Los Padres CA Specialist Certification 4/3/2022

On April 2-3, 2022, the Ventura County Wildlife Trackers hosted a Track and Sign Specialist Certification in the Los Padres National Forest in California. At Specialist Certifications, participants have to answer 57 very difficult questions over 2 days. Two evaluators (1 local and 1 external) are present at Specialist Certifications to ensure reliability and consistency. Casey McFarland served as external evaluator.

This area is legendary to trackers across the country for the incredible landscape, perfect substrate, and amazing diversity of species. We found some truly incredible tracks. Some favorite finds of the weekend include a mountain lion scrape, a black bear walking on 3 feet, and a full body print of a mouse that fell off a bridge and landed in the mud. All told, we saw the tracks of 25 species, including 15 mammals, 4 birds, 3 herps, 1 invertebrate. See the photos below.

This was an amazing group and we enjoyed several wonder evenings around the campfire telling stories. Camping during a tracking certification really is a far richer experience and I hope to begin moving towards doing more of these sorts of certifications. This was an incredibly sharp crew of experienced trackers and while none of the participants earned their specialist certification this time, people really seemed to be able to set aside their focus on the goal of achieving specialist and really enjoy the journey of tracking together as a group. Such good times.

Huge thanks to Wyatt Harris for organizing.