By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System Three University of California undergraduates will be conducting their own full-time field research projects this summer as part of the UC Natural Reserve System’s Field Science Fellowship. This year’s fellows will get first-hand glimpses of what it’s like to be a field scientist while studying vegetation succession, lizard […]
Sedgwick Reserve
Timeworn cattle ranch remade into NRS reserve
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System 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 […]
2020-21 Mathias Grant recipients
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System 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 […]
Watching wildlife with help from AI
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System Trail cameras have become essential tools for environmental monitoring. Relatively inexpensive, and easy to operate, they enable scientists to spot local wildlife, observe animal behaviors, and even occasionally uncover the presence of rare species. At the 41 reserves of the University of California Natural Reserve System, a network […]
2019-20 Mathias Graduate Student Research Grant awards
By Kathleen Wong, UC Natural Reserve System Joshua trees will be under the gun in the California of the future. Scientists predict that it’ll become too hot and dry for these striking Mojave plants to persist in much its the high desert habitat by 2100. How much water these treelike yucca plants can store at […]
Just add water—Sedgwick pond renewed
Many of California’s native species rely on human-built stock ponds for water. Impounding streams or low spots on the landscape, these ponds were built to supply cattle and other livestock. Now, however, they are often critical habitats for endangered amphibians and reptiles, as well as water-loving birds. The pond at the NRS’s Sedgwick Reserve in the […]
Online tool maps reserve species records
Every reserve in the UC Natural Reserve System comes with its own small universe of biological information. When scientists and other visitors collect reserve plants and animals to study, they also record the date, the exact location where it was found, and more information. The specimen may then get deposited in a museum, while […]
Where’s the bear?
Where’s The Bear? from UC Santa Barbara on Vimeo. by Shelly Leachman, UC Santa Barbara Facing a daunting, digital pile millions of photographs high, how would you find the few images you need? Could you, even? It’s a classic needle-in-a-haystack conundrum, and it’s a blaring reality for ecologists, resource managers and farmers who use camera […]