Haven for endangered species San Diego County is thought to be the most biologically diverse county in the continental United States. But due largely to habitat loss and fragmentation, it is also a hot spot for extinction, having one of the highest numbers of threatened and endangered species. NRS reserves offer refuges where the protection of a variety of dwindling native habitats and listed species, such as the California least tern and Belding's savanna sparrow, can be studied. Predator explosions from the boundaries put the clapper rail at risk. To help provide safer nesting habitat, Zembal built tumbleweed-covered wooden rafts and anchored them in the marsh.
Rails build some of their nests on the rafts' tangly brush.
Working also to promote genetic diversity and reduce possible inbreeding, Zembal carefully translocates rail eggs between nests in the Kendall-Frost Marsh and Upper Newport Bay. The scientists find healthy nests at the same stage of incubation so the rails can't tell the difference and raise the changelings as their own. And the clapper rail is just my part of the action. You can't just put a fence around a place and keep everything and everyone out. We need to study and understand more about these natural communities to learn how to manage and protect them.