California State University, Stanislaus Endangered Species Recovery Program

News

• CSU Stanislaus scientists honored for Kit Fox scent dog research work

  A research project on the endangered San Joaquin kit fox conducted by a group of California State University, Stanislaus scientists and collaborators at the Smithsonian Institution has been recognized with a prestigious award by the Southwestern Association of Naturalists for their paper Relative abundance of endangered San Joaquin kit foxes (Vulpes macrotis mutica) based on scat-detection dog surveys.

  
  Deborah Smith with Rio, a dog specially trained for scat detection.

  The Arkansas-based conservation organization awarded the 2007 George Miksch Sutton Award in Conservation Research to a seven-member scientific team that included Dr. Patrick Kelly, CSU Stanislaus Professor of Zoology and Coordinator of the University's Endangered Species Recovery Program (ESRP); Dr. Dan Williams, retired CSU Stanislaus Professor of Zoology and founder and former coordinator of the ESRP; and Dr. Brian Cypher, ESRP Associate Director and Research Ecologist who directs the University program's Bakersfield office. The project was led by Dr. Deborah Smith of Hughson, a founding partner of the non-profit Working Dogs for Conservation Foundation, toward completion of her Ph.D. at the University of Washington. Dr. Katherine Ralls and Dr. Jesus Maldonado of the Smithsonian Institution and Howard Clark Jr., formerly a wildlife biologist with ESRP, were also actively involved in the research.

  Full copy of press release

  
  

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• Return of the Rabbits, ESRP featured cover story in California State University, Stanislaus Magazine.
  
  

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Employment Opportunities

• Lab Assistant II, Turlock, CA

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About the Program

The Endangered Species Recovery Program is a cooperative research program on biodiversity conservation in central California, administered by California State University, Stanislaus Foundation.

The program was established in August 1992 at the request and with the support of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Reclamation, under the direction of Dr. Dan Williams at CSU Stanislaus. Over the past decade, ESRP has grown into a cooperative research program working with local, State, and Federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, corporations, and private land owners.

ESRP is composed of about 30 biologists, students, and support staff, several research associates, and numerous collaborators in government and universities worldwide whose combined expertise and contributions are integral to the recovery of threatened and endangered species in Central California. ESRP biologists are based in Fresno, Turlock, Bakersfield, and the Bay Area.

Mission Statement

The Endangered Species Recovery Program's mission is to facilitate endangered species recovery and resolve conservation conflicts through scientifically based recovery planning and implementation.

Narrative

The central elements in the recovery of endangered and threatened species are: identifying the biological processes critical to achieving self-sustaining populations of jeopardized species and their ecosystems; developing sound species recovery and natural community management prescriptions; and identifying the social interests and entities that must be reconciled and work together in implementing recovery strategies. Such a recovery process necessarily implies the integration of all planning and implementation actions within a broadly inclusive public-private partnership to achieve a product that is environmentally sound, economically feasible, and socially equitable.