The UC Natural Reserve System is a network of protected natural areas throughout California. Its 39 sites include more than 760,000 acres, making it the largest university-administered reserve system in the world. Most major state ecosystems are represented, from coastal tidepools to inland deserts, and lush wetlands to Sierra Nevada forests. The reserves also serve as a gateway to more than a million acres of public lands. Founded in 1965 to provide undisturbed environments for research, education, and public service, the Natural Reserve System contributes to the understanding and wise stewardship of the earth.
Paul Aigner
UCD The Donald and Sylvia McLaughlin Natural Reserve
The Donald and Sylvia McLaughlin Natural Reserve is one of few sites in California that protects unusual serpentine habitats. Chemically hostile to most plants, serpentine deposits cover one third of the reserve, creating islands that support rare and endemic plants, which have adapted to these harsh soils, and numerous associated endemic insects.
Jim Andre
UCR Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Center
A California native, Jim attended UC Davis, Humboldt State University and UCLA where he studied plant ecology with a focus on the population biology of rare plants. Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center is located in the rugged Granite Mountains of the East Mojave Desert. High plateaus and ridges dominated by piñon-juniper woodland and sagebrush descend precipitously to the east in highly fractured granitic canyons. Massive pinnacles and broken, rocky terrain eventually give way to densely vegetated bajadas and washes, supporting creosote bush scrub, a unique community of enriched mixed woody and succulent scrub, and other habitat types.
Carol Blanchette
UCSB Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve
Dr. Blanchette received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in Ecology from Oregon State
University. Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve (VESR) is a field research station, two of 39 sites in the University of California’s Natural Reserve System (NRS). The Reserve is administered by UC Santa Barbara and consists of two sites, Valentine Camp and the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory (SNARL), located 15 miles apart near Mammoth Lakes in the eastern Sierra Nevada.
Shorty Boucher
UCD NRS
UC Davis Natural Reserve System manages five of the 36 reserves that comprise the largest and most diverse set of university-owned and operated reserves in the world. These reserves include examples of nearly every major ecosystem in the state. They provide secure sites for research, instruction, and public outreach.
Peter Bowler
UCI Burns Piñon Ridge Reserve
Burns Piñon Ridge Reserve is one of three UC Irvine Natural Reserve Facilities used frequently by the School of Biological Sciences for both research and teaching. The Burns Reserve is located in San Bernardino County, 1.2 miles north of Yucca Valley. Field courses include desert ecology, field zoology methods, natural history, biology of deserts, field ecology, botany, environmental ethics, freshwater biology, and others. The San Joaquin Marsh Reserve is one of three UC Irvine Natural Reserve Facilities used frequently by the School of Biological Sciences. The marsh is located within a ten-minute walk from UC Irvine, making it convenient for day use by faculty and students. It is one of the last remnants of wetlands that once covered much of Orange County’s flood plain and more than 200 bird species (20 nesting) have been sighted in the reserve, including two resident endangered bird species.
UCSB Carpenteria Salt Marsh Reserve
The Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve contains a critically important Southern California estuary, which supports many sensitive plant and animal species. The site includes extensive wetland, sub-tidal channel and emergent upland habitats. The Reserve is adjacent to a sandy beach, subtidal rocky reef, and kelp beds. The reserve provides habitat for migratory waterfowl along with several species of plants and animals listed as endangered, threatened or of special concern, such as the salt marsh bird’s-beak, light-footed clapper rail, and Belding’s savannah sparrow. It also is an important regional nursery for California halibut and other species of marine and estuarine fish.
Jeff Brown
UCB Central Sierra Field Research Stations
The Central Sierra Field Research Stations is a regional group of UC Berkeley field research & education reserves located on both sides of the crest of California’s Sierra-Nevada mountains, north of Lake Tahoe. Several of the CSFRS reserves lie within the headwaters of the North Fork of the American River. Sagehen Creek Field Station serves as the hub of this network, offering accessible accomodations, classrooms, support & resources unavailable at the other, sometimes remote reserves.
Kevin Browne
UCOP
Kevin has been the University of California NRS Information Manager for more than 15 years. He assists the reserve system is various areas including WiFi / network connectivity, web site design, server management, weather station maintenance and database management. His home base is in Idyllwild CA but is a frequent visitor to all the NRS field stations across the state, and has a BS in Environmental Science and a MS in Computer Science from Cal Poly.
Gary Bucciarelli
UCLA Stunt Ranch & La Kretz Field Station
The Stunt Ranch Reserve, named for the original family that homesteaded the property in 1885, comprises 310 acres of relatively pristine chaparral, live oak woodland, and riparian habitat in the Cold Creek watershed on the north-central flank of the Santa Monica Mountains, between Malibu and Calabasas. The reserve is also an archeological site with rich evidence of Chumashinhabitants dating back thousands of years.
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Don Canestro
UCSB Kenneth Norris Rancho Marino Reserve
The Kenneth S. Norris Rancho Marino Reserve provides University researchers and classes access to one of the most spectacular stretches of relatively undisturbed coastal habitats in central California. Located 90 miles north of Pt. Conception, it is situated in the coasts most significant bio-geographical transition area for both marine and terrestrial communities. Its diverse habitats include extensive rocky shoreline (~3 kilometers), near shore kelp forests, coastal prairie (grazed and ungrazed), a mixed Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) and coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) forest (91 hectares/225 acres), and coastal scrub (17.5 hectares/43 acres).
Jeffrey Clary
UCD Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve
Stebbins Cold Canyon is a lush oasis in a dry region of the California Coast Range. Located only half an hour from the UC Davis campus, the reserve is popular with both field classes and researchers who return regularly to collect long-term data sets. A popular trail crosses the reserve, provided an opportunity for informal science education and citizen science projects, extending the reach of the NRS to regional communities. The Wragg Fire of 2015 burned the entire reserve, spurring a new round of studies on post-fire dynamics in an age of climate change.
Gage Dayton
UCSC NRS
I became the Administrative Director of the UCSC of California Natural Reserves and a lecturer in 2008. In this capacity I oversee the five Natural Reserves affiliated with the campus (Big Creek, Ano Nuevo Island Reserve, Younger Lagoon Reserve, and the UCSC Campus Natural Reserve). In addition to overseeing the reserves I teach upper division field courses in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies departments. I received my undergraduate degree from Humboldt State University and my Ph.D. from Texas A&M and consider myself an ecologist broadly interested in the factors that regulate species persistence and community structure. I place great importance on a thorough understanding of natural history, the conservation and restoration of natural habitats, and experiential learning. Overseeing the reserves, teaching undergraduates, and supporting research and education in our “outdoor classrooms” and “living laboratories” is truly a rewarding and fulfilling career for me.
Jim Dice
UCI Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center
Jim Dice has been Reserve Manager since the Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center opened in 2012. He retired in 2012 from California State Parks after 25 years of service with the State of California. He served as manager for San Diego State University’s Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve from 1987-88 and was Curator of the Desert Garden at Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, from 1981-1985. Jim obtained a B.S. in Botany from San Diego State University (1981) and an M.S. degree in Biology (Systematics and Evolutionary Biology) from San Diego State University (1988).
Faerthen Felix
UCB Central Sierra Field Research Stations
The Central Sierra Field Research Stations is a regional group of UC Berkeley field research & education reserves located on both sides of the crest of California’s Sierra-Nevada mountains, north of Lake Tahoe. Several of the CSFRS reserves lie within the headwaters of the North Fork of the American River. Sagehen Creek Field Station serves as the hub of this network, offering accessible accomodations, classrooms, support & resources unavailable at the other, sometimes remote reserves.
Becca Fenwick
UCOP
Becca Fenwick is the Director of IT for the NRS and the Research Program Director for ISEECI. She worked for 8 years as the Director of two UC Natural Reserves; The James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve and the Sierra Nevada Research Stations, Yosemite & Sequoia Kings Canyon. She holds a BSc and a MSci in Earth Science from the University of Birmingham, UK , and a Ph.D in Marine Geology and Geophysics from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. When not working for the reserves she can be found exploring the outdoors, enjoying live music or making things out of yarn and anything weavable.
Peggy Fiedler
UCOP
Peggy Fiedler is the Director of the systemwide office of the Natural Reserve System. She holds a B.A. from Harvard University, and a M.S. And Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. In addition to her work at the NRS in protected areas stewardship, her research has focused on the nature of rarity in vascular plants, the ecology and sytematics of Calochortus (Liliaceae), and the evolution and conservation of granite outcrop flora in Western Australia.
Jen Gee
UCR James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve & Oasis de los Osos Reserve
The James and los Osos represent two distinctly different ecosystems within the San Jacinto Mountains located in southern California. The James Reserve is part of a large forested “sky island” located on the western side of Mt. San Jacinto mountains, a range that is surrounded by the Colorado Desert. In contrast, the Oasis de los Osos Reserve is located on the lower north side of the San Jacintos and lies within the Colorado Desert with the dominant vegetation being desert shrubs and grasses.
Ken Halama
UCR Motte Rimrock Reserve, Box Springs and Emerson Oaks Reserve
The Motte Reserve contains large areas of open grassland, coastal sage scrub, willow riparian woodland, and rocky outcrops atop a rolling plateau near the town of Perris. As the surrounding area experiences rapid urbanization the Reserve serves to protect a number of species threatened or endangered by development and habitat loss, such as the Stephen’s kangaroo rat, California gnatcatcher (both shown at right), orange-throated whiptail, and Bell’s sage sparrow, as well as several diminishing plant communities such as Riversidian sage scrub. The Motte Reserve also possesses a rich archaeological history, including some of the best-preserved pictographs in Southern California. The Box Springs Reserve, located in the rugged granite hills directly above the UCR campus, is also managed through the Motte Reserve. Box Springs is in a transition zone between coastal sage scrub and chamise chaparral and despite its close proximity to campus contains at least two threatened or endangered species. Situated in southwestern Riverside County, the Emerson Oaks Reserve lies at the convergence of four climatic influences–desert, coastal, interior, and mountain. E-Oaks supports unique, spring-fed habitats that include rare century-old southern oak woodlands, chaparral, and Riversidian sage scrub. Although a comprehensive inventory is progress, Emerson contains a number of declining species. A newly renovated lab building offers space for research and educational activities.
Michael Hamilton
UCB Blue Oak Ranch Reserve
Most of Blue Oak Ranch Reserve lies within the Upper Sonoran Life Zone. Approximately two-thirds of the site is drained by tributaries of Arroyo Aguague, itself a tributary of Coyote Creek (via Penitencia Creek), which flows into southern San Francisco Bay. The bowl-shaped Arroyo Aguague catchment area is characterized by steep wooded slopes and meadows, as well as open flats dotted with oaks and coyote brush. The precipitous Arroyo Hondo is heavily wooded on north- and east-facing slopes, while western and southern exposures consist of open grassland or dense chaparral patches.
Beth Howard
UCSC Younger Lagoon Reserve
Isabelle Kay
UCSD Dawson Los Monos Canyon Reserve, Elliott Chaparral Reserve, Kendall Frost Reserve, Scripps Coastal Reserve
The Dawson-Los Monos Canyon Reserve occupies 235 acres 5.4 miles inland on the coastal plain of north San Diego County, surrounding the middle reach of the Agua Hedionda Creek where it flows through the Los Monos Canyon.The Elliott Chaparral Reserve, formerly part of the Camp Elliott Military Reservation, is located adjacent to the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near Scripps Ranch, California. It includes a mixture of both coastal and desert habitats with a wide variety of coastal chaparral and coastal sage scrub. Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve is situated on the Northern edge of Mission Bay in San Diego, California and occupies 16 acres of the 40 total acres of wetland habitat that includes the adjacent Northern Wildlife Preserve owned by the City of San Diego. Habitats include restored coastal sage scrub, south coastal salt marsh, tidal channels, salt flats, mudflats, sand spit, and eelgrass beds. Scripps Coastal Reserve occupies nearly one thousand acres in La Jolla, California, ranging across a complex landscape including mesa top, coastal canyon and bluff, sandy beach, rocky intertidal, submerged coastal plain and deep submarine canyon.
Mike Kisgen
UCOP Legal and Policy Coordinator
Mike Kisgen is the NRS Systemwide Legal and Policy Coordinator. Shifting between an advocacy and transactional role, Mike handles a diverse range of legal and policy issues, which (to use one of his favorite phrases) “include, but, are not limited to” environmental permits, real estate transactions, and risk management. Prior to the NRS, Mike was an environmental litigator specializing in soil and groundwater contamination cases. Mike received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara; Master in Environmental Management from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona, James E.Rogers College of Law; and is licensed under the State Bar of California. In his free time, he can usually be found either riding, climbing, or swimming somewhere in the Pacific or Sierra Nevada.
Cathy Koehler
UCD The Donald and Sylvia McLaughlin Natural Reserve
The Donald and Sylvia McLaughlin Natural Reserve is one of few sites in California that protects unusual serpentine habitats. Chemically hostile to most plants, serpentine deposits cover one third of the reserve, creating islands that support rare and endemic plants, which have adapted to these harsh soils, and numerous associated endemic insects.
Monique Kolster
UCM Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve
The site lies within the watersheds of the Black Rascal, Fahrens, and Cottonwood creeks, which flow generally southwest to Bear Creek and the San Joaquin River. Elevations vary from 250 to 570 feet, and the topography is flat to moderately rolling with distinct hills along the northeast border and 15 m deep ravines along some creeks. Some of the oldest soils in North America (the China Hat soil formation) are found in the high regions to the northeast.
Tasha La Doux
UCR Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Center
Tasha La Doux attended UC San Diego to receive her B.S. in Ecology, Behavior, & Evolution in 1995, then received a Ph.D. in Botany from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (Claremont Graduate University) in 2004. She has worked as a botanist in the region since 1998, including federal land management positions such as the Forest Botanist on the Angeles National Forest and as Branch Chief for Vegetation Management at Joshua Tree National Park. Her research interests include plant mating systems, population biology, and floristics; she maintains an active role in public lands management and the conservation of rare plants in the region. Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center is located in the rugged Granite Mountains of the East Mojave Desert. High plateaus and ridges dominated by piñon-juniper woodland and sagebrush descend precipitously to the east in highly fractured granitic canyons. Massive pinnacles and broken, rocky terrain eventually give way to densely vegetated bajadas and washes, supporting creosote bush scrub, a unique community of enriched mixed woody and succulent scrub, and other habitat types.
Lyndal Laughrin
UCSB Santa Cruz Island Reserve
Santa Cruz Island Reserve is located on the largest of roughly 25 miles from Santa Barbara, California’s eight Channel Islands off the Southern California coast. The island has two major mountain systems flanking a central valley that formed along an active fault zone. The mountains are rugged and cut by steep-sided canyons, some with perennial streams and freshwater springs. The coastline is mostly steep and rocky, with some protected coves and sandy beaches. Diverse habitats include rocky intertidal zones, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, grasslands, oak woodlands, and bishop pine forests. The reserve contains breeding grounds for harbor seals, seabird nesting colonies, many endemic plant and animal species, and well-preserved archaeological sites. Santa Cruz Island Reserve is protected, owned, and managed by The Nature Conservancy (TNC); the remainder of the island is managed by the National Park Service as part of Channel Islands National Park.
Erin Marnocha
UCOP
Erin Marnocha is the Program Coordinator for the UC Natural Reserve System and in that role leads a number of science and education initiatives across the reserve system. She received her Ph.D. in biology from UCLA with a focus on evolutionary change in human-altered habitats.
Kate McCurdy
UCSB Sedgwick Reserve
Sedgwick Reserve is a world-class research, conservation and education facility located in Santa Barbara County in the Santa Ynez Valley. One of seven reserves managed by the University of California Santa Barbara Natural Reserve System, Sedgwick is among the largest and most diverse reserves of its kind in the country. The Reserve encompasses nine square miles and two complete watersheds and is rich in animal, plant life and other natural resources. It is also the only Reserve in University of California Natural System (39 reserves) with a telescope. In keeping with the mission of the UC Natural Reserve System, Sedgwick is well suited for scientific investigation and for students of all ages to learn about the outdoor world.
Lynn McLaren-Dewey
UCSB Santa Cruz Island Reserve
Santa Cruz Island Reserve is located on the largest of roughly 25 miles from Santa Barbara, California’s eight Channel Islands off the Southern California coast. The island has two major mountain systems flanking a central valley that formed along an active fault zone. The mountains are rugged and cut by steep-sided canyons, some with perennial streams and freshwater springs. The coastline is mostly steep and rocky, with some protected coves and sandy beaches. Diverse habitats include rocky intertidal zones, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, grasslands, oak woodlands, and bishop pine forests. The reserve contains breeding grounds for harbor seals, seabird nesting colonies, many endemic plant and animal species, and well-preserved archaeological sites. Santa Cruz Island Reserve is protected, owned, and managed by The Nature Conservancy (TNC); the remainder of the island is managed by the National Park Service as part of Channel Islands National Park.
Manuel Minwary
UCOP
UC NRS IT Network Manager
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Allan Muth
UCR Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center
One of the largest NRS reserves, the Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center encompasses a major drainage system descending from the high peaks of the Santa Rosa Mountains down to the Colorado Desert. Deep Canyon’s tributaries begin in montane forests, flow across a rolling plateau covered with piñon-juniper woodland and chaparral, join at the head of a precipitous gorge, and plunge 1,180 feet into the canyon. From there, the mouth of the canyon opens out into a broad alluvial fan with sandy washes on the southern edge of the Coachella Valley. Except for a few permanent pools, the streambed in Deep Canyon’s lower reaches is dry. However, winter and monsoon storms can trigger dramatic flooding.[/fusion_text]
Chen Yin Noah
UCOP
Chen Yin Noah serves as Associate Director in the NRS Systemwide Office. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Brown University and a J.D. from UC Davis School of Law. Fueled by a lifelong passion for environmental protection, Chen Yin deeply resonates with the NRS’ mission to contribute to the understanding and wise stewardship of the Earth. She’s active in the movement to raise environmental consciousness in the interfaith community as an essential element of peace-building, and she enjoys cooking, metaphysics, holistic healing, and playing the Celtic harp. In short, she is a hippie.
Suzanne Olyarnik
UCD Bodega Marine Reserve
Bodega Marine Reserve (BMR), the 362-acres surrounding the Bodega Marine Laboratory, provides protected lands for research and education. Researchers and students come to investigatehabitats remarkably diverse for such a small area. Subtidal, rocky intertidal, mudflat, sandy beach, fresh and saltwater marsh, coastal grassland and dune communities are all within walking distance. The site is well known for the strength of wind-driven coastal upwelling and the complex geology of the San Andreas fault.
Mark Readdie
UCSC Landels Hill Big Creek Reserve
Protected by the Santa Lucia Mountains and rocky cliffs, the Big Sur coast includes the largest and most pristine coastal wildlands in central and southern California. In the center of this area, the University of California Natural Reserve System and the University of California at Santa Cruzoperate the Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve. Directly adjacent to the terrestrial reserve are two state marine protected areas: the Big Creek State Marine Reserve and the Big Creek State Conservation Area, which are administered by the California Department of Fish and Game.
Patrick Robinson
UCSC Año Nuevo Natural Reserve
Año Nuevo is an important region for five species of marine mammals and at least five species of seabirds. Northern elephant seals and California sea lions are the most numerous. Notably, Año Nuevo is the southernmost breeding colony of the Steller sea lion. The rhinoceros and Cassin’s auklets are some of the island’s unique avian inhabitants.
Christina Sandoval
UCSB Coal Oil Point Reserve
One of the best remaining examples of a coastal-strand environment in Southern California, the Coal Oil Point Natural Reserve protects a wide variety of coastal and estuarine habitats. Largely undisturbed coastal dunes support a rich assemblage of dune vegetation and have become a nesting site for the endangered Snowy Plover.
Peter Steel
UCB Angelo Coast Range Reserve
The Angelo Coast Range Reserve now provides a crucial window into the workings of the river, forest, meadow, and chaparral ecosystems represented within it. In research projects that would not have been possible without the Reserve, much has been learned about the workings of ecosystems representative of the California North Coast.
Vince Voegeli
UCB Hastings Natural History Reservation
Hastings is a Biological Field Station of the University of California, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Natural Reserve System. We provide the wildlands and facilities to conduct university and graduate level studies of natural systems in the Santa Lucia mountain range in Monterey County, California. A representative ecosystem of about 2,500 acres, Hastings was established in 1937 to be managed with minimal disturbance for research and education.
Shane Waddell
UCD Quail Ridge Reserve
Established in 1991 with 242 ha (600 acres) of land, Quail Ridge has since been expanded to over 784 ha (1937 acres). Quail Ridge lies on a peninsula formed by the flooding of Berryessa Valley and the creation of the Berryessa Reservoir, and perhaps due to its isolation it retains many elements of the native flora of this region.
Lobsang Wangdu
UCOP
Lobsang designs, codes and manages websites for the NRS. Lobsang works as a webmaster and photographer for the University of California Natural Reserve System. He enjoys traveling to different reserves throughout California to photograph and shoot videos of the landscapes, scientists and students working on the reserves. Lobsang, also an experienced digital photographer and Tibetan cook, spent over twenty years as a monk training in Buddhist philosophy, and holds a Master’s degree in Madyamikafrom the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, India.
Kathleen Wong
UCOP
As Principal Publications Coordinator for the NRS Systemwide Office, Kathleen M. Wong oversees all aspects of communications for the NRS. She is a science writer specializing in the natural history of California and the West. She is coauthor of Natural History of San Francisco Bay (UC Press, 2011) and coeditor of The Environmental Legacy of the UC Natural Reserve System (UC Press, 2013). She has a BA in Biology and English/American Literature and a graduate certificate in Science Communication, both from UC Santa Cruz. When not writing, she’s apt to be found on her bicycle, hiking, hanging with her house rabbits, or plunking on her ukulele.