HABITAT

• Conducted review of historical aerial photography back to 1949 to compare historical habitat types to current conditions on site.
• Chronicled all flora and fauna native to the Town of Portola Valley (available in the Habitat Opportunities Report).
• Prepared a Habitat Opportunities Report (available upon request) to establish habitat goals and objectives:
  • Restore native plant species
  • Increase micro-habitat diversity, increase wildlife species abundance and diversity
  • Maintain and improve wildlife corridors
  • Attract and potentially increase occurrences of rare species.
• Addressed habitat goals through designation of six habitat zones:
  • oak savannah
  • rocky outcrop
  • wetland
  • meadow
  • redwood and riparian forest, riparian scrub
  • dry coastal scrub (thicket)

Habitat details

• There is no perimeter fencing on site to allow free movement of wildlife and we are working to augment existing game path.
• Testing the efficacy of planting native grass sod within the wet meadow habitat zones on the property.
• Relocated a large San Francisco dusky-footed woodrat (a California ‘species of special concern’) colony from within a chicken-house roof to a restored woodrat nest site on the southwest corner of the property. The nest structure may be the largest concentration of SF Dusky-footed woodrats ever recorded.
• Conducted preconstruction surveys of nesting birds and adapted construction work to avoid a western scrub jay nest. Monitoring found that all three young scrub jays successfully fledged from the nest.
• Monitored baseline conditions for wildlife on site prior to house deconstruction and construction of new home; longitudinal study by field biologists contracted to monitor site for minimum of 5 years after construction and landscape installation:
  • Monitoring medium-sized mammals using camera traps
  • Monitoring birds using timed searches
  • Monitoring reptiles and amphibians using cover boards
• Monitoring bats using acoustic surveys