• Butter Butts Everywhere

    March 13, 2023 Out on the north end of the Mitigation Lands there is a beautiful wetland. This time of the year it functions as a small lake where ducks and geese congregate. The Tules and cattails change color with the seasons and grow lush and thick in some areas. Walking out into this area…

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  • Week #10 Grazing Elk

    Watch these impressive Tule Elk bulls graze and interact with each other on the Willits Bypass Mitigation Lands. The bulls have just recently began shedding their antlers from last season to make way for a new set of velvet antlers this spring.

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  • Week #09 Creatures of the Hollow Log

    These critters are very interested in this hollowed out log on the ground in an oak woodland on the Willits Bypass Mitigation Lands. Some of the critters are bold enough to enter the log while others seem to be deterred by scents and signs they do not like.

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  • Winter Tracks and Scat

    February 28, 2023 Winter weather always provides great conditions to go out and look for wildlife tracks. Paul Rezendes writes in his wonderful book, Tracking and the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks and Sign, that “At one time, being able to read tracks and sign was a matter of life and death.…

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  • Willits Mitigation Lands Public Tour March 24, 2023

    On March 24 MCRCD Willits Mitigation Project will be having a free public tour focusing on The Willits Wastewater Treatment Plant ,winter raptors, Tule Elk , and other wildlife. For more information or to RSVP please contact marisela@mcrcd.org .This tour has a limit on participants so please sign up early!

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  • Invitation To Bid – ITB #01A2029 for the Willits Mitigation Lands Maintenance and Enhancement Project

    Invitation to Bid Dated: March 01, 2023 Bid Deadline: 3:00 P.M. March 31, 2023 Request for Bids Instructions The Mendocino County Resource Conservation District (hereinafter MCRCD) invites you to review and respond to this ITB #01A2029, entitled WILLITS MITIGATION LANDS MAINTENANCE AND ENHANCEMENT PROJECT, Mendocino County, CA. In submitting your bid, you shall comply with…

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  • Week #08 Leave it to Winter Beavers

    Watch as these nocturnal beavers make their rounds along this creek side habitat on the Willits Mitigation Lands.

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  • Do You Know This Shy and Elusive Reptile?

    Are you a person that can’t pass a fallen log or flat object on the ground without carefully turning it over to see what could be hiding or living under it? There is a whole ecosystem of ‘fossorial,’ or burrowing creatures that depend on rotting logs or piles of leaves to live under. Recently a…

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  • Week #07 Foraging Striped Skunks

    The Striped Skunk diet consists mainly of insects but they are omnivores that dine on a variety of food including grubs, earthworms, crustaceans, fruit, small mammals, and bird eggs. What they eat largely depends on the time of year and what they can find.

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  • A Cute Mammal With an Odoriferous Reputation

    February 15, 2023 One day last week when a colleague and I were out by Outlet Creek, in the area of the Little Lake Mitigation Lands called the Cox 80, we saw a foraging skunk in the daylight. This was the second time I had seen a striped skunk in that area, and this one…

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  • Week #06 Flying Through an Oak Woodland

    Take a drone drone flight through an oak woodland and over a created wetland on the Willits Bypass Mitigation Project! Drone Pilot: Jake Stubberfield

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  • Life Down Under

    2/7/2023 Walking under the canopy of the oak woodlands is always a pleasant experience. The rains over the weekend have left the low-lying swales and pools full of water. The ground is certainly well saturated at this point. The sun is shining through the occasional cloud, but the air remains crisp in the shaded woodland.…

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