How can anyone begin to understand the dynamics of an eco-system without having crawled through it, or watched the flush of new growth following fire, or listened to the hum of insects and the songs of birds? It is an intricately woven web of life to be seen, heard, and smelled.

-  Mildred E. Mathias Long time Chair of the UC NRS University-Wide Advisory Committee

The Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve forms one of 36 ecological reserves operated by the University of California Natural Reserve System (NRS), and is the only reserve managed by UCLA .The NRS network of reserves spread across all parts of California provides venues for world-class research and education in the environmental sciences, and is a unique resource unparalleled anywhere else in the world.

The Stunt Ranch Reserve, named for the original family that homesteaded the property in 1885, comprises 310 acres of relatively pristine chaparral, live oak woodland, and riparian habitat in the Cold Creek watershed on the north-central flank of the Santa Monica Mountains, between Malibu and Calabasas. The reserve is also an archeological site with rich evidence of Chumash inhabitants dating back thousands of years.  There are currently no permanent structures at Stunt Ranch, but planning is underway for a research facility and educational center to serve our multiple users.  These users include UCLA faculty and students, researchers from other universities, and K-12 educational groups from all parts of the greater Los Angeles area.

Initially much of the research at Stunt Ranch had to do with fire recovery as a consequence of the November 1993 Malibu/Topanga Fire which burned more than 17,000 acres and destroyed more than 300 structures. Although this particular fire was set by an arsonist, fire is a natural phenomenon that has long been a major factor in the ecology of the Santa Monica Mountains. At Stunt Ranch, most of the vegetation was burned and all of the facilities were completely destroyed by the 1993 firestorm. Planning is underway for the reconstruction of the education/research center that was destroyed by this fire.

Situated less than a 45-minute drive from UCLA (about midway between the cities of Malibu, on the coast, and Calabasas, on the inland side of the mountains) the Stunt Ranch Reserve sits in the heart of the Cold Creek watershed, positioned in the southernmost of California's Transverse Range. Its value is further enhanced by its location adjacent to extensive natural areas, including state (State Department of Parks and Recreation) and federal (Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area) parklands and areas managed for conservation purposes by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC), the National Park Service and the Mountains Restoration Trust (MRT). The potential for cooperative research and education programs with these agencies is tremendous. The Reserve lends itself to programs that focus not only on the natural ecosystems and human history but more broadly on issues of resource management in the urban/wildland interface.

In its first thirteen years of operation, from 1995 through 2008, the Reserve hosted an average of 4,000 users with 5,000 user days annually.   Over this period 39 different undergraduate and graduate courses from UCLA and other universities have used the reserve.  Faculty and graduate student researchers have initiated 58 research projects, with a resulting 137 peer-reviewed publications resulting from this work.  In terms of users and user-days, however, the largest part of the Reserve’s use comes from K-12 student, particularly younger students centered on the fifth grade. 

The Cold Creek Docents manage these student visits with an award-winning program that introduces younger students to the natural ecology and human history of the Santa Monica Mountains.  Currently nearly 3,000 school children visit the Reserve each year, coming from schools all across the Los Angeles Basin. Many of the visiting school groups come from inner city schools where they have little contact with the natural environment.