Assessing a Burn (with bonus toads !)

On thursday, we went out to a portion of a grazing allotment that had accidentally been burned two years ago. We set up a long-term transect for monitoring plant cover and composition so we can observe how the area recovers from the fire. Following a line-point intercept method, we measured cover every meter along each of three 50m transects. You can do this by dropping a pin flag and looking at what it touches, but we're fortunate enough to have a slick laser with a bubble level that we can use. The method is quick and will allow us to make calculations and reassess the area in a few years.

Monitoring Manual for Grassland, Shrubland, and Savanna Ecosystems (Vol. 1) (pdf)

transect 1

using the laser

Since we were in the area, afterwards we visited the pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) site. First Jeff, our range con, wanted to make sure I saw the "frogs" in a pool filled by an artesian well. They turned out to be cute little toad metamorphs, but I didn't realize until I looked them up that they're Great Basin spadefoot toads (Spea intermontana) ! They don't have any special status in California, but spadefoots are really cool. They spend 7-8 months of the year underground, aestivating in summer or hibernating in winter. This makes the adults difficult to see, but the little toadlets weren't ready to venture out of their birth pool yet. Next year I'd like to visit the pool again and see if I can catch the males calling, which is described sounding like "a flock of ducks slowed down". The well is currently connected to a trough which isn't being used, but when it is the level of the pool lowers. Jeff is interested in altering the setup to disconnect the two and perhaps increase the size of the pool. That would certainly help out the toads!

As we poked around looking at the different pygmy rabbit burrows, we were surprised by the amount of "tic-tac" scat piled around, diagnostic of the species. We even flushed a few, getting pretty good looks at their apparently tail-less behinds as they scurried away. We set up a camera with an infrared trigger outside of a burrow that appeared to be recently used. Even in our modern, digital age, the setup that's believed to be the best is a film camera with flash. I can't wait to find out if we get anything !

Great Basin spadefoot toad metamorph

camera setup outside a pygmy rabbit burrow