FYI:
-----Original Message-----
From:  [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of

Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 4:49 PM
To: 
Subject: [fws-news] Songbird Missing from Central Valley for 60 Years
Reappears at San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge 

**************************************************************
This message is from the fws-news listserver.  Please DO NOT REPLY (it just
confuses the computers).

Subscribers can't reply or send their own messages to the fws-news
listserver. This listserver is designed mainly as a "one way street" for the
rapid dissemination of information concerning the Service and its
activities, rather than for gathering feedback.  To contact us, see the
explanatory note at bottom of the message.
**************************************************************
June 15, 2005
Contact: Al Donner 916-414-6566
               Jim Nickles 916-414-6572

             Songbird Missing from Central Valley for 60 Years
          Reappears at San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge

                 CALFED Funds Began Successful Restoration

      A husky-voiced little songbird once common in California's Central
Valley but not heard there for the last 60 years has reappeared on the San
Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) west of Modesto.

      The least Bell's vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus) is a musical, chatty
bird.  Some males have up to 15 different songs that finish with a
distinctive, "cheedle, jeew." That song was heard by bird counter Lynette
Lina along the banks of the San Joaquin River last Friday, who then verified
it with other bird monitors. On Tuesday, they were able to record the birds
to confirm the species.

      The sighting of a nesting pair of least Bell's vireo occurred on the
refuge, a unit of the San Luis NWR Complex that was restored under the
CALFED program. The restoration began just three years ago and was completed
this spring. In that time, the former farm field has quickly grown into a
tangle of willows, blackberry, wild rose and other native riverside plants,
some already 30 feet high. It is reminiscent of the original valley
riverside habitat, and least Bell's vireos soon found the area, even though
they haven't nested in the Central Valley for 85 years.

      "Hearing the least Bell's vireo again demonstrates that a good
recovery plan, committed partners and resources to carry it out, can bring
many species back to life in areas where they seemed lost forever," said
Steve Thompson, manager of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's
California-Nevada Operations Office.

      The wildlife refuges increasingly play a major role in the survival
and recovery of species.  The Aleutian Canada goose, for example, recovered
from the brink of extinction after it began wintering at the same San
Joaquin River refuge.

      The least Bell's vireo once was common from Red Bluff down throughout
the Central Valley and south into Baja California. But the removal of 90 per
cent of the riparian habitat resulted in their steep decline. The last time
least Bell's vireo breeding was confirmed in the valley was 1919. By the
1940s birders could no longer hear them in the Valley. Exhaustive searches
for the bird in the 1970s and 1980s also came up empty-handed, and
biologists sadly concluded that the bird no longer nested in the valley.

       When the least Bell's vireo was federally listed as endangered in
1986 only 300 pairs were left, all along small streams in Southern
California.

      This week's success is the outcome of a broad partnership involving at
least nine different organizations. CALFED spawned the effort in 1998 when
it provided key funds to purchase an 800-acre farm owned by the late Ed
Hagemann. Many other agencies also contributed, among them the Natural
Resources Conservation Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the
California Resources Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Audubon
Society.

      Three years ago, CALFED provided funds to the San Luis NWR to restore
a 164-acre section along the San Joaquin River where the least Bell's vireo
now has nested. The restoration quickly filled in the farmed land with
classic Central Valley riparian habitat.

      The hands-on restoration work was an adaptive effort by three
conservation partners -- PRBO Conservation Science, River Partners and the
Endangered Species Restoration Program at CSU-Stanislaus. Each year they
made refinements to improve the quality of habitat being developed for
native bird and animal species. The process is closely monitored by PRBO and
ESRP, two wildlife organizations that work closely with state and federal
agencies to monitor special species.

      Geoff  Geupel of PRBO said the least Bell's vireo's return "is a
success for CALFED's adaptive management approach to habitat restoration."
Learning from earlier restoration efforts, they planted more shrubby
understory and created a varied pattern of planting that mimics the natural
floodplain habitat.  That created an area perfect for the least Bell's vireo
-- dense shrubby understory.

                                    ###


The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency
responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and
plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.
The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System,
which encompasses 544 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands
and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish
hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological services field
stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the
Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores
nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat
such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments
with their conservation efforts.  It also oversees the Federal Assistance
program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes
on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
***************************************************************************
News releases are also available on the World Wide Web at
http://news.fws.gov

Questions concerning a particular news release or item of information should
be directed to the person listed as the contact. General comments or
observations concerning the content of the information should be directed to
Mitch Snow () in the Office of Public Affairs.

To unsubscribe from the fws-news listserver, send e-mail to
 Enter "unsubscribe" in the subject field.
.
***************************************************************************