Cold Creek Docent Program
Group Visitation Form for the Cold Creek Docent Program

The Cold Creek Docents offer educational and interpretive programs at Stunt Ranch Reserve and in the surrounding area. A division of the nonprofit Mountains Restoration Trust (MRT), the Cold Creek Docents began their environmental interpretation programs at the adjacent Cold Creek Canyon Preserve and later expanded activities to include Stunt Ranch. In 1982, they converted an equipment shed at Stunt Ranch into the Kay Spensley Nature Education Center. This was among the buildings destroyed in the 1993 fire, and the center is now housed in a temporary trailer. Thousands of local school children visit the center each year to learn about the area's natural and cultural features.

The Natural Reserve System and UCLA are committed to the continuation of this program. Our license agreement with the MRT formally recognizes the continued use of portions of Stunt Ranch Reserve by the Cold Creek Docents for their educational programs.

Los Angeles area school children study samples of archaeological artifacts readily found in the Santa Monica Mountains with Julie Rosa, one of the many dedicated Cold Creek Docents who coordinate the award winning K-12 environmental education program at the Stunt Ranch Reserve. Artifacts found at the Reserve include steatite bowl fragments, quartzite hammerstones, and metate (i.e.grinding bowl) fragments. There are several bedrock mortars on the ranch. The artifacts are remnants of both seasonal and year-round Chumash/Gabrielino tribe encampments. Recently archaeologists found at the site an unusual fish otolith (i.e., ear bone) that may represent a food source and fish species not previously identified as used by the prehistoric inhabitants of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Taking a welcome break from their active tour with the Cold Creek Docents, school children enjoy a picnic lunch on a gentle slope in the Reserve's Educational Zone. The three hour school programs focus upon chaparral ecology (including fire ecology), geology, and early local Native American cultural history. Programs are often customized to meet the needs of the individual teacher to include other aspects of the environment. Oftentimes classes of 60-70 students arrive by bus and in groups of 10-12 students are led on a 1.5 mile hike through several plant/animal communities so that they can experience those communities while they are learning relevant concepts.

The latter part of the program is held at the temporary Nature Center at the Reserve where students take part in a rotation of activities which include viewing a mural and subsequent discussion of Chumash village life, a taxidermied animal viewing and discussion, followed by acorn grinding, "cave wall" painting, playing of Chumash Native American games and demonstrations of tool making.

Students usually bring brown bag lunches and return to their bus by trail with more interpretation along the way.

Looking ahead...

Conceptual drawings*(click on image for a larger view) illustrate the interior exhibits and displays as well as the associated nature trail and replica Chumash Village of the soon-to-be-constructed multi-dimensional Nature Center at the reserve. The purpose of the exhibits in the Nature Center will be to depict a selected group of "stories" associated with the cultural, natural, and dynamic landscape of the Cold Creek area of the Santa Monica Mountains. These "stories" will include the human history of the Chumash/Tongva Native Americans and early European settlers, fire as an ecosystem process, riparian and chaparral habitats as keystone ecosystems, Southern California within the global pattern of Mediterranean-climate ecosystems, regional geology and climate, and resource management issues at the wildland/urban interface.

The interpretive nature trail will wind back from the Nature Center and around behind the planned classroom/workroom, ending at the replica Chumash village. This trail will provide interpretive boards and signs introducing students to the ecology of the live oak plantings along its margin of native species used by the Chumash. The interpretive trail will be wheel chair-accessible and lit for evening use. *Illustrations by Lisa Pompelli, Reserve Design Consultant

These and other public access and educational activities can now benefit from access to UCLA as a source of academic and scientific support and training. Public appreciation of the site will be further enhanced by new knowledge of local ecosystems and fire recovery processes derived from ongoing research projects. The UCLA campus plans to establish an active public outreach program for the reserve, which may include semiannual open houses and campus-sponsored extension courses.

The reserve is situated within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service, and as additional lands are protected, new opportunities for educational and research uses emerge. Numerous private conservation groups and public agencies interested in the protection of natural resources are actively acquiring property in the area. The campus is exploring the potential for multi-agency research projects and joint programs on a variety of topics related to environmental education, conservation, and resource management.

In addition to its interactions with the Mountains Restoration Trust, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, California Department of Parks and Recreation, and National Park Service, the reserve is establishing relationships with the Sierra Club, Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council, environmentally active homeowners' associations, and local colleges and universities.
The proximity of the Santa Monica Mountains to one of the largest urban areas in the country creates both problems and opportunities. The reserve's activities can serve as a prototype for other natural areas in anticipating and dealing with issues related to urban pressure on natural areas, community development, and management of public lands.

Photos are courtesy of the Cold Creek Docents