Just like thousands of others in the North Bay, we at Audubon Canyon Ranch are picking up the pieces after the recent fires. We are heartbroken to learn of friends who have lost loved ones, and for whole neighborhoods destroyed. Two of our staff members lost their homes when ACR’s 535-acre Bouverie Preserve in Glen Ellen burned during the Nuns fire. Our near-term goal is to support our community as they figure out the way forward. We also have a long-term goal: to learn from the resiliency of nature, and to use that knowledge to prepare our community to better weather the next firestorm.

For ecologists, resilience is how a system responds to a major disturbance. What species traits give rise to a system that can recover from or resist a major perturbation? ACR’s ecologists and...

It’s been one year since ACR fitted our first Sonoma County mountain lion (P1) with a GPS collar. Late last month, we recaptured her to replace the collar's battery and check on her overall health.

P1, our 10- to 11-year-old grande dame, has already provided us with reams of data as well as a window into the lives of these compelling cats. A stealthy supermom, she is also wowing us with her parenting skills. When we first began tracking her, P1 was traveling with two nearly grown offspring. We collared the female (P2) of the sibling duo in November 2016.

Off to new territories
Then, in late December, P1 sent both of her young adults packing right on schedule. Young mountain lions typically disperse from their mother at 12 to...

This past weekend, ACR Mountain Lion Project lead Dr. Quinton Martins noticed GPS cluster points in the Glen Ellen - Sonoma area that indicated a potential feeding site for one of our research subjects, P1, a female adult lion who had a litter of three kittens in April. Excited to know how the kittens were doing, Quinton raced out to set up a camera to document mom and kittens on the kill. On arrival, he found an adult buck neatly cached in a thicket of manzanita, poison oak and blackberry bushes. Footage retrieved the following day revealed that two of the three kittens had survived to the 4-month mark. In this video, one of the kittens...

Named for nationally renowned naturalist and educator, Elizabeth Terwilliger (known affectionately as Mrs. T), the award annually honors an educator who 

• Is actively involved in teaching the public to appreciate and protect the natural environment 
• Has made a significant difference and a real impact on the Bay Area 
• Inspires children and adults to love nature by making the study of nature interesting, fun...