PRBO Organization Timeline 1965-present
PRBO’s history demonstrates the breadth of PRBO’s involvement in ecosystem conservation through time.
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
1965
- 1965 PRBO is founded as the Point Reyes Bird Observatory.
- 1966 PRBO's Palomarin Field Station initiates the longest continuous population study of songbirds in western North America.
- 1969 PRBO, in partnership with USFWS, establishes a permanent research station on the Farallon Islands beginning the first and now the longest running long-term study of seabirds and marine mammals in North America.
1970
1971 PRBO initiates the Beached Bird Project as a result of the Chevron Oil Spill in the San Francisco Bay. This project provides the first information on beached birds in the Pacific.
1975
1977 PRBO puts the first nest boxes on the Farrallon Islands, pioneering restoration methods for cavity-nesting seabirds.
1979 PRBO begins a long-term study of coastal scrub community ecology at Palomarin using marked individuals to develop life history information as well as bird-habitat relationships.
1980
- 1982-1990 PRBO data contributes to the establishment of three National Marine Sanctuaries and an international biosphere reserve in central CA
- 1983 PRBO began studies of the California Gull colony on Mono Lake, generating data that prove crucial in the 1994 decision by the State Water Board to provide protection of the Mono Lake ecosystem.
1985
- 1985-1990 PRBO leads the campaign to end gill-net fishing in central California resulting in a 1987 ban on gill netting in the Gulf of the Farallons and northern Monterey Bay.
- 1987 PRBO publishes a paper suggesting a link between the Chernobyl nuclear accident and songbirds productivity based on mist-netting data from the Palomarin Field Station.
- 1988 PRBO begins the Pacific Flyway Project to document shorebird reliance on all major wetland sites in western North America. Our research resulted in the designation of the San Francisco Bay as site of Hemispheric importance to shorebird populations, one of only eight in North America.
1990
- 1992 PRBO helps found California Partners In Flight, a coalition of agencies, non-profits and individuals working to keep common birds common.
- 1993 With the US Forest Service, PRBO develops and publishes a handbook containing standardized protocols to monitor songbirds used throughout the continent.
- 1993-1996 20 years of PRBO data resulted in the federal protection and listing of the Western Snowy Plover under the Endangered Species Act.
- 1994 Following up on our Beached Bird Project, PRBO establishes the Oil Spill Wildlife Response Team to assess damage to birds in the event of an oil spill.
- 1994 PRBO spearheads the formation of the California Riparian Habitat Joint Venture, a collaborative effort involving federal and state agencies as well as nonprofit groups dedicated to preserving and restoring crucial streamside habitats and associated wildlife populations.
- 1994 PRBO’s studies of the 1986 Apex Houston oil spill, off the California coast, contributes to a $6.4 million settlement to compensate for its affects on seabirds.
1995
1997 Twenty-seven years of research from the Farallon Islands result in a bill signed into law in California giving permanent protection to Great White Sharks, a marine conservation success.
1998 PRBO helps develop and write the US Shorebird Conservation Plan and becomes the principal author of the Southern Pacific Shorebird Conservation Plan.
1999 PRBO launches the San Francisco Bay project to study how birds use natural and man made habitats in the bay
2000
- 2000 PRBO coordinates the completion of the Riparian Habitat Bird Conservation Plan and leads the effort to develop science based habitat conservation plans for Oak Woodland, Coastal Scrub, Coniferous Forests, and Grassland habitats in California using suites of birds as indicators of ecoystem health.
- 2000 PRBO plays a lead role in leading the effort to protect Western Snowy Plovers throughout their range.
- 2000 PRBO helps develop catch limits on commercial squid, a critical food base for marine bird and mammal populations, and continues involvement in gill-net issues. Gill nets are now banned in the waters from southern Monterey Bay to Point Conception.
