Natural Reserve System Natural Reserve System UNIVERSITY OF university of california 1111 Franklin St. The UC Natural Reserve System provides a Oakland, CA 94607-5200 ucnrs.org library of ecosystems throughout California. Reserves offer outdoor laboratories to field scientists, classrooms without walls for students, and nature’s inspiration to all.

Founded in 1965 to provide a network of wildland sites available for scientific study, the NRS has grown to include more than 40 locations encompassing more than 756,000 acres across the state.

The NRS is the world’s largest university- Reserves are listed by managing campus operated system of natural reserves; no Berkeley Los Angeles San Diego other network of field sites can match its 1 Angelo Coast Range Reserve 17 Stunt Ranch Santa Monica 27 Dawson Los Monos LOBSANG WANGDU size, scope, and ecological diversity. 2 Mountains Reserve Canyon Reserve 3 Chickering American River 18 White Mountain Research Center 28 Elliott Chaparral Reserve Reserve Merced 29 Kendall-Frost Mission Bay 4 Hastings Natural History Marsh Reserve 19 Merced Vernal Pools and Reservation 30 Grassland Reserve 5 Jenny Pygmy Forest Reserve 20 Yosemite Field Station Santa Barbara 6 Point Reyes Field Station 31 Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve 7 Sagehen Creek Field Station Riverside 32 Coal Oil Point Natural Reserve 21 Box Springs Reserve Davis 33 Kenneth S. Norris Rancho 22 Boyd Deep Canyon Marino Reserve 8 Desert Research Center 34 Reserve 9 Jepson Prairie Reserve 23 Emerson Oaks Reserve 35 Sedgwick Reserve 10 Lassen Field Station 24 James San Jacinto 36 Sierra Nevada Aquatic 11 McLaughlin Natural Reserve Mountains Reserve Research Laboratory 12 25 37 Valentine Camp 13 Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve 26 Sweeney Granite Mountains Santa Cruz Desert Research Center Irvine 38 Año Nuevo Island Reserve 14 Burns Piñon Ridge Reserve 39 Natural Reserve 15 San Joaquin Marsh Reserve 40 Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve PEGGY L. FIEDLER KATHLEEN M. WONG KATHLEEN 16 Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego 41 Desert Research Center Natural Reserve System UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory is best known for the experimental stream channels that UC Santa Barbara Reserves wind through this verdant Great Basin shrubland. A grove of quaking aspen shades a creek frequented at twilight by hunting bats. A fully Kenneth S. Norris Rancho Marino Reserve equipped laboratory and extensive A spectacular stretch of residential facilities help make this Central California shoreline, component of Valentine Eastern Kenneth S. Norris Rancho Sierra Reserve a major center

Marino Reserve includes rocky LOBSANG WANGDU for science research in eastern tidepools, kelp forests, and California. a rich array of intertidal life. The Cambria Marine Protected Area lies just offshore. Reserve lands include a rare native Valentine Camp Reserve stand of Monterey pine, CHRISTOPHER WOODCOCK •• Nestled into a glacier-carved coastal terraces, and three basin beneath Mammoth Salinan archeological sites. Mountain, Valentine Camp Reserve occupies a transition Sedgwick Reserve zone between Sierra Nevada A former cattle ranch, • coniferous forests and Great Sedgwick Reserve hosts • UC Santa Barbara Basin sagebrush deserts. This coast live oak forest, blue • • component of Valentine Eastern oak woodland, and valley • Sierra Reserve includes a wet oak savanna. Endemic native montane meadow, a stream plants grow on outcroppings lined with high montane riparian of serpentine soils. Former LOBSANG WANGDU vegetation, and many springs. Chumash habitations and portions of a major geologic fault system add further LOBSANG WANGDU interest to the site. Santa Cruz Island Reserve Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve Santa Cruz Island Reserve hosts A critically important Coal Oil Point Reserve species that evolved here after estuary, Carpinteria A stretch of coastal strand long isolation from the mainland. Salt Marsh Reserve adjacent to UC Santa Barbara, Terrestrial habitats range from encompasses emergent Coal Oil Point Reserve protected coves to perennial pickleweed marsh includes a seasonally flooded streams and mountaintop forests. and meandering tidal lagoon, tidal flats, and coastal The marine ecosystem features channels. A rocky reef scrub habitat. An onsite organisms of both cool northern and kelp beds are slough dries to form salt flats and warm southern currents. located just offshore. and hypersaline channels Great geological diversity, This important nursery in summer. Endangered abundant archeological sites, and for halibut and other western snowy plovers raise NPS projects to restore the island’s fishes also supports MIKE BAIRD marshmallow-sized chicks native ecology offer many study CHRISTOPHER WOODCOCK saltmarsh bird’s beak, amid protected sand dunes. and research opportunities. an endangered plant.