HISTORIC AND RECENT WINTER SANDHILL CRANE DISTRIBUTION IN CALIFORNIA

Authors

Gary L. Ivey, International Crane Foundation
Caroline P. Herziger, P.O. Box 8221, Bend, OR
David A. Hardt, 2550 Sycamore Court, Wasco, CA
Gregory H. Golet, The Nature Conservancy

Date of this Version

2016

Document Type

Article

Citation

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CRANE WORKSHOP 13:54-66

Comments

Copyright © 2016 North American Crane Working Group. Used by permission.

Proceedings may include articles not presented at Workshop.

Abstract

Understanding the geographic distribution and long-term dynamics of winter foraging areas and night roost sites of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) is important to their conservation and management. We studied sandhill crane distribution in California’s Central Valley from December 2012 through February 2013. We mapped observed flock and night roost locations. Flock locations occurred between Tehama County in the north and Kern County in the south. Flocks were concentrated in the northern Sacramento Valley, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the northern San Joaquin Valley south of Tracy to Mendota (including the lower Stanislaus and Tuolumne River floodplains and the Grasslands Region), and the southern San Joaquin Valley in the vicinity of Pixley in Tulare County. We also reviewed records of historic occurrences of cranes in California to interpret the importance of our flock and night roost locations. Although cranes wintered in the Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco Bay metropolitan areas in the 19th and early 20th centuries, they no longer occur in significant numbers in these areas due to widespread habitat loss. Three additional areas which were used in the mid-20th century have apparently been abandoned or are being used only infrequently: the Red Bluff area (along the Sacramento River between Red Bluff and Anderson, Tehama County), the Goose Lake area (Kern County), and the Carrizo Plain (San Luis Obispo County). The primary cause of site abandonment at these sites is loss of suitable foraging habitat (small grain crops). With the exception of the Southern San Joaquin region, crane winter range has expanded in the Central Valley since the 1960s. Range expansion has principally been due to expansion of public wildlife refuges and private sanctuaries, plus improvements in their management (including reductions in hunting disturbance). To improve habitat conditions for cranes across their Central Valley wintering range, we recommend that management be focused on protection, enhancement, and creation of crane habitat complexes, each of which should contain 1 or more roost sites surrounded by sufficient well-managed foraging habitat. The following conservation strategies (listed in order of priority) should be implemented for each major crane wintering region: 1) protect existing, unprotected roost sites by fee-title acquisition or conservation easements (prioritize among sites according to their importance to greater sandhill cranes; G. c. tabida); 2) protect foraging landscapes around existing roosts, primarily through easements restricting development and crop types that are incompatible to cranes; 3) enhance food availability within those landscapes by improving foraging conditions on conservation lands and providing annual incentives for improvements on private lands; and 4) create additional protected roost sites toward the edge of their existing range where birds can access additional foraging areas.