Projektin One Tam Peak Health Päiväkirja

About the project

In 2016, the land managers on Mt. Tam and scientists came together to try to answer a question: How healthy is Mt. Tam? Together, the group looked at data from different plant communities and animal taxa and arrived at the conclusion that Mt. Tam is in fair health. You can see a summary of the report here: https://www.onetam.org/media/pdfs/Health-Indicator.pdf and learn more about the whole effort here: https://www.onetam.org/peak-health

It turned out we had lots of data for certain organisms and habitat types, but not so much for others. We really use support from the iNaturalist community to fill those knowledge gaps.

California Giant Salamanders are special

California Giant Salamanders (Dicamptodon ensatus) were identified as one of those knowledge gaps. One Tam partners and scientists are coming together to discuss the health of this species in this region as we prepare to reassess the health of Mt. Tamalpais. Amphibians globally are facing threats from habitat destruction and degradation, invasive species, emerging pathogens, and climate change and several species in this region are already being monitored and stewarded. California Giant Salamanders are endemic to California and Mt. Tamalpais and Marin County are an important part of their range (approximately north of Monterey County to south of Mendocino County) One of the first steps in helping One Tam partners understand California Giant Salamanders is better data on their presence in the landscape.

Here's how you can help

• Share your California Giant Salamanders observation coordinates with this iNaturalist project
• Annotate your existing observation with "alive or dead" and life stage, if you feel confident
• Keep making responsible iNat observations (take care not to trample habitat, photograph in situ)
• Sign up to receive updates from this project in your iNat dashboard
• Sign up for the One Tam newsletter at www.onetam.org to get updates about our work, including learning and volunteer opportunities for all ages.
• You can also complete this interest form for occasional updates about community science opportunities with One Tam https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=uMTVOkx2f0mm85kyxZaBMC1-9qkcjpxMiPGlvhP5_j1UNlBBUTRCMU1WQ1UxSjFNNklaVTgyUlBWMi4u

The One Tam Peak Health team is actively working on several taxa and habitat types. Here are the taxa included in this project:

Amphibians

• California Giant Salamander
• Red-legged Frog
• Yellow-legged Frog

Reptiles

• Western Pond Turtle

Birds

• Western Spotted Owl

Terrestrial Gastropods

• Black Westernslug
• Point Reyes Shoulderband Snail
• Marin Hesperian
• Redwood Hesperian