (33.0%), feline coronavirus (FCoV, 15.1%), feline herpesvirus (13.0%), heartworm (12.4%), feline leukemia virus (5.4%), and canine distemper virus (3%). An outbreak of heartworm exposure occurred from 1995 to 2003 and higher than expected levels of FCoV-antibody-positive mountain lions were observed from 2005 to 2008, with foci in southern Mendocino and eastern Lake counties. We show that the majority of mountain lions were exposed to feline pathogens and may be at risk of illness or fatality, particularly kittens. Combined with other stressors, such as ongoing habitat loss, infectious disease deserves recognition for potential negative impact on mountain lion health and population viability.

Elevated Genetic Structure in the Coastal Tailed Frog (Ascaphus truei) in Managed Redwood Forests

Landscape alterations have dramatic impacts on the distribution of genetic variation within and among populations and understanding these effects can guide contemporary and future conservation strategies. We initiated a landscape-scale genetic study of the coastal tailed frog (Ascaphus truei) on commercial timberlands within the southern range of the species in Mendocino County (CA, USA). In total, 294 individuals from 13 populations were analyzed at 9 microsatellite loci. None of the sampled populations departed from mutation-drift equilibrium, indicating recent population bottlenecks were not detected in contemporary samples. Fine-scale analysis indicated sampled populations were structured at the watershed level (mean F (ST) = 0.077 and mean G'(ST) = 0.425). Landscape analyses suggested wet and moist areas may serve as significant corridors for gene flow within watersheds in this region (r (2) = 0.32-0.54 for moisture-related features). Results indicate populations of frogs may have persisted at this scale through intense periods of timber harvest, making southern range edge populations of coastal tailed frogs resilient to past land use practices.

GMO-free America? Mendocino County and the Impact of Local Level Resistance to the Agricultural Biotechnology Paradigm

In the United States, a supportive regulatory environment for new agri- cultural biotechnologies is promoting the technology throughout the agricultural system. Sub-national resistance to the technology is burgeoning, however. Spe- cifically, local-level GMO bans are emerging in direct opposition to the national pro-biotechnology development drive. In this article, I investigate the struggles over county-level GMO bans in California, focusing on the first successful ban in Mendocino, one of California's wine counties. Drawing on McCann's (2004) legal mobilization and Bourdieu's (1987) legal 'fields' to conceptualize law as both shaping and being shaped by legal contests, I investigate the extent to which such sub-national tactics are effective in challenging the supportive regulatory envi- ronment for agricultural biotechnologies. At its basis, this analysis is concerned with the legacy of such struggles, and their potential for broader social change. This article will further use the case of Mendocino County to reflect on the under- theorized intersection between social movement and legal scholarship.

Spatially variable natural selection and the divergence between parapatric subspecies of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta, Pinaceae)

Plant populations arrayed across sharp environmental gradients are ideal systems for identifying the genetic basis of ecologically relevant phenotypes. A series of five uplifted marine terraces along the northern coast of California represents one such system where morphologically distinct populations of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) are distributed across sharp soil gradients ranging from fertile soils near the coast to podzolic soils ca. 5 km inland. A total of 92 trees was sampled across four coastal marine terraces (N = 10-46 trees/terrace) located in Mendocino County, California and sequenced for a set of 24 candidate genes for growth and responses to various soil chemistry variables. Statistical analyses relying on patterns of nucleotide diversity were employed to identify genes whose diversity patterns were inconsistent with three null models. Most genes displayed patterns of nucleotide diversity that were consistent with null models (N = 19) or with the presence of paralogs (N = 3). Two genes, however, were exceptional: an aluminum responsive ABC-transporter with F(ST) = 0.664 and an inorganic phosphate transporter characterized by divergent haplotypes segregating at intermediate frequencies in most populations. Spatially variable natural selection along gradients of aluminum and phosphate ion concentrations likely accounted for both outliers. These results shed light on some of the genetic components comprising the extended phenotype of this ecosystem, as well as highlight ecotones as fruitful study systems for the detection of adaptive genetic variants.

Walt Whitman, Clarence Major, and Changing Thresholds of American Wonder

Although Walt Whitman never ventured further into the West than his 1879 trip to Colorado, his imagined Western landscapes play central role in the distinctively American poetic voice that energizes the multiple editions of Leaves of Grass. Contemporary African American poet, novelist, and painter Clarence Major has lived and worked for much of his adult life in the West, so it not surprising that its material and figurative landscapes are also central to his multiple artistic projects. In addition, Major consciously engages Whitman's imagined West in his essays and poetry, and his poem set on the coast of Northwestern California, September Mendocino, direct response to Whitman's better-known Song of the Redwood-Tree. Whitman's poem, composed in the year after his paralytic stroke on January 23, 1873, was first published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1874. September Mendocino, written in 1995, was first published in Configurations, 1998 anthology of Major's poetry. Although over one-hundred years separate their imaginative encounters with the Western landscape, both poems map the contours of the national imaginary onto that territory. Considered together, Song of the Redwood-Tree and September trace the trajectory of changing thresholds of American wonder.When Song of the Redwood-Tree was published, Mendocino County, California, was just twenty-four years old, one of the original twenty-seven counties that were established with statehood in 1850. The pre-historic home of Native Americans, estimated to have lived in the area from 7,000 BC, Mendocino saw the first long-term Spanish settlements in the mid-1600s and the first non-Spanish, European American settlements in 1852-just four years after gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill. In the same year newspapers across the country ignited the nation's imagination with reports of the of giant redwoods in the Sierra Nevada. Only scant year afterwards, traveling redwood exhibits began to make the four-month journey from San Francisco to the Eastern seaboard, and by 1856 exhibits traveled all the way to the Crystal Palace in London.1 For most Americans in Whitman's lifetime, their first contact with an actual redwood tree would in fact not be in its natural habitat but through these traveling bark exhibits and within the context of the nineteenth-century discourses of discovery and progress to which they contributed.2When Major published his late twentieth-century poem, the Mendocino coastline had taken on rather different character. Perched high on cliffabove the headland where the Big River empties into the Pacific, the scenic town of Mendocino now one of the favorite stops for wine tourism on the northern California coast. While the quaint village far separated from the rough-and-tumble logging area to which Whitman tied his hopes for the nation's future, it clear that the discovery of Whitman's poetry played an important role in Major's conception of poetic possibility. In an essay entitled, Discovering Walt Whitman, Major describes his amazement when, as young black man growing up on the South Side of Chicago, he first came across Whitman's Leaves of Grass in a Catholic Salvage Store.3 As he explains, there was never any Whitman in school. There was Shakespeare. Whitman was too revolutionary for South Side high schools (ND, 30). Finding special importance in Whitman's struggle against social restrictions, Major groups his discovery of the poet with those he made of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Phillis Wheatley. Later, when working on the Dictionary of Afro-American Slang, Major found Whitman's comments about language instructive, especially his observation that language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary-makers, but . . . has its basis broad and low, close to the ground (qtd. in ND, 30). Long before he wrote September Mendocino, then, Major's of Whitman seemed to capture the aspiring writer's growing sense of the capabilities of language and the promise of his own artistic future. …