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This report demonstrates a possible watershed-based approach to evaluating mitigation sites using the California Rapid Assessment Method (CRAM). The Santa Clara Valley Water District (Valley Water) is leading the Llagas Creek Flood Control Project in the upper Pajaro River watershed, Santa Clara County, CA. Mitigation for the Project involves enhancing riverine wetlands on-site (within the flood control channel) and restoring riverine wetlands and enhancing depressional wetlands at Lake Silveira, in the Llagas Creek watershed. Valley Water is incorporating CRAM into its planning and assessment of mitigation efforts and Valley Water's Priority D.5 Project's Pajaro River Watershed ambient stream condition survey (2015) provided the watershed context for evaluating project conditions against the general ecological conditions of streams within the watershed - employing CRAM. This WRAMP demonstration compared pre-project ecological condition assessments (employing CRAM) from the project's impact and mitigation sites to ambient watershed conditions and estimated the amount of ecological lift expected in the future as a result of the planned mitigation and restoration efforts.

This report details plans associated with the pilot near-field water sampling for the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP). The RMP recently reviewed the Status & Trends (S&T) Program and added a pilot effort to quantify contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in Bay water in areas near (“near-field” of) expected loading pathways during or shortly after storm events and during the dry season. For the first year of the pilot (Water Year 2022), the near-field design included three targeted, near-field stations and four ambient Bay stations. Subsequent years added a fourth near-field station. Samples will be collected at these stations during or shortly after two storm events, and once in the dry season. The analytes that are being measured include bisphenols, organophosphate esters (OPEs), PFAS, and a suite of stormwater CECs.

This report details sampling and analysis plans associated with the pilot near-field water sampling for the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP). The RMP added a pilot effort to the  Status & Trends (S&T) Program to quantify contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in Bay water in areas near (“near-field” of) expected loading pathways during or shortly after storm events and during the dry season. For the first year of the pilot (Water Year 2022), the near-field design included three targeted, near-field stations and four ambient Bay stations. A fourth near-field station was added in subsequent years. Samples are collected at these stations during or shortly after two storm events, and once in the dry season. The analytes being measured include bisphenols, organophosphate esters (OPEs), PFAS-target, PFAS-TOP, and a suite of stormwater CECs.

This report describes baseline information about the amount and distribution of aquatic resources, and evaluates the overall ecological conditions of streams using the California Rapid Assessment Method (CRAM), for the West Valley watershed in Santa Clara County; consisting of Sunnyvale East and West Channels, Calabazas Creek, San Tomas Aquino and Saratoga creeks, and many smaller tributaries.

1. Preserving and restoring wildlife in urban areas benefits both urban ecosystems and the well-being of urban residents. While urban wildlife conservation is a rapidly developing field, the majority of conservation research has been performed in wildland areas. Understanding the applicability of wildland science to urban populations and the relative importance of factors limiting species persistence are of critical importance to identifying prescriptive management strategies for restoring wildlife to urban parks.
2. We evaluated how habitat fragmentation, habitat quality and mortality threats influence species occupancy and persistence in urban parks. We chose California quail Callipepla californica as a representative species with potential to respond to urban conservation. We used publicly available eBird data to construct occupancy models of quail in urban parks across their native range, and present an application using focal parks interested in exploring quail reintroduction.
3. Urban parks had a 0.23 ± 0.02 probability of quail occupancy, with greater occupancy in larger parks that were less isolated from potential source populations, had higher shrub cover and had lower impervious cover. Less isolated parks had higher colonization rates, while larger parks had lower extinction rates. These results align with findings across urban ecology showing greater biodiversity in larger and more highly connected habitat patches.
4. A case study highlighted that interventions to increase effective park size and improve connectivity would be most influential for two highly urban focal parks, while changes to internal land cover would have a relatively small impact. Low joint extinction probability in the parks (0.010 ± 0.013) indicated reintroduced populations could persist for some time.
5. Synthesis and applications. We show how eBird data can be harnessed to evaluate the responsiveness of wildlife to urban parks of variable size, connectivity and habitat quality, highlighting what management actions are most needed. Using California quail as an example, we found park size, park isolation and presence of coyotes are all important drivers of whether quail can colonize and persist in parks. Our results suggest reintroducing quail to parks could be successful provided parks are large enough to support quail, and management actions are taken to enhance regional connectivity or periodic assisted colonization is used to supplement local populations.

Meeting human and ecological needs within San Francisco Bay’s watersheds is increasingly challenged by flooding, water quality degradation, and habitat loss, exacerbated by intensified urbanization and climate change. Addressing these challenges requires implementing multi-benefit strategies through new partnerships and increased coordination across the region’s diverse landscapes. Actions to improve water quality and enhance habitat for biodiversity in our highly developed and managed landscapes can help the region as a whole to build resilience to withstand current pressures and future change. The EPA-funded project, “Preparing for the Storm,” aims to address these challenges at the site- and landscape-scale through studies and implementation projects in the Livermore-Amador Valley. As part of this larger project, this technical report presents a synthesis of water quality and habitat improvement opportunities for a golf course of Castlewood Country Club.

The goal of this Training and Outreach Plan is to increase the overall awareness and use  of the WRAMP datasets and tools in support of wetland resource planning,  management, and project performance tracking in California. Specifically, a near-term  goal is to develop modular training sessions that can be linked together in different  ways to customize how the datasets, monitoring methods, and online tools might be  used for different purposes.