When fires sweep across the landscape, they do much more than incinerate flammable items in their way. Flames cause chemical changes to soils, drive out animals, and expose areas to far more sun and rain than they once experienced. In some cases, a burn can be enough to shift not only erosion patterns but entire […]
News
Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve partially reopens
by Sarah Oktay, UC Davis Natural Reserve System Hikers will be able to return to Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve Monday (Feb. 15), but not all of the trails on the property will be open immediately. The reserve, part of the UC Natural Reserve system and managed by UC Davis, has been closed since the LNU Lightning […]
Shell currency was part of an ancient economy in the Channel Islands
by Jim Logan, UC Santa Barbara As one of the most experienced archaeologists studying California’s Native Americans, Lynn Gamble knew the Chumash Indians of Central California had been using shell beads as money for at least 800 years. But an exhaustive review of some of the shell bead record led UC Santa Barbara professor emerita of anthropology to an […]
Winter rains take toll on wildfire-burned Big Creek
Burned by fire this past summer, the NRS’s Landel’s-Hill Big Creek Reserve is now suffering the ravages of landslides triggered by torrential rains dumped by an atmospheric river. The Dolan Fire, set by an arsonist in late August 2020, denuded vegetation across the rugged reserve, which stretches across 1,750-acres of Big Sur from the Pacific […]
UC Santa Cruz offers virtual tour of Younger Lagoon Natural Reserve
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 […]
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 […]