Climbers and Falcons Sharing the Cliffs at Pinnacles National Park

In June 2022, after a day of falcon monitoring, Wildlife Biologist Gavin Emmons led three interns — science communication assistant Jailyn Hoskins among them — on a hike at Pinnacles National Park: to a red-tailed hawk nest, to look for condors, and up to the High Peaks. They had an errand as well: taking down a climbing advisory sign.

On the hike with Gavin Emmons, the group also removed a climbing advisory sign (inset). Photo: NPS / Environment for the Americas / Jailyn Hoskins.

Cliffs that two groups want

Rock climbing — scaling rock walls, indoors or out — is popular at Pinnacles, whose unusual rock formations draw locals and travelers alike. The same formations are home to the park's prairie and peregrine falcons, which nest and raise their young in cliff cavities. Any activity near a nest stresses the birds.

How closures are decided

Gavin leads the falcon monitoring program of the San Francisco Bay Area Inventory & Monitoring Network. It tells the park where the birds nest each year, and that shapes the climbing advisory signs that mark which parts of the park are off limits.

Through each season he watches with a spotting scope, learning each pair's territory, nest site and number of young. When falcons nest near established climbing routes, he decides which routes to close and which get an advisory sign warning climbers of falcon activity — keeping the birds undisturbed.

A biologist who climbs

Gavin has climbed since before he started at the park, almost 20 years ago, and he does not want to close more routes than necessary. Knowing both the routes and the nests lets him make informed decisions. He has a long relationship with local climbers, who know the raptor closures well: he posts closures and advisories on the park website and on local climbing forums such as Mud 'n Crud, and climbers sometimes tell him about nests in return.

His climbing also gets him to nests that are hard to reach, where he takes blood samples and bands fledglings.

Prairie falcon young in their cliff nest cavity, a few days from fledging, among the colorful lichens and breccia of many of the park's cliff faces. Photo: NPS / Gavin Emmons.

Why it works

Being both a member of the climbing community and a wildlife biologist is what makes the connection work: climbers follow the advisories knowing their community was considered. As Gavin put it, "it's nice to have this spirit of resource stewardship that climbers bring to the park."

More information

• Pinnacles Raptor Advisories and Raptors
• San Francisco Bay Area Network Falcon Monitoring
• Pacific Coast Science & Learning Center Prairie & Peregrine Falcons and its blog

Sources

Based on Jailyn Hoskins, "How Climbing Community Connections Strengthen Falcon Conservation at Pinnacles National Park," San Francisco Bay Area Network Science Communication Team, National Park Service; rewritten in hubnx's own words.