The Mount Woodson Wildlife Trackers (MWWT) is one of two original teams that formed the San Diego Tracking Team (SDTT) and is not associated with a Friends group or other local area conservation organization.  MWWT originated with a Ramona-based conservation organization called the Iron Mountain Conservancy. In 1988, Phoenix Von Hendy and a dozen or so members of the Iron Mountain Conservancy attended a two-day tracking class taught by Susan Morse of the Vermont-based tracking organization, Keeping Track.  Phoenix says that she “can still hear Sue confirming mountain lion scat by saying, ‘Here, kitty kitty!’”  Following graduation from Sue’s class and additional training with the Los Peñasquitos Tracking Team, Phoenix and others formed the Mount Woodson Wildlife Trackers. By the year 2000, with the help of Barry Martin, they had set up transects at Iron Mountain, Lake Sutherland, Sycamore Canyon Open Space Preserve, and Mount Woodson. A few years later, two of MWWT’s founding members, Ann Hunt and Lois Warburton, joined with Barry Martin and several other members of the Los Peñasquitos team to form an umbrella group of tracking teams throughout San Diego County, the SDTT.

MWWT continues to be an integral part of SDTT.  They currently survey seven transects in the Ramona, Poway, and Lakeside areas:  Mount Woodson East, Mount Woodson West, Lake Sutherland, Sycamore Canyon Open Space Preserve, Iron Mountain, Scripps Poway Parkway Wildlife Tunnel, and Cagney Grasslands Preserve.

The Preserve Calavera (PC) organization (www.preservecalavera.org) was formed to protect the core habitat in Carlsbad—originally 3,000 acres of open space.  Diane Nygaard, President of PC, saw the need to gather good baseline data to secure viable wildlife movement corridors through 15 proposed developments. Barry Martin set up their first two transects in 2000: one at the Melrose Tunnel (SDTT transect #39) and the other, Mount Calavera Loop (#38), in a northeast portion of the wildlife corridor. The first survey was conducted in the winter of 2001.  The PC was mentored, first by Lois Warburton, then by Patrick Campbell. Karen Merrill joined the team in the winter of 2002 and assumed the Leader position in May 2003.

The Melrose Tunnel transect was retired after the fall 2006 survey due to the opening of the Carlsbad section of Melrose with a new bona fide wildlife tunnel. Barry and SDTT were instrumental in helping PC resolve issues in the planning of this new under-crossing. They continue to monitor the Mount Calavera Loop which has sections of sage scrub, chaparral, and oak riparian habitat.  At the request of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, they added the Carlsbad Highlands transect (#50) in August 2003, an area that has gone through restoration, from poppy and lupine fields to black sage and Artemisia. In 2006, Box Canyon Tunnel Transects #55 and #56 were established to monitor wildlife in that area and to see if deer and other smaller mammals were using the newly constructed tunnel. Those transects were retired once they were no longer needed.

PC Motto: “Even a bad day of tracking is better than a good day at work!”

Located in the  UTC / University City neighborhood of San Diego, the Rose Canyon Tracking Team (RCTT) was founded in 2003 by Gretchen Nell, who laid out and led the Rose Canyon Transect  (#51) and stays connected to RCTT by monitoring bluebird-nest boxes in the canyon. The RCTT works closely with the Friends of the Rose Canyon Group. In addition to Transect #51, the RCTT has arranged tracking walks and moonlight hikes led by SDTT tracker/naturalists in association with the Friends Group. 
 
Rose Canyon is unique in the San Diego region: it is on an earthquake fault line which runs roughly North-to-South; most canyons in San Diego county run East-to-West. Surrounded by the densely populated areas of UTC, UCSD, and University City, the canyon is a vital corridor linking the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar in the North-East with San Clemente canyon in the South and the Mt. Soledad open space in the South-West. The canyon is home to a surprising number of mammals including bobcats and coyotes. It is a great place to watch raptors and other birds. In recent years, several habitat restoration efforts have been completed leading to better habitat for birds, reptiles and mammals.
 
A major victory for the Rose Canyon Friends Group and in turn for the tracking team was achieved when the City of San Diego permanently shelved plans to build the Regents-Road bridge which would have bisected the canyon at one of it's widest and most scenic spots. The data collected by the RCTT and the education / outreach activities run by the friends group helped raise awareness and save the canyon from being damaged by the construction of the bridge.
 
Close to several schools, including UCSD, the RCTT is well-placed to involve the next generation of San Diego residents in nature and outdoor activities. 

On 31 July 2004, the Mission Trails Tracking Team (MTTT) officially signed on under the umbrella of the San Diego Tracking Team (SDTT).  Former MTRP Park Ranger Luanne Barrett, a.k.a. Ranger Lu, and SDTT founder Barry Martin were the prime movers. According to Ranger Lu, instrumental in setting up their transects, the goal of the MTTT “is the preservation of nature’s diversity through maintaining open space. By providing animals use of particular open space areas and identifying corridors between these spaces, we help keep critical corridors and parks open. The hope of MTTT is to discover animal locations, population [sizes], seasonal shifts in ranges, and connections to areas outside the park. We also learn about the general health of the park’s ecosystem, as reflected through the animals we track and study.”

Former SDTT Tracker, Dean Woods began leading transects at MTRP in 2004; another tracker, Joe Bochiechio, led several surveys in 2005. After Dean left at the end of 2006, Ranger Heidi Gutknecht recruited SDTT Tracker William Sulzbach to be MTTT transect leader, where served faithfully until March of 2012. Ranger Heidi has been MTTT transect leader ever since. MTRP currently has three designated transects: the Wildlife Tunnel (Transect #30), located east of Santo Rd., under Hwy 52; the Oak Canyon Bridge (Transect #31), located west of Mast Blvd., under Hwy 52; and Spring Canyon (Transect #62, formerly #32), located east of Oak Canyon, beneath the Hwy 52 bridge. The most common wildlife signs observed along these transects are from coyote, mule deer, bobcat, raccoon, skunk, gray fox, and, of course, rabbits and various rodents. On all MTRP surveys, the real challenge is spotting wildlife signs before they are destroyed by hikers, domestic dogs, horses and mountain bikes.

The Blue-Sky Tracking Team traces its origins to 1995, when Ranger Robert Patton started monitoring flora and fauna at Blue Sky Ecological Reserve.  In 2005, after Robert’s departure, Anna Gateley-Stanton attended SDTT wildlife survey training and the three SDTT Tracker-Naturalist classes.  After completing the apprentice program and becoming a tracker, she formed Blue Sky Tracking Team (BSTT), set up a transect, and began monitoring the mammals in Blue Sky.  The BSTT was brought under the umbrella of SDTT in the spring of 2006.

Because of heavy use on the main trail, the Blue Sky transect runs along a small section of dirt road leading south to Lake Poway.  Surveys have revealed mountain lion scat and tracks.  In addition to mammal tracks and sign, the BSTT photographs plants, birds, insects, and reptiles.  Over the years, they have collected photos of interesting insects, a huge alligator lizard, and a hummingbird’s nest.

Like much of San Diego County, Blue Sky was ravaged by the Witch Creek Fire in 2007.  Along with many parts of Poway, Blue Sky was totally consumed by the flames.  An entry on the BSTT page on the web site tells the tale of the first transect after the fire. The BSTT has documented the Blue-Sky recovery.

The Anza Borrego Tracking Team (ABTT) owes much to Mac McNair, Grace Clark, Joe Hopkins, Beth Shugan and Karin Vickars, founders and keepers of the flame. Barry Martin and SDTT senior trackers had a hand in the action.  Recently, Arun Balakrishnan, Donna Roy, and Kevin and Eileen Napoleon have played critical roles as transect leaders and naturalist educators. More recently, Dick Chadwick has taken over as leader of transects at the Grapevine and the Narrows, and has conducted transects at Barrel Springs.

The desert sand forms habitat for many animals—kit fox, kangaroo rat, roadrunner, sidewinder—and can retain tracks as blurred dimples, but when the sand is fine enough and moistened just so, it can reveal every hair on kit fox’s pad in detail. The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (ABDSP) host to the ABTT, covers almost a thousand square miles and is the biggest state park in the contiguous U.S. In recent years.

Creek wildlife corridor is pinched between outthrust ridges of mountains to the north and south (and where widening Highway 78 would prove most damaging).  At the request of ecologists at Ocotillo Wells State Vehicle Recreational Area who is ABDSP’s park neighbor to the east, ABTT began a perimeter transect around Barrel Springs (#61), where desert mammals like coyote, kit fox, bobcat, and badger(!) dig their own shallow well at the base of water-retaining mesquite dunes.  ABTT holds Tracking Talks and Walks one weekend each month. In the Discovery Lab at the Visitor Center, mammal specimens like skins offer visitors the chance to feel a badger’s impressive claws, or compare the size of coyote’s front and back feet.  The talk that follows is focused on our most popular desert mammals and how to tell their tracks apart.  It also allows for audience questions and give-and-take. On Saturday night, ABTT trackers scout for tracks and sign around the Visitor Center and along nearby Borrego Palm Canyon then sweep well-traveled areas