By Tim Stephens, UC Santa Cruz A new virtual tour of Younger Lagoon Reserve allows visitors to learn about the unique ecology and programs at the reserve from the comfort of their homes. Younger Lagoon Reserve is a 72-acre natural reserve located on the UC Santa Cruz Coastal Science Campus. The reserve is part of the UC Natural Reserve […]
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In memoriam: Antony Orme, 83, geographer, professor, and former White Mountain Research Center director
Glen Sproul, UC Los Angeles Antony Orme, professor emeritus of geography who served as dean of the social sciences division at UC Los Angeles, died May 30, 2020 of cancer after almost a half century of service to the University. He was 83 years old. Orme was a dedicated geomorphologist, whose research focused on a variety […]
Timeworn cattle ranch remade into NRS reserve
When sculptor and philanthropist Duke Sedgwick bequeathed his family’s sprawling Santa Ynez Valley ranch to the University of California, he wrote that he wanted to create a “conjunction of learning and land.” The more than 5,800-acre spread on the western slope of Figueroa Mountain certainly seemed ideal for a UC Natural Reserve. The vast property […]
Keeping Carpinteria Salt Marsh connected to the tides
Carpinteria Salt Marsh is a world defined by mud, floods, and salt. Ocean brine inundates its twisting channels twice a day, fostering plants that can tolerate salty leaves and perpetually wet feet. The long-legged birds that nest and forage here dine on snails and fishes living within its twisting channels. Seawater is the lifeblood of […]
2020-21 Mathias Grant recipients
Most people will be staying close to home in 2021 due to the pandemic. UC Santa Barbara graduate student Samantha Sambado will not be among them. Her doctoral research will take her on multiple journeys up and down California, in search of ticks and the human pathogens they carry. “Ticks are the number one vector […]
Wildfire expands Blue Oak Ranch hydrology study
By Tim Stephens, UC Santa Cruz The SCU Lightning Complex Fire swept through the oak woodlands of Blue Oak Ranch Reserve atop Mount Hamilton as a low, quickly moving grass burn, sparing the reserve’s buildings and most of the oak trees. But the August 20 blaze caused serious losses at a watershed research site established […]
Wildfires spark burn recovery study at 9 UC Natural Reserves
August wildfires incinerated tens of thousands of acres across seven UC Natural Reserves and affected parkland adjacent to two more reserves. This fall, the UC Natural Reserve System (NRS) will deploy rapid response teams to characterize the extent and intensity of the burns, as well as the effects of wildfire on a wide range of […]
Teaching a field program amid a pandemic
Krikor Andonian and Tim Miller, instructors of the NRS’s California Ecology and Conservation program, deliver a report from the field on their Fall 2020 course. CEC program is one of relatively few UC classes being conducted in person right now, and is likely be the only one that will remain in its own social bubble […]