I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to confront only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Henry David Thoreau, Walden

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Narrative report

Use by instructional groups

Current research

Research reports

Publications

Use data and user’s affiliations

Personnel

Miscellaneous:
- Managing Conservation Lands in Mediterranean-Type
Ecosystems: Southern California and the Cape Region of
South Africa: Program and field trip highlights

 

Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve
University of California
Los Angeles

Annual Report
2001 - 2002

Yucca whipplei

Cover Illustration: Yucca whipplei  by Lisa Pompelli

Yucca whipplei occurs widely in coastal sage scrub and chaparral habitats from Monterey County south into northwestern Baja California. The common name of our lord’s candle comes from the presence in spring of a tall flowering stalk 4-8 feet in height covered with cream-colored flowers. This species has a remarkable mutualism with an insect called the yucca moth. All pollination of yucca flowers is carried out by this moth, which then lays its eggs in the young seedpods. The developing moth larvae feed on some but not all of the seeds in each of the pods. Neither species can survive without the contributions of the other.

 

UCLA Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve
University of California, Los Angeles
Phone:   (310) 206-3887;  Fax: (310) 825-9433
Email:     cfelixso@ucla.edu; Web Site: http://nrs.ucop.edu/Reserves/stunt/html

Narrative Overview 2001-2002 

 Academic years, as do most yearly cycles, seem to have their own focus. In the life of the Stunt Ranch Reserve, besides instruction and research, the 2001-2002 year focused on mediterranean-climate regions, the Los Angeles Times reading by 9 literacy program, reconstruction planning, and outreach to the public about the importance of preserving and enhancing biodiversity.

An international symposium on Managing Conservation lands in Mediterranean-Climate Ecosystems was held April 2-4 at UCLA to discuss issues and challenges of managing parklands at the urban/wildland interface adjacent to the large metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and Cape Town. This workshop brought together a large group of resource managers and conservation biologists from Southern California and South Africa to learn from their respective experiences and to develop new approaches toward effective resource management. Shortly afterward, a similar program was conducted with resource managers from Chile.

For details, see On-site community outreach activities and Miscellaneous.

A related project was the production of a visually attractive educational poster which identifies the five mediterranean-climate regions, their patterns of global occurrences, and their convergent as well as unique characteristics. It also describes the threats these regions face as areas of irreplaceable biodiversity whose protection is of critical global importance.

For details, see Off-site community outreach activities.

As in past years, there was much behind the scenes activity related to the reconstruction of the Stunt Ranch education/nature center. An Initial Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was completed and released. The Reserve received public response with no significant problems, and is now working out engineering details for the utilities for the site.

With enthusiastic support from numerous agencies and organizations, and with valued assistance from the UCLA development office and offices of government and community relations, the Reserve applied for Proposition 12 funding to help supplement the reconstruction of its education/nature center. Although the Reserve did receive a high ranking, the available funds were awarded to centers in more urban locales. However, no effort is in vain, and the well documented proposal not only will serve as the basis for others, it has provided a valuable vehicle for outreach to various educational and environmental organizations and communities.

The Reserve was a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times Reading by Nine Literacy Program. Articles published on the Los Angeles Times Kids Page – California Classroom section, featured plants and animals found at the reserve. Accompanying illustrations by children between the ages of 5-12 years of age were unique to these articles

For details, see Off-site community outreach activities and Miscellaneous
 

ON-SITE RESERVE USE:

The Stunt Ranch Reserve determines use on the basis of visitor days. During 2001-2002, the reserve had 3238 users for a total of 3860 user days. These user numbers are broken down by university-level use from UCLA, other UC campuses, the California State University system, and others within/outside California. In addition to university use, the Reserve hosted environmental education programs for K-12 coordinated by the Cold Creek Docents, and varied public outreach programs.

For details, see Use data and user’s affiliations

RESERVE INSTRUCTION:

The following university-level courses and graduate programs used the Stunt Ranch Reserve:

• Field Analysis Biogeography: Geography 163
• Astronomical Observation: Astro 8 A and B
• California Ecosystems: OBEE 154
• Global Environment: GE CLST M1A
• Biogeography of Southern California: Geography 495
• Behavioral Ecology: Biology 528
• Ph.D. Field Exam: Ground Truthing of Coastal Scrub Vegetation for Satellite Remote Sensing Image Classification: Geography. Ph. D. Field Exam: Environmental Controls on Oak Distribution at Stunt Ranch: Geography

For details, see Use data and user’s affiliation, and Instruction.


RESERVE RESEARCH PROJECTS:

The following research projects took place on, or in the surrounding vicinity, of the Stunt Ranch Reserve

• Long term gas exchange and water relations study of a chaparral plant community: drought effect
• Bush poppy demography and productivity
• Post-fire successional dynamics
• Ecophysiology of ferns in chaparral and oak woodland habitats of the Santa Monica Mountains
• Influence of nutrient loading on the invasion of an alien plant species, giant cane (Arundo donax) in Southern California riparian communities
• Environmental monitoring and bioassessment of Ventura and Los Angeles County Watersheds
• The evolutionary-ecology of fear: comparative studies of disturbance in birds. Do birds habituate to human disturbance?
• Reproductive flexibility in paper wasp Polistes aurifer
• Rainfall variation and persistence of native plant in exotic grassland
• The stability of frequency dependent dynamics in the side-blotched lizard
• Assessing vegetation functional type and biodiversity in Southern California using spectral reflectance
• Difference in pollinators between Penstemon centranthifolius and Penstemon spectabilis and their hybrids

For details, see Use data and user’s affiliations, and Current research.


K-12 ACTIVITIES:

Educational programs thrive at the Stunt Ranch Reserve – even with sky for roof and earth for floor. This is the title for an article featuring the Reserve in the UC Natural Reserve System (NRS) 2002 Winter Transect (quarterly newsletter). This year, as in others, thousands of students from dozens of schools throughout the greater Los Angeles area visited the reserve for programs run by the Cold Creek Docents on chaparral ecology, early Chumash culture, and geology. These programs represented a unique and highly successful collaboration between UCLA and the docents. The reserve benefited from the on-going excellence of the program and the commitment of the docents. The docents received reserve help in putting curriculum guides online, help in publicizing the programs, and by providing enrichment opportunities.

For details, see Use data and user’s affiliations, and listing of K-12 visits.



ON-SITE COMMUNITY OUTREACH ACTIVIES:

Managing Conservation Lands in Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems: Southern California and The Cape Region of South Africa.

The five mediterranean-climate regions of the world have been identified as members of a small group of evolutionary hotspots, which contain globally significant biodiversity and are highly threatened by human activities. Southern California and the Cape Region of South Africa are areas among these regions, which share remarkable similarities in many aspects of their environments. An international symposium on Managing Conservation lands in Mediterranean-Climate Ecosystems was held April 2-4 at UCLA to discuss issues and challenges of managing parklands at the urban/wildland interface adjacent to the large metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and Cape Town. This workshop brought together a large group of resource managers and conservation biologists from Southern California and South Africa to learn from their respective experiences and to develop new approaches toward effective resource management. Among the themes discussed were priorities for parkland acquisition, institutional challenges to resource management, fire management, invasive species control, and strategies for education and public outreach. The success of this workshop has led to plans a continuing series of formal and informal linkages between parkland managers in all five mediterranean-climate regions. The Workshop was sponsored by UCLA (Vice-Chancellor for Research, Stunt Ranch Reserve and the UCLA Institute of the Environment) and by the National Park Service.

Several months later, resource managers from Chile, one of the five mediterranean-climate regions, also met with UCLA Stunt Ranch Reserve staff and researchers and with National Park Service and State Parks to discuss similar issues as noted above.


Department of Organismic Biology, Ecology, and Evolution annual gathering.

The Reserve once again hosted the UCLA Department of Organismic Biology, Ecology, and Evolution’s annual family picnic with catered food, live entertainment provided by students from the UCLA Ethnomusicology Department, and hikes/kids games led by the Cold Creek Docents.

For details, see Use data and user’s affiliations.

 

OFF-SITE COMMUNITY OUTREACH ACTIVITES:

LOS ANGELES TIMES: READING BY 9 LITERACY PROGRAM:

The reserve was a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times Reading by Nine Literacy Program. The Stunt Ranch Kids Page articles have proven to be a successful and wide-ranging venue for the Reserve’s off-site education efforts and the promotion of the on-site K-12 environmental education programs. These articles were considered such a valued addition to the Kids Reading Room Page that the Los Angeles Times requested the Reserve to write a monthly column on recreating natures living works of art.


MEDITERRANEAN-CLIMATE REGIONS POSTER:

The mediterranean-climate regions poster, which the Reserve created in the past year is comprised of maps of the five regions along with botanical illustrations, charts, diagrams and watercolor paintings. Topics covered include fire ecology, convergent evolution, biodiversity, climate influences, human history, human impact, and seasonal patterns of temperature and rainfall.

The poster was designed and written as an educational tool for students and the community at large who have an interest in science and biodiversity, especially as it translates into public policy. It can easily be incorporated into school curricula and community workshops and seminars.

Dr. Philip Rundel, UCLA Professor of Biology and faculty director of the UCLA Stunt Ranch Reserve, wrote the text for the poster. Artwork and design was by Lisa Pompelli, a well-respected artist and botanical illustrator.


CENTER FOR EMBEDDED NETWORKED SENSING (CENS) AT UCLA:

Phil Rundel, Director of the Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve, is a principal investigator within the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) at UCLA. CENS is a new NSF Science & Technology Center working to develop technologically innovative sensing arrays with wide applications in environmental biology and ecosystem studies. The initial efforts of CENS are focused on the design of a habitat and organism sensing test bed at the UC NRS James Reserve and at affiliated field sites, which will later involve projects at Stunt Ranch. Some of the areas of development include:

1) Sensing Infrastructure
• Environmental sensors in different habitats.
• Multimedia sensors in natural habitats and artificial cavities (nest boxes).
• Physiological sensors on trees and shrubs.
• Primary nodes for higher level data processing and communications on towers.
• Mobile platform for high-resolution sensors and tele-robotic operation.

2) Monitoring ecosystem processes
• Imaging, ecophysiology, and environmental sensors
• Study vegetation response to climatic trends and diseases.

3) Species Monitoring
• Visual identification, tracking, and population measurement of birds and other
vertebrates.
• Acoustical sensing of birds for identification, spatial position, population estimation.


VIDEO:

Burrud Productions and Schlessinger Media Company, with the help of Dr. Ken Nagy, UCLA herpetologist and Stunt Ranch instructor, produced a set of videos for K-12 on amphibians and reptiles. These became available in the ‘01-’02 academic year. One is about amphibians for grades K-4, another on amphibians for grades 5-8, and the third is about reptiles for grades 5-8. Each video is about 20 minutes long, is informative, and hopefully will interest youngsters to learn more about these ectothermic vertebrates. For information about these educational videos, see http://www.libraryvideo.com/company_info/about_lvc.asp

COLLECTION OF ETHEL STUNT ARTIFACTS:

The Reserve, as in past years, was the fortunate recipient of treasured items from the life of Stunt Ranch matriarch Ethel Stunt. These will join others as part of a featured display on the homestead period in the Stunt Ranch Reserve education/nature center. Items received this year included: 1 fur hood, 1 pair of glasses, 1 tin cup, 1"1888" pin, 1 carved jade frog from China, and diaries from some of her trips to Japan and Korea dated 1910-13. In one, Ethel noted that locals were taking advantage of some of the foreigners in various transactions "...but not Beatrice Ethel...” A measure of her self-esteem and confidence, which seems to confirm she was a teacher.



NEWS CLIPPINGS:

In addition to research papers published in Ecological Research, Environmental Management, Conservation Biology, Remote Sensing of the Environment, Southern California Environmental Report Card, Journal of Mediterranean Ecology, and the International Journal of Wildland Fire, news and feature articles about the Reserve or written by Reserve staff were published in the publications listed below.

• Los Angeles Times: Articles on the Kids Reading Room Page. Topics included the chaparral, firestorms, and rattlesnakes.

• UCLA Today: Red, White, and Blue in Post 9-11 America

• Agoura Acorn: Stunt Ranch Presents a Natural Wonderland in Our Own Backyard

See Publications and Miscellaneous


For more information on the UCLA Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve, visit http://nrs.ucop.edu/Reserves/stunt.html  or call 310 206-3887.  Your input is most welcome.



 

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2001-2002 University-level Instruction

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