Epic snowpack throws Sierra Nevada ecosystems into turmoil
The whiplash change from extreme drought to epic snowpack is having very different consequences for a variety of species …Ryan Burnett, head of the nonprofit Point Blue Conservation Science’s Sierra Nevada group, agrees. “It’s a complicated situation for both wildlife and wildlife managers. For example, protected migratory birds will continue moving north along the Pacific Flyway because they didn’t get the memo that there was 30 feet of snow on their rest stops in the Sierras,” he said. “But birds endemic to the American West that nest close to the ground at high elevations, such as white-crowned sparrows, just don’t breed in heavy snow years like this one.”
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