Natural Reserve System Natural Reserve System UNIVERSITY OF 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 Scripps Coastal Reserve 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 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 Contact us http://nrs.ucsd.edu [email protected] UC San Diego Reserves 858.534.2077

Dawson Los Monos Canyon Reserve Elliott Chaparral Reserve The middle reach of Elliott Chaparral Reserve Agua Hedionda Creek straddles a narrow ridge on flows through Dawson Kearny Mesa adjacent to the Los Monos Canyon largely undeveloped Marine Reserve in the western Corps Air Station Miramar. This foothills of northern San ecotone betweeen coast and Diego County. Riparian desert features coastal scrub sycamores and coast species such as scrub oak and live oaks are bordered black sage alongside inland by moist valley meadows species such as Whipple’s yucca and coastal sage scrub, and ceanothus amid a matrix of while the slopes above chamise chaparral. The reserve host stands of south supports rare coast horned coast chaparral. Urban lizards, rattlesnakes, deer and development has made their predators. The reserve the reserve an important became a locus of research into refuge and conduit for UC San Diego post-fire community regeneration native flora and fauna. • after the 2003 Cedar Fire. CHRISTOPHER WOODCOCK ••• PEGGY L. FIEDLER

Scripps Coastal Reserve Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve Scripps Coastal Reserve protects nearshore Among the last remnants of marine and coastal habitat in populous San a major San Diego wetland, Diego. A high mesa topped by coastal sage Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh scrub supports a breeding population of Reserve provides vital habitat threatened California gnatcatchers. Peregrine for declining estuarine species. falcons nest in the bluffs, feeding on some Tidal channels snake through a of the 157 bird species found in the reserve. marsh plain featuring pickleweed Sandy beach below attracts spawning and cordgrass, and open onto grunion and shorebirds. Waves hide the mudflats. Subtidal eelgrass beds mouth of Scripps Submarine Canyon, where serve as nurseries for fishes rockfish and giant sea bass have flourished like halibut. The endangered since these waters were declared a Marine light-footed clapper rail and Protected Area. A rocky intertidal with Belding’s savannah sparrow feast eelgrass and invertebrates is surrounded on abundant invertebrates. The by sandy coastal plain. Scripps Pier pilings marsh also supports thousands of shelter anchovy and sardine schools hunted migrating shorebirds annually. by porpoises, sea lions, and pelicans. WILL SOOTER ROBERT “ROY” LITTLE