Renowned environmental artist Xavier Cortada encounters the Invisible Barn, a thought-provoking folly at Sagehen Creek Field Station. Image credit: Sagehen Creek Field Station Take a forest stroll at the NRS’s Sagehen Creek Field Station, and you will encounter an Invisible Barn. The structure’s edges fade into the open air, until…
Raising an Invisible Barn
at you. Then realization dawns on you–you’re seeing a reflection of yourself surrounded by nature. This is the concept behind Invisible Barn, an environmental art project designed to provoke questions about the presence of people in nature. Developed by New York design firm stpmj, Invisible Barn was selected as a…
Why art at NRS reserves?
…people in nature, without telling them explicitly what to think or how to feel. Water strider. Image credit: Faerthen Felix Invisible Barn is a departure from the idea of imposing preconceived, top-down form on a community narrative. It’s more abstract. Invisible Barn builds on the techniques of the Aldo Leopold…
Sedgwick ranch house revival
…already one of her passions; saving this one, part of her alma mater, made perfect sense. It wasn’t long before she offered to finance its restoration. The barn project was completed in 2009 and heralded with a barn dance that has since gone annual — the fifth iteration was held…
News Archive
…ecology online New national monument for Northern California Invisible Barn materializes California wildflower diversity diminishing with warmer, drier winters SNARL unveils energy-efficient meeting hall Tracking climate change atop White Mountain Refugio oil spill fouls NRS reserve Slugs, Gauchos toast NRS 50th Curious about life NRS draws crowds at Celebrate UCI,…
Renovated Blue Oak Ranch open for business
Alum Rock neighborhood of San Jose, Blue Oak Ranch has been a popular site for field research since it joined the NRS in 2007. Back then, living space was limited to a single, albeit large, barn, and reserve staff lived either in one wing of the barn or a trailer….
Mapping for conservation
The 2016 Conservation GIS scholars gather before the Blue Oak Ranch barn with Charles Convis, cofounder of workshop sponsor Society of Conservation GIS. The scholars include Andina Anastasia Krey (top row, far left), Ricardo Sandi Sagot (top, third from left), Iurii Strus (top, far right), Maholy Ravaloharimanitra (bottom, second from…
Quarters for kestrels
…helpless chicks. This penchant for prefab tree hollows has hurt kestrels, wood ducks, barn owls, bluebirds, and dozens of other cavity-nesting birds unable to drill their own abodes. The American kestrel is a small raptor only slightly larger than a robin. Image credit: Chris Swarth Conservation-minded humans are now stepping…