Birds, Lizards, Murals, and Cottonwood Trees Show How Conservation Is Rooted in Central Valley Communities

Okay, I’ll admit it: taking the 5 or the 99 up through California’s Central Valley isn’t always the most beautiful drive for a road trip. Instead, most people would say to take the 1 to see famous coastal California vistas, or the 395 to bask in the majesty of the Eastern Sierra.

However, straying even slightly off of the main highways will bring you to beautiful rolling hills, lush riparian habitat, and humble foothills at the base of the tallest mountains in the contiguous United States.

So, when I got the chance to schedule visits with some of the chapters in the Central Valley, I was thrilled and immediately picked up a map to plan my route (rather, I opened a new tab and pulled up an online map. The 5 and the 99 would be my tap roots and state or local roads would carry me to each chapter, so I could see firsthand the community-building and conservation work within our California flock.

Fresno Audubon Society

My first visit was with Fresno Audubon Society to learn a bit more about their budding partnership with the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. The two organizations worked together this year to purchase and install a Motus tower in a public location at the zoo. The tower is paired with signage to inform visitors about the importance of Motus tracking projects.

Many folks familiar with bird conservation recognize that Motus towers and tags are currently the best technology allowing researchers to gather key information on bird movement, cluing us into species and locations to focus conservation efforts.

For example, one of Fresno Audubon Society’s current projects is to help install an east-west path of full Motus tower coverage through the Central Valley. This would provide a thorough dataset to inform conservation, as every tagged bird traveling through will be picked up by a tower.

And it turns out, it’s not just birds! I was totally taken aback to learn that Motus towers are also gathering novel data on Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizards. Conservation staff at the zoo are working to protect this species, so they engineered a way to affix Motus tags to the lizards and see what they get up to when no one is watching.

They already knew that these lizards hibernate during the hottest months, but what they’ve found thanks to Motus technology is that some individual Blunt-Nosed Leopard Lizards can skip emergence and stay underground for over a year!

Learning that Fresno Audubon Society and the Fresno Chaffee Zoo are working together to study and protect species across the animal kingdom using shared Motus technology left me full of inspiration and energy as I hopped back on the road towards Modesto—this time on the 99.

Stanislaus Audubon Society

After a couple of days with agricultural fields as my backdrop, it was a nice change of scenery to drive into a forest and join Stanislaus Audubon Society for a public birding field trip at Caswell Memorial State Park in Ripon. The group gathered in the parking lot as early morning sunshine filtered through the old growth cottonwood canopy.
 

After a round of introductions from all the birders and a background of the park by Stanislaus Audubon Society’s President, Sal, we made our way along the trail to see what we could find.

The highlight of the trip for me came towards the very end—we saw a male Black-Chinned Hummingbird clearly vying for a female by repeatedly flying over her in quick figure-8 patterns as she sat watching on the ground. Everyone was in awe of the spirited hummingbird display in clear view to end the bird outing.

Sal then took me on a mini-tour of Modesto, including a new native bird education panel that the chapter installed on a popular urban trail thanks to their partnership with the City of Modesto, and several bird-themed murals among the over 100 murals within the city.

We also visited non-birdy sites, like the historic State Theater and drove by a hip, community-centered coffee shop called The Queen Bean Coffee House, which hosts live music, poetry readings, and comedy shows in their garden.

As I sat at the Queen Bean the next morning, I reflected on how nice it was to be offered a peek into the culture and history of Modesto in addition to the planned bird walk. Nature, conservation, art, community, and advocacy are all intertwined—when community members holistically explore a place together, we’re more prepared to work as one, and fight side-by-side for natural and cultural resources alike.

Yosemite Area Audubon Society

My next chapter visit to Yosemite Area Audubon Society took me east towards the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. As I made my way up the windy road towards Mariposa, the familiar solitude of the Sierra became apparent.

Every Audubon Society and Bird Alliance is its own independent organization, which means they each have their own governing board and must develop their own audience and community. In a gateway town like Mariposa with a limited permanent population, the challenge to reach and grow a consistent audience is amplified.

However, Mariposa being a gateway town to Yosemite National Park also offers a unique puzzle—how can we reach the enormous tourist population that travels through the town and offer enticing opportunities for engagement? Travelers in Mariposa are nearly limitless in their origin, as the park attracts global visitors, but this also means that their connection to the place is very different from a California resident, let alone a local.

This isn’t to say that tourists to a place care less about it than a resident. In general, tourists choose their destination very intentionally. Their ephemerality creates an opportunity to strategize around short-term, meaningful micro-engagements.

For example, instead of developing a comprehensive Birds of Yosemite training course that spans several weeks, energy might be better spent developing an attractive and engaging Birds & Beer program that is easily marketable and discoverable for passers-through, with funds benefiting local avian conservation projects.

Yosemite Area Audubon Society and I sat at Castillo’s Mexican Restaurant long after finishing our meals, brainstorming ways to host programming that will benefit the community’s ever-shifting population of travelers and residents, birds and humans alike. Our conversation made clear to me that wherever you look, in every urban or remote corner of the world, you will find dedicated advocates for our avian neighbors.

Sacramento Bird Alliance

The farthest north that my road trip took me was Sacramento, where I sat down with a couple board members of Sacramento Bird Alliance for a casual chat over some nosh. Our conversation took us all over the place, with a common thread of collaboration and partnership.

The board described various local nonprofits in Sacramento that take on different roles in the community—like river clean-ups, community services, and of course, the Bird Alliance’s role in avian conservation—and we wondered how those priorities might align for collaborative, co-hosted events. If an organization is hosting a river clean-up, could a community services organization join to help serve locals living along the river? And, while folks are gathering at the river, could the Bird Alliance offer a guided birding experience to more deeply connect the group to the environment?

Later, we were joined by Audubon California’s Working Lands Program Director, and we discussed how to balance priorities between different land managers on the same property, something that shows up often in places like ranches or sanctuaries.

One such site is Bobelaine Sanctuary, with Audubon California as the landowner and Sacramento Bird Alliance as a land manager. As we explored different possibilities for habitat restoration at the site, we recognized that our priorities, experiences, expertise, and resources will have to be carefully considered and juggled before collaboratively crafting a restoration plan for a place that is passionately loved and shared by so many.

There’s never going to be one universal solution to optimize meeting the needs of multiple parties, but the first step will always include the same thing: simply opening up a discussion. There are infinite options for what comes next, but as we sat over a plate of snacks, I was convinced that food should always be part of the equation, too.

San Joaquin Audubon Society

On the final visit of my Central Valley Road Trip, I met some leaders from San Joaquin Audubon Society for a casual walk and talk at Lodi Lake. We parked along a residential street overlooking the sunny lake before heading into the fenced-in, shaded Wilderness Area.

Transitioning from the open, bright lakeside with a perimeter road, parking lot, houses, kayak rentals, and swimming beaches to the Wilderness Area with trails to explore, tons of shade, habitat diversity, and wildlife protection was like stepping through a portal into a hidden dell. I found myself really admiring the site and the accessibility that it offers to community members. Folks that prefer active recreation like water sports can dig into nature exploration at the Wilderness Area a few yards away, and folks that prefer passive recreation like hiking can dip their toes into water sports at the lake just outside of the fence.

Places like Lodi Lake, where activities and communities intersect, are valuable local resources for expanding our flock of advocates who will speak up for birds and the places they need. When we wrapped up our walk, I noticed that San Joaquin Audubon Society is already aware of the importance of active presence in these spaces—as we walked back to our cars along the residential street, the chapter leaders were telling me about some of the folks that they see each time they host a bird walk, and we ended up spending a few moments chatting with a woman sitting in her lakeview front yard.

Little interactions like this—consistent visits, stops to chat, quick hellos to passersby, mid-trip reports to interested parties—are not only a great first step to building a relationship with the local community, it also makes each day brighter for everyone.

In the end, my road trip was not bookended with long driving segments. Instead, I capped it off with a flight back home from Sacramento to Los Angeles. The bird’s eye view of California as I flew back was the perfect time to reflect on my experiences in the Central Valley.

In the tome of my visits, highways and huge farms were the spine, and the pages were decorated with small town roads, the rolling hills of local ranches, pockets of old growth trees, winding streams, and lively communities filled with history and culture. Whenever I get the chance to return, these memories and experiences will carry me up the 5 with anticipation and excitement for another Central Valley adventure.