Steve Monfort, former director of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the National Zoo, is the new executive director of the UC Natural Reserve System. He began his new position on Nov. 4, 2021. At the Conservation Biology Institute, headquartered on 3,200-acres in Front Royal, Virginia, Monfort led teams of scientists studying and breeding more than […]
News
Snake training at Deep Canyon
By Heather Constable, Campus Administrative Officer, UC Riverside NRS Rattlesnakes are an uncomfortable fact of life in California. From the state line with Oregon, where the western rattlesnake holds sway, to the border with Mexico, where sidewinders rule alongside speckled, red diamond, and western diamondback rattlers, these venomous reptiles are notorious for frightening the snot […]
Experienced mothers prime pups for success
By Tim Stephens, UC Santa Cruz A new study based on four decades of data from the elephant seal colony at Año Nuevo Reserve has enabled researchers to disentangle the effects of environmental conditions, population density, and maternal traits on reproductive success in northern elephant seals. The study, published October 13 in Proceedings of the Royal Society […]
Longtime NRS Executive Director Peggy Fiedler retires
Peggy Fiedler, who made the UC Natural Reserve System an integral part of state and global efforts to understand the impacts of climate change on California ecosystems, has retired after more than eleven years leading the organization.
Biologist wins Packard Fellowship for Año Nuevo research
By Tim Stephens, UC Santa Cruz The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has awarded a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering to Roxanne Beltran, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz. The Packard Fellowships support young scientists and engineers who show exceptional promise and creativity. The Packard Fellowship gives Beltran $875,000 […]
Delivering environmental data from the NRS
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System Climate is the hottest topic in California these days. As global warming heats up the West, it’s set off a cascade of effects ranging from toxic algal blooms, to tree die-offs, to wildfires of unprecedented size and ferocity. The situation has everyone asking the same question: what is […]
20 years of snowy plovers
By Sonia Fernandez, UC Santa Barbara They’re tiny, fluffy and almost perfectly camouflaged against the sand dunes of the upper beach at Coal Oil Point Reserve (COPR) at UC Santa Barbara. But for all their diminutive size and near invisibility, Western snowy plovers have staged a spectacular comeback, once again nesting in habitat they had been […]
NRS publishes Capital Campaign Report
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System The numbers are in, the figures have been totaled, and what they add up to is nothing short of astounding: the NRS 50th Anniversary Capital Campaign raised more than $90.4 million to support educational programs, land stewardship, facilities, and more across the largest university-administered reserve system in the […]