GeomorphIS, LLC will participate in the Sacramento River Watershed Program, the Statewide Watershed Program, and the State Water Resources Control Board’s second Statewide Watershed Management Forum at The Mission Inn Riverside located in Riverside, California on February 25-27, 2014. The purpose of the forum is to explore ways to improve collaboration and integration of watershed communities at all levels. Topics of discuss will include: How we can collaborate and share more effectively at all scales; what tools and models are available now and what would be useful to add; tracking performance at a watershed scale (collecting and/or consolidating information on a watershed basis); and inclusion of socio-economic metrics in watershed management decision-making.

GeomorphIS, LLC is co-sponsoring the Desert Tortoise Council’s 39th Annual Symposium, to be held at the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel, Ontario, California, 21-23 February 2014. This is the second year that GeomorphIS has sponsored the Symposium at the “Silver” sponsorship level. We look forward to seeing our friends and associates at this event. For more information about the Symposium, go to www.deserttortoise.org/symposium.

GeomorphIS, LLC established a Facebook page two years ago with a goal of making it a focal point for information on the environmental effects of resource use and development in the arid regions of southern California. Since then, our Facebook “timeline” has consolidated dozens of current online news reports on desert tortoise and other sensitive wildlife and habitat potentially affected by renewable energy projects in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts; development and restoration of the Salton Sea and Lower Colorado River; and other environmental issues associated with the work GeomorphIS does. We look forward to continuing providing this “news service” to GeomorphIS associates, colleagues, and the interested public into the future. Checkout the latest news on our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/GeomorphIS-LLC/213465755386730.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office, has tasked GeomorphIS, LLC to produce an Environmental Assessment (EA) for designation of Critical Habitat for the proposed threatened Western Distinct Population Segment of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus). The proposed critical habitat is located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. GeomorphIS NEPA planners, avian specialists, and GIS analysts will work with the USFWS multi-regional team to prepare the Draft and Final EAs, incorporating public and agency comments on the proposed listing.

GeomorphIS has been awarded a task order under our Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest (NAVFAC SW) natural resources IDIQ contract to conduct a station-wide survey of the federally endangered Stephens kangaroo rat (Dipodomys stephensi) at the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Detachment Fallbrook, California during the 2013 and 2014 seasons.