Welcome to the San Joaquin Valley Chapter
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What’s New:
Save The Date
Safe Rattlesnake Handling Workshop – March 8, 2025
The Bakersfield BLM Office – Bakersfield, CA
The San Joaquin Valley Chapter of The Wildlife Society in collaboration with Dr. Emily Taylor of Central Coast Snake Services presents the 2025 Safe Rattlesnake Handling Workshop located in Bakersfield, California. The workshop will consist of a half-day classroom session covering ecology, conservation, identification, and behavior of rattlesnakes and a half-day hands-on session, where individuals will take turns learning how to properly and safely handle a rattlesnake under the guidance of Dr. Emily Taylor. This session will begin right after lunch and end approximately around 3 pm. Registration will open the week of January 20, 2025. Click here for the flier.
Rattlesnakes of California
The San Joaquin Valley Chapter of the Wildlife Society is proud to present this apparel campaign celebrating the underappreciated and misunderstood rattlesnakes of California. Rattlesnakes are an amazing group of animals with complex social behaviors, parental care, and have important roles in California’s ecology. Help celebrate them and show a new face for these snakes!
Are you attending or have you attended one of our Safe Rattlesnake Handling Workshops? Commemorate your attendance and show it off with these fun shirts and sweaters! Or just order one to help support a great cause.
Profits from sales will go toward Central Coast Snake Services (CCSS) to help fund their free snake relocations offered to the community. Founded by Dr. Emily Taylor in 2019, CCSS has the goal of “helping people and snakes coexist.” Interested in finding out more about the group, their methods and their cause? Visit their website here: https://www.centralcoastsnakeservices.com/
The Chapter thanks artist Susie Garcia for her design. Kudos for the great art!
Announcing Conference Grants for Students and Early Career Professionals
The San Joaquin Valley Chapter of The Wildlife Society is offering 5 travel grants for up to $965 each to cover registration, travel and lodging costs for the Annual 2025 Western Section Conference for Chapter members! This is a fantastic opportunity to attend a great meeting, with many networking and educational opportunities. If you are interested in applying please submit the following qualifications to Lori Bono at lori.bono@wildlife.ca.gov by January 6, 2025:
- Be a current San Joaquin Valley Chapter member (only 5 bucks to join);
- Submit proof you are a current student or have graduated within the last three years (ex. school transcripts);
- Submit a brief summary of yourself;
- Apply by January 6, 2025; and
- Keep all receipts for reimbursement (i.e. registration, lodging, and gas).
We have a subscription link for our mailing list! It’s a great way to stay in-touch with the Chapter.
Brian Cypher’s new book, The San Joaquin Kit Fox, will ship out on October 5th, 2024 – see flyer for a 30% discount!
An Introductory Guide to the Plants of the Southern San Joaquin Valley
We have a February 2024 newsletter available here.
Complete Volumes of the Western Section’s journal, Western Wildlife, are now available as a single publication: click here to access.
Jeff Davis and others have researched the history of the San Joaquin Valley Chapter of The Wildlife Society. Jeff consolidated his findings into a summary table, available here, dating back to 1966.
It’s time to renew your membership! Perhaps you renew through TWS (international) or with the Western Section. If not, you may use the Membership Form and send it to us with the ridiculously small $5 annual fee.
The Transactions of the Western Section of the Wildlife Society is available here (years 1966-2010). The Transactions has been renamed to Western Wildlife and is available here.
News from our members:
Petros Chrysafis helps Californians ‘like the wildlife they live with’ by taking a unique approach to deterring livestock killings. Click here for the story!
Events:
In 2025 we are forming committees to plan a BNLL workshop in the spring and perhaps a Legless Lizard workshop and/or a bumblebee workshop. If interesting in helping with these committees please send a message to the chapter!
Announcements:
eMammal Snapshot USA: Camera Study in the Sierra Nevada
During 2019 and 2020 Petros Chrysafis participated in eMammal’s Snapshot USA. Snapshot USA is a nationwide effort to obtain camera trap data from all 50 states and from a variety of habitats. Petros represented Central California by setting up camera traps in some of the most representative habitats present in the area. Linked here are published works as a result of the research efforts. He was a recipient of a chapter student research grant and we are excited to share his progress!