By Richard Barker Earlier this year, I had the good fortune to be given a tour of the UC Natural Reserve System’s James Reserve by reserve director Jennifer Gee. After the tour, she explained that the reserve is named in honor of an extraordinary man named Harry C. James. My curiosity was piqued, so I […]
James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve
James Reserve frogs survive winter but suffer in drought
According to a report in the Idyllwild Town Crier, mountain yellow-legged frogs released last summer at the NRS’s James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve made it through winter but are now succumbing to drought. In early August, biologists from the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research surveyed two San Jacinto Mountain creeks that had received […]
NRS Summer Artist-in-Residency Program
Long known for supporting science research and teaching, the Natural Reserve System has teamed up with UC’s leading arts research organization to encourage reserve use by artists. Together with the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA), the NRS is offering summer artist-in-residency opportunities at one of eleven reserves. The Arts2NRS program […]
Team frees frogs in bid to save most-endangered amphibian
by Ian James, The Desert Sun IDYLLWILD — Dozens of frogs hopped from plastic containers into a mountain creek on Wednesday as researchers began a reintroduction effort that they hope can save the most endangered amphibian in California. Mountain yellow-legged frogs were once plentiful in streams across the mountains of Southern California, but they vanished […]
Quail Researcher to Lead James Reserve
The James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve has a new director in biologist Jennifer Gee. Since graduate school, Gee’s work has taken her from the green forests of Massachusetts to the deserts of northern Mexico, and the flasks and chemicals of the laboratory to the wilds of the Galapagos Islands. Now she plans to apply her […]
Endangered Frog Eggs Released to NRS Reserve
With Easter around the corner, Southern California biologists are playing bunny and hiding some 300 eggs in the wild. But these are tiny, gelatinous eggs that belong to Rana muscosa — the mountain yellow-legged frog (also know as the Sierra Madre yellow-legged frog). And the eggs went into a chilly stream in the James San […]
Tadpole Release to Bolster Endangered Population
Endangered tadpoles were released into a stream near Idyllwild, Calif., today with hopes that the Southern California population of the mountain yellow-legged frog Rana muscosa will thrive again. This is the second release of tadpoles into the same stream at the University of California James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve in Riverside County, which is part […]
NRS Makes the Countdown
The conservation work of the NRS has gained international recognition. Endangered species reintroduction at the James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve is one of the 20 biodiversity success stories featured in Made in Countdown 2010, a publication of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Countdown 2010 initiative. The publication describes efforts to protect biodiversity […]