1 NRS founder Ken Norrisfondly remembered

6 UC reserve system playsnational stage at AAAS

7 1998-99 Mathias studentresearch grant awardees

10 Angelo Reserve receivesfunding for new environ-mental sciences center

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NRS founding father tookreserve system to the millennium

The University of California Natural Reserve System (NRS) is an ecologi-cally diverse collection of protected natural lands, located throughoutthe state and maintained in support of university-level teaching and re-

search. It is also the realized vision of a farsighted UC scientist who gave hun-dreds of students a personal introduction to the natural world and was fondlyknown as the “Professor of Wonderment.”

Back in the early 1960s, well before Kenneth S. Norris had acquired his interna-tional reputation as a distinguished zoologist, he already recognized the growingneed for a coordinated, intercampus system of wildland sites protected frompopulation and development pressures. At natural reserves, university faculty

Ken Norris. Photo by Norden H. (Dan) Cheatham

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University of California

A s we exit the 20th century, theNRS (now in its 34th year)remains the only university-

owned and -operated system of itsscope and diversity in the world. Andthe greatest burden of responsibility forthis richly complex organization isshouldered by dedicated individual fac-ulty of the University of California.

UC faculty — beginning with suchextraordinary human beings as lateNRS founder Ken Norris, whose re-markably productive life is touchedupon with gratitude in this issue ofTransect — conceived of the NRS. UCfaculty planned and built the system,site by site by site. Today UC facultycontinue to manage the NRS in orderto serve the needs of university-level in-struction and research in field sciences.

A few words from theNRS systemwide office

NRS founding member recalls Ken

F ringe-toed lizards were the reason I first met Ken Norris. It was 1958.Ken was working at Marineland at the time, but in graduate school hehad done his master’s thesis on fringe-toed lizards. I was just beginning

to look at these lizards and the climatic effects on their reproduction — and Ihad some questions to ask Ken about field methods and the like.

We kept up our correspondence over the years, and eventually we developedsome disagreements about whether these lizards represented three distinct spe-cies or were three forms of a single species. We cussed and discussed the matterfor quite a while, neither one convincing the other, until we finally decided toset up an experiment.

We found an area of wind-swept dunes near Mira Loma, west of Riverside,where there were no populations of fringe-toed lizards. We located four dunesand dropped one type of the lizard on each of the first three dunes. Then weplaced a mix of all three types on the fourth dune to see if the lizards wouldadjust to habitat outside their range and, if so, if they would interbreed.

However, within a year, all four dunes had been bulldozed and built over forsome kind of development.

would be able to undertake long-term projects with assurance their studies wouldremain undisturbed. A broad suite of functioning samples of nature would of-fer unlimited possibilities for investigating the ecological rules that govern bothearth and humankind. To this vision Dr. Norris gave a lifetime of inspiration,advocacy, leadership, and hands-on stewardship, because he regarded the NRS’sexistence as critically linked to the life and health of the planet.

More than thirty years have passed since the NRS was formally established in1965, and today’s NRS is a Norris dream come true: the only university-ownedand -operated wildlands system of its scope and diversity anywhere — with 33“outdoor laboratories” and “classrooms without walls” that protect over 120,000acres and support the work of thousands of faculty, students, and researchersfrom around the world.

Dr. Norris was proud of his role in creating the NRS. And those who continueto coordinate the system are proud to receive the many individual contribu-tions in support of environmental monitoring and education, research grantsand fellowships, and laboratory and residential facilities that so greatly enhancereserve use. Such expressions of personal generosity share the Norris vision forthis shared planet. — SGR

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Photo by Don Usner

Ken-ology1924-98• Born August 11,1924, Los Angeles, CA(not really Angkor, Cambodia, as Kenonce claimed to Who’s Who).

• B.A. zoology from UCLA, 1948. M.A.zoology from UCLA, 1951. Ph.D. zool-ogy from the Scripps Institution of Ocean-ography, 1959, where he studied underrenowned ichthyologist Carl Hubbs. Hisdoctoral dissertation on how water tem-peratures affect intertidal fish won an awardfrom the Ecological Society of America.

• Founding curator at Marineland of thePacific, the country’s second oceanarium,1953. Confirmed that dolphins use soundtransmission to navigate, a process knownas echolocation. First to capture a livewhale (pilot whale) for public display.

• Returned to UCLA, 1959, to teach her-petology and continue earlier research ondesert reptiles. Discovered circadianrhythms in snakes and the function ofcolor changes in reptiles and amphibians.

• Assumed the UCLA teaching post of hisretiring mentor professor Ray Cowles, atCowles’s insistence, 1961. Cowles had the

Editor’s note: Bill Mayhew, professor emeritus of zoology at UC Riverside, was partof the ad hoc committee that helped to establish the Natural Land and Water Re-serves System, the name first given to the NRS. He was also a founding member ofthe Universitywide NRS Faculty Advisory Committee. He served as chair of UCRiverside’s campus NRS committee until his retirement in 1989.

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idea for UC to set aside threatened eco-systems for teaching and research —Norris would later carry out this idea.

• Appointed by UC President Clark Kerrto chair an ad hoc intercampus commit-tee, created October 1963, to explore pres-ervation of ecological communities forteaching and research. Committee reportsto the UC Regents led to the formal es-tablishment of the NRS, January 1965.

• Chaired NRS Advisory Committee1965-67. Spent the better part of 1966surveying the state for potential reservesites and developing an acquisition plan.

• Successfully negotiated a $500,000matching grant from the Ford Foundationin 1967, giving the NRS much-neededearly impetus and recognition.

• From 1968 to 1971, served as foundingscientific director of the Oceanic Instituteof Hawaii and helped to establish Hawaii’sNatural Land Reserve System.

• Scientific advisor to U.S. Marine Mam-mal Commission, helping to write the Ma-rine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

• Served as director of UC Santa Cruz’sCenter for Coastal Marine Studies (nowthe Institute of Marine Sciences), 1972-75. Worked with biology professor Will-iam Doyle to secure land and funding forwhat is now the Joseph M. Long MarineLaboratory. Set the standards for humanecapture and study of marine mammals.

• Worked with his children to design thefamily home in Santa Cruz, 1973. Laterraised sheep there (which he acquired be-fore he learned how to shear them), includ-ing the foundling Lamb Chomsky.

• Designed a whale harness, 1974, thatcould carry an early datalogger and expandto continue to fit a growing young whalefor up to one year.

• Named “Man of the Year” by the Ameri-can Cetacean Society, 1976.

• Received the California Academy of Sci-ences’ Fellows Medal for his studies on ma-rine mammals, 1977.

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Bill Mayhew (left) and KenNorris served together for manyyears on the Universitywide NRSAdvisory Committee. Here theyare shown surveying a potentialNRS site near UC Santa Cruzback in the early 1980s.

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We commiserated a long time over the loss of that study site and others like it.I might have kept it at commiseration, but Ken — who was by now a youngprofessor at UCLA — decided to go to UC President Kerr with the idea to setaside a network of areas just for teaching and research.

Kerr was interested in the idea and scheduled a meeting, which as it turns outwas the day of John Kennedy’s funeral. Our committee was made up of repre-sentatives from each of the UC campuses, and Kerr asked us to present himwith an interim report by February 1964, describing the idea of a system ofreserves.

Now this was several years before the first Earth Day, and there was no particu-lar support for the idea of conservation of land, either within the University oramong the public in general. Except to those few of us who were actually work-ing in the field, land seemed to be abundant, unlimited. But the interim reportmade a convincing argument for a reserve system in terms of the mission of theUniversity as a place for research and teaching. Kerr was so impressed with theinterim report, he took it to the Regents … and it passed.

The Natural Lands and Water Reserves System (NLWRS) was officially desig-nated in 1965, with seven reserves.* For the next several years, we worked tobuild the system, adding sites to fill in the representative system Ken had de-signed. I always had four or five nominees each year. Ken accused me of want-ing to be governor of the fifty-first state, to be able to walk on UC land fromMexico to Oregon!

But we were always racing the bulldozer. The chance to protect these lands wasnow or never.

— Wilbur “Bill” MayhewProfessor Emeritus of Zoology

UC Riverside*The name was changed to theNatural Reserve System (NRS) in1983. The first seven reserves were:Box Springs Reserve, Dawson LosMonos Canyon Reserve, HastingsNatural History Reservation, Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve,Boyd Deep Canyon Desert ResearchCenter, Sawyer Trinity Alps Reserve(later sold), and Scripps Shoreline-Underwater Reserve (now calledScripps Coastal Reserve).

A s director of the UC Natural Reserve System for nearly 25 years, I waswell aware of the skill of Kenneth S. Norris as an administrator, innova-tor, articulate advocate, and trailblazer in the best sense of the word.

In the early 1960s, Ken recognized that “outdoor laboratories” long used bymembers of the faculty and students for field work were quickly disappearingthrough rapid urbanization. Research projects were being interrupted by vandal-ism, conflicting land uses, and irresponsible land management. Many facultymembers were frustrated when their requests for acquisition of areas were turneddown. Ken realized that only a coordinated, systematic, and statewide approachwould succeed and prepared a plan of action that was ultimately approved by theBoard of Regents.

He was named the first chairman of the Universitywide NRS Advisory Commit-tee and, in that capacity, covered thousands of miles to inspect potential reservesites, negotiate initial acquisitions, and raise private support funds. When Kenassumed the managership of the Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve on the Big Surcoast, he spent an inordinate amount of time developing a management plan,overseeing resource inventories, making improvements, and relating to externaland internal parties. The approach taken and policies pursued under his leader-ship served as models for all NRS reserves, as well as other natural reserves ad-ministered throughout the state, if not the country.

I also experienced firsthand Ken’s contributions to the land use and manage-ment policies of public agencies and private conservation organizations. He servedon numerous advisory panels, and, through a remarkable combination of intel-lect, commitment, and personality, was an extremely effective voice.

The highlight of my career with the University was spending two days in thefield with Ken and his students. I was tremendously impressed with the learningprocess as it evolved, as well as with Ken’simpact on the students. Ken was called“Professor of Wonderment” — and ifever there was an apt title, that was it.

Ken was truly a remarkable human be-ing — one who compiled an enviable listof accomplishments, one who gave un-selfishly in pursuit of causes, and one whoendeared himself to legions of students,colleagues, and friends. I have knownfew, if any, about whom I could writewith greater admiration.

— J. Roger SamuelsenDirector Emeritus

Natural Reserve System(Retired from NRS 1991)

First NRS director remembers Ken

Ken with his field students.Photo by Don Usner

• Chaired task force responsible for pre-paring systemwide NRS plan; wrote mostof plan, 1977. Also chaired UCSC (cam-pus) NRS Advisory Committee, Aca-demic Planning Subcommittee of theSystemwide Committee, and Big CreekAdvisory Board. Named faculty reservemanager, Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve.

• Chaired UC Santa Cruz’s Environmen-tal Studies Department, 1977-79;founded and coordinated the Environ-mental Field Program, providing financ-ing for undergraduate research. Took partin rearing California condors for releaseto the wild.

• Nominated “Professor of the Year,”1980, by the Council for the Advance-ment and Support of Education (CASE).

• For a decade, taught UC Santa Cruz’spopular “field quarter” class, drawingmany students to UCSC for the chanceto study with him and launching careersfor many undergraduates and graduates.

• Received grants, by 1984, from theFranklin Institute, National ScienceFoundation, National Institutes ofHealth, NASA-Ames Laboratory, JanssFoundation, National Oceanic and At-mospheric Administration, Office of Na-val Research, and U.S. Marine MammalCommission.

• Visited the People’s Republic of China,1987, to join in a study of river dolphinsin the Yangtze River, making the trip as amember of a committee appointed by theInternational Union for the Conservationof Nature to investigate problems affect-ing river dolphins around the world.

• Led a national campaign, 1989, to re-duce the numbers of dolphins killed intuna-fishing nets, an effort that attractedworldwide attention and led to reformsin fishing practices and the labeling oftuna cans. Designed tuna nets that en-able dolphins to escape.

• “Retired” from UC Santa Cruz, 1990,after 18 years as professor of natural his-tory and started the seventh iteration ofhis career as a writer.

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The most basic rules of the world — the ones we all live by — are ecological rules.You can’t study them or even perceive them very well in a classroom or laboratory.It is imperative to go out on the mountainside, watch the rain fall over a valley,dig into the earth beneath a fallen tree, or wade a creek for cobbles with sourcesupstream.

The best work in the natural disciplines all starts with observations in nature.We need those wild places where we can study nature firsthand, places where allthe intricacy and marvel of the natural world is intact. Everywhere, includingCalifornia, those places are becoming fewer — and more precious.

— Kenneth S. Norris, Founder of the UC Natural Reserve System

• Served as wildlife representative on anadvisory board for the U.S. Bureau ofLand Management’s comprehensivedesert management plan, 1990.

• Sent around the world by NationalGeographic, 1991, to gather materialfor an article on dolphins in crisis.Responsible for much of what is nowknown about whales and dolphins,particularly their social patterns andecholocation skills.

• Honored by his former students, whodonated funds to create the Kenneth S.Norris Scholarship Fund, 1991, to sup-port undergraduate field studies relatingto California’s natural environment.

• Received the prestigious JohnBurroughs Medal, 1992, for his bookDolphin Days: The Life and Times of theSpinner Dolphin, a personal account ofhis research (which spanned about 30years). Also responsible for several bookson whales, dolphins, and porpoises, in-cluding Dolphin Societies: Discoveries andPuzzles (as editor), Whales, Dolphins, andPorpoises (as co-author), The PorpoiseWatcher, and The Hawaiian Spinner Dol-phin (as co-author).

• The NRS received from the David andLucile Packard Foundation, 1998, a $4-million endowment awarded in responseto a proposal Ken initiated. As a tributeto his leadership, the gift was named theKenneth S. Norris Endowment Fund forthe California Environment.

• Passed away peacefully, August 16,1998, at UC San Francisco Medical Cen-ter, surrounded by his family. — EMB

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[Editor’s note: A Ken Norris oral history will be published this fall through UCSanta Cruz. See page 10 for information on how to order this tribute volume.]

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NRS plays the national stage at AAAS annual meeting

The NRS introduced itself to theworld earlier this year at the1999 annual meeting of the

American Association for the Advance-ment of Science (AAAS) in Anaheim,CA (January 21-26). The AAAS is theworld’s largest federation of scientistsfrom a variety of disciplines, with morethan 143,000 members and 282 affili-ated societies. Its yearly gathering at-tracts scientists, social scientists, andjournalists from around the globe.

Showcasing the NRS and its broadspectrum of activities was a half-dayAAAS symposium entitled “UC Natu-ral Reserve System: Managing Re-sources, Preparing for the Future.” Fea-tured speakers included long-time NRSresearchers Mary Power, Walt Koenig,Tim Bradley, Michael Hamilton, andFrank Davis. Their investigations of-fer insights into biological, geological,physical, and chemical processes onnatural lands that influence productiv-ity, sustainability, and biodiversity.

Mary Power, professor, Department ofIntegrative Biology, UC Berkeley, andfaculty reserve manager, Angelo CoastRange Reserve (Mendocino County),addressed the importance of naturaldisturbances in ecosystem health andconservation. Floods, fires, and land-slides maintain biodiversity and websof interactions among species. As hu-man population grows and interfereswith natural processes, it becomes moredifficult to find natural areas largeenough to study the interactions be-tween disturbances and ecosystems.Power discussed the importance ofNRS reserves in this role and how theycan help guide us toward wise ecosys-tem management.

Walt Koenig, research zoologist,Hastings Natural History Reservation(Monterey County), explained the

complex social systems and mating be-havior of the acorn woodpecker. Long-term ecological and behavioral studieslike Koenig’s depend on secure fieldsites such as those offered by the NRS— free from threats by trespassing anddevelopment.

Tim Bradley, professor and chair, De-partment of Ecology and EvolutionaryBiology, UC Irvine, as well as facultyreserve manager of San Joaquin Fresh-water Marsh Reserve (Orange County),described mosquito-control researchunderway on site. This research ad-dresses mosquito-control mechanismscompatible with protecting endangeredspecies, enhancing biodiversity, andprotecting the public from mosquito-borne disease.

Michael Hamilton, resident reserve di-rector, James San Jacinto MountainsReserve (Riverside County), demon-strated how NRS scientists who areengaged in long-term ecological stud-ies are coordinating with resource man-agers and planners. When science andtechnology are joined with planningefforts and day-to-day management,forest health improves, wildland firerisks are reduced, and small commu-nities become more ecologically aware.

Frank Davis, professor, Bren School ofEnvironmental Science and Manage-ment, UC Santa Barbara, and facultyreserve manager, Sedgwick Reserve(Santa Barbara County), described theCalifornia “GAP Analysis Project.”GAP is a geographic database of thedistributions of terrestrial plant com-munities, vertebrate species habitats,and land ownership/management.Davis analyzed different systems of re-serves — the UC Natural Rerserve Sys-tem, The Nature Conservancy, theNational Park Service — and their con-tributions to protecting biodiversity.He highlighted species, communities,and environments that should be highpriorities for conservation.

This first-ever event for the NRS wasorganized by NRS Director Alex Glazer(who also moderated) and UC Berke-ley Professor Mary Power. — SGR

For more informationabout the AAAS, contact:American Associationfor the Advancement of Science1200 New York Avenue, NWWashington, DC 20005

Ellen CooperNews and Information OfficePhone: 202-326-6431E-mail: ecooper@aaas.orgAAAS website: <www.aaas.org>

To find out more about the researchers and investigations

featured at the NRS’s symposiumat the 1999 AAAS meeting, checkthe following websites:

On Mary Power —<http://ib.berkeley.edu/faculty/powerm.html>

On Walt Koenig —<http://ib.berkeley.edu/faculty/koenigw.html>

On Tim Bradley —<http://ecoevo.bio.uci.edu/faculty/bradley/index.html>

On Michael Hamilton —<www.digitalnaturalist.com/>

On Frank Davis —<www.bren.ucsb.edu/~fd/>

(And on the GAP Analysis Project:<www.biogeog.ucsb.edu/projects/gap/gap_proj.html>)

Web resources

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For over a decade now, the NRSsystemwide office has awardedgrants in support of student

research. Since the academic year of1988-89, the Mildred E. Mathias Stu-dent Research Grants program alonehas funded 149 students with a totalof approximately $215,000.

Mathias grants not only encourage stu-dents to conduct research, but also givethem practical experience in applyingfor grants, meeting deadlines, and man-aging budgets. Awardees are expectedto submit a report to the director ofthe NRS.

The maximum amount for a singleaward is $2,000. An annual call forproposals is generally issued in Septem-ber; awards are announced in Decem-ber. Applications for Mathias grantsmay be obtained directly from an NRScampus representative (see sidebar thispage, column 2, above) or through theNRS systemwide office.

In the 1998-99 cycle of Mathiasawards, 17 graduate students were se-lected from the eight general UC cam-puses to share a total of $20,960. Theseawardees, their projects, and researchsites include:

From UC Berkeley —• Jonathan Levine, Effects of plant di-versity on community invasibility in aNorthern California riparian system;• Frances Camille McNeely,Macroinvertebrate species richness alongan environmental productivity gradientin a Northern California river;• Elizabeth Pine, Genet [Individual] sizeof late-stage ectomycorrhizal fungi;• Judy P. Sheen, Reproductive cost innorthern and southern alligator lizards.All four UCB student researchers willbe hosted by the Angelo Coast RangeReserve (Mendocino County).

From UC Davis —• Christy Brigham, Is the Allee effectinvolved in extinction of isolated patchesof Mimulus nudatus? at the McLaugh-lin Natural Reserve (Napa and LakeCounties);• Maria Melendez, Cross-cultural exami-nation of aesthetic and ethical concernsin the preservation and restoration ofCalifornia grasslands, at the Bodega Ma-rine Reserve (Sonoma County) andJepson Prairie Reserve (SolanoCounty).

From UC Irvine —• Denise M. Franke and Allan G. Ellis,Analysis of selection and gene-flow acrossa cline: flowering time in Brassica rapa,at the San Joaquin Freshwater MarshReserve (Orange County).

From UC Los Angeles —• Shawna J. Dark, Potential impact ofthree-dimensional forest modeling andgeographic information systems on theconservation of wildlife species, at theJames San Jacinto Mountains Reserve(Riverside County);• Aviva Liebert, Division of labor andreproduction in Polistes wasps, at theStunt Ranch Santa Monica MountainsReserve (Los Angeles County).

From UC Riverside —• Michael A. Patten, Role of mate choiceand habitat use in reproductive isolationof two song sparrow subspecies in South-ern California, at the Boyd Deep Can-yon Desert Research Center (RiversideCounty).

From UC San Diego —• Lisa M. Angeloni, Sexual selection andhermaphroditic strategies in a sea slug;• Arja T. McCray, Halophyte responsesto soil variation: comparisons betweennatural salt marshes of Southern Cali-fornia and a constructed salt marsh inMission Bay, San Diego, CA.Both studies will be hosted by theKendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Re-serve (San Diego County).

From UC Santa Barbara —• Noah G. Fierer, Effects of periodic rain-fall events on soil microbial processes andmicrobial community structure;• Emmanuel Gabet, Stochastic sedimentsupply model for a mountainous, semi-arid landscape.Both studies will take place at SedgwickReserve (Santa Barbara County).

From UC Santa Cruz —• Jennifer A. Brown, Determining therelative importance of protectedembayments and open coast nursery habi-tats to the maintenance of adult flatfishpopulations, at four NRS sites: BodegaMarine, Carpinteria Salt Marsh, CoalOil Point, and Kendall-Frost MarshReserves (Sonoma, Santa Barbara, andSan Diego Counties).• Dawn Page Noren, Changes in blub-ber and body composition of northernelephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris)pups during the postweaning fast, at AñoNuevo Island Reserve (San MateoCounty).

Congratulations to all! — SGR

NRS Mathias winners reveal a rich research future

September 1999

will bring the next call forMathias proposals. To obtaina grant application, contactyour NRS campus repthrough our website:<http://nrs.ucop.edu/info/grants.html>.

(Or contact the systemwide office:Mathias Research GrantsUC Natural Reserve System1111 Franklin Street, 6th FloorOakland, CA 94607-5200Phone: 510-987-0150)

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UC Davis professor of ento-mology Rick Karban has dis-covered a way to ease the

pressure, anxiety, and fear that afflictnew graduate students when they em-bark on that long, lonely road to com-pleting a thesis project. Central to hisstrategy is the terrestrial ecology fieldcourse he teaches each spring at theNRS’s Bodega Marine Reserve.

The purpose of Karban’s course is tosimulate the process of constructing anentire thesis project: from decidingupon a topic of study, to posing test-able hypotheses, to completing field-work, to writing a paper and giving anoral presentation. All this in the spaceof a 10-week quarter.

“Graduate school is really about doingresearch,” says Karban. “Yet, most ofour curriculum is presenting facts with-out necessarily teaching students aboutthe processes that allow us to uncoverthose facts.” He notes that, at the startof the course, many students have noidea what they could conceivably re-search, understand, and write aboutin a solid thesislike paper within 10weeks.

The course, offered jointly between thedepartments of ecology and entomol-ogy at UC Davis, was designed to getstudents out into the field where theycan see that there are no limitations tothe topics they can choose for theirprojects. After one classroom session— an overview of the natural historyof Bodega, which is located on theSonoma County coastline — the groupis turned loose at the reserve to discoverthe innumerable ecological questionsawaiting answers.

Karban discusses questions that otherstudents and researchers have asked

and encourages studentsto formulate testable hy-potheses that interestthem. He acts not onlyas an idea machine, butas a springboard for howstudents may developtheir own ideas. Al-though his own researchas an entomologist fo-cuses on plant/insect in-teractions, he does notpush students toward hisfield of study. In fact,over the 13 years he hastaught the course, he hasenjoyed the huge diver-sity of topics chosen byhis graduate students — for example:

• how trail disturbance affects plantdiversity• how group size affects spittlebugs• how rotting fish affect insectdiversity• sex ratios, sexual dimorphism, andmate choice in stink beetles• how lupine cover affects habitatselection by deer mice• competition between nonnativeiceplant and endemic flora• adaptive strategies of the Pacific treefrog in a fluctuating environment• niche separation among spiders.

These and other efforts by Karban’sgraduate students have all beenarchived in the Bodega Marine Labo-ratory library at Bodega Marine Reserve.

Karban is passionate about the impor-tance of teaching natural history andecology in the field. He laments:

“Students are exposed to less and lessnatural history. Field courses and evenlaboratory classes are required less fre-quently for students in the biological

sciences. This trend is dangerous forthe continued progress of our science.What will be the source of our intu-ition if not from our natural historyobservations? If students merely workon questions supplied by their majorprofessors, or from their readings, orfrom theoretical models of nature, ourfield will stagnate.”

In this context, Karban emphasizes thatthe NRS offers unique opportunitiesfor students to learn about the naturalworld. “NRS reserves are easily acces-sible and provide protected sites whereexperiments can be conducted with-out fear of vandalism. And they allowstudents to tap into the considerableexpertise and sophistication of other bi-ologists who have worked at those samesites in the past.” — PP

When instruction becomes research:Concepts seek completion in Bodega-based course

For more information, contact:Rick KarbanDepartment of EntomologyUC DavisPhone: 530-752-2800E-mail: rkarban@ucdavis.edu

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UC Davis Professor Rick Karban (right)introduces graduate students in his terrestrialecology course to the charms and complexitiesof pursuing science research in the field.

For a few days every spring, twodozen natural history studentsset aside their binoculars and

field guides to help tackle Santa CruzIsland’s “fennel invasion.” This nonna-tive plant, Foeniculum vulgare, has be-come a dominant feature of the island’slandscape, forming near-monocropsover acres of former grazing land in itscentral valley. Without some interven-tion, native vegetation stands littlechance of regaining a foothold in theseareas. The dilemma facing island man-agers: how can fennel be controlled onSanta Cruz Island without opening theway to other nonnative species that areeven more difficult to manage?

It’s a conundrum that’s long interestedStephen R. Gliessman, a professor ofenvironmental studies from UC SantaCruz. In the late 1960s and early1970s, Gliessman did his graduatework at this California Channel Islandlocated off the coast of Santa Barbara.Since 1981, he has been bringing theUC Santa Cruz “field quarter” class(Natural History of California) to theNRS’s Santa Cruz Island Reserve. Hesays: “When The Nature Conservancy(TNC) [which owns and manages 90percent of the island] proposed an ag-gressive herbicide program to controlfennel [in the late eighties], I was con-cerned that other alternatives weren’tbeing considered.”

In 1990, Gliessman and his studentsset up long-term study plots to test theimpacts of several nonherbicidal con-trol strategies. Each year the class sur-veys the plots for fennel abundance andidentifies other nonnative and nativeplants, then sets to work on the treat-ment options — mowing and remov-ing the fennel (either once or twice peryear), cutting and leaving it as a mulch,or digging it up by the roots. As part

of a TNC grant, the class also moni-tors study plots that have been burnedand treated with herbicides.

Complicating the picture of nativeplant recovery is the island’s burgeon-ing population of feral pigs, the descen-dents of farm animals brought to Santa

Cruz in the last century. Two wintersago, former field quarter students LauraRuiz and Wes Colvin installed a pigexclusion fence around the study plotsto see whether keeping pigs out wouldincrease native-plant recruitment.When surveys conducted a year laterturned up oak seedlings and other na-tive species growing in the protectedsites, these results confirmed whatGliessman had long suspected: remov-ing pigs from the island will be criticalto any restoration effort.

Last fall’s survey also revealed that al-though TNC’s burning/herbicide treat-ment had killed some fennel stands,many of the plants were regrowing.Worse, in several areas where fennel hadbeen eradicated, another aggressive,nonnative species — star thistle (Cen-taurea solstitialis) — had filled in thegaps. The UCSC study plots told asimilar story: where fennel had beendug up and removed, star thistle andMediterranean grasses had moved in.

Gliessman now thinks that light dis-turbance of fennel stands, such as mow-ing and raking cuttings into windrows,combined with pig removal and nativeplant reintroductions, may help jumpstart the recovery of native vegetation.Conversely, if the disturbance is toogreat and the pigs are not removed,then other introduced exotics may takeover from fennel and suppress nativespecies even more dramatically.

“We’ve learned that management can’tbe focused on the idea of eliminatingfennel on the short term,” saysGliessman. “Instead, we need to focuson understanding what the succes-sional processes are that will allow na-tives to eventually return. By under-

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UCSC field quarter student digsup fennel roots in a “dig and re-move” treatment plot (May 1990).Photo by Stephen R. Gliessman

UCSC field quarter students clearmowed fennel from the “mow andremove” treatment plots (May1993). Photo by Stephen R.Gliessman

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N a t u r a l R e s e r v e S y s t e m9

When research becomes resource management:Students tackle Santa Cruz Island’s fennel challenge

standing these processes, we may beable to speed them up.”

Gliessman also sees the research pro-viding students with valuable lessons:“They’re learning the importance ofnatural history field work and long-term studies, as well as the complexi-ties of protecting natural resourceswhen different management ap-proaches are involved,” he says. “Thebottom line is: good field science iscritical to helping solve these problems.”

— Martha Brown, Senior EditorCenter for Agroecology &Sustainable Food Systems

UC Santa Cruz

For more information, contact:Stephen R. GliessmanEnvironmental StudiesUC Santa CruzPhone: 831-459-4051E-mail: gliess@zzyx.ucsc.edu

Continued from page 9

The NRS received a gift this pastfall of $1.2 million from theRichard and Rhoda Goldman

Fund. The award will fund construc-tion of a center for environmental sci-ences at the Heath and Marjorie AngeloCoast Range Reserve, an NRS site lo-cated on the South Fork of the EelRiver in Mendocino County.

This gift will enable the Angelo Reserveto greatly expand its research, its uni-versity-level education, and its publicoutreach, which includes K-12 natureprograms. The new environmental sci-ences center will include a headquar-ters building with library, a computerroom, storage space for flora and faunacollections, and offices, as well as alaboratory, researcher housing, a green-house, and a forest canopy walkway.

Administered through the Berkeleycampus, the Angelo Reserve encom-passes 4,415 UC-owned acres and isbuffered by more than 3,500 acres

Angelo Reserve funded for newenvironmental sciences center

managed in partnership with the U.S.Bureau of Land Management (BLM).Angelo is one of the NRS’s most di-verse sites, with four aquatic and at least26 terrestrial habitat types, includingredwood groves and the state’s largestvirgin Douglas-fir forest community.

The Angelo Reserve has a long historyof community involvement that em-phasizes K-12 outreach. Each year, thereserve is visited by as many as 200children from nearby schools inLaytonville, Ukiah, and Willits. Thesestudents develop an appreciation forthe forest community and its inhabit-ants. The site offers 23 miles of trailsavailable for day use.

The Richard and Rhoda GoldmanFund is a private foundation based inSan Francisco. The foundation sup-ports programs of nonprofit organiza-tions that benefit the environment,population, Jewish affairs, children andyouth, and the elderly. — SGR

In memoriam

Much missed by the NRS isHomer Angelo, who died inAugust of 1998. A generous,

long-time supporter and friend of theNRS, Angelo had deep roots in UC.He was an esteemed international lawprofessor at UC Davis, having com-pleted his bachelor’s degree in 1931from UC Berkeley before attendingBoalt Hall.

He was a son of Heath Angelo, who,along with his wife Marjorie, acquireda vast tract of old-growth Douglas-firforest in Mendocino County to pro-tect it from logging. The Angelos latersold it to The Nature Conservancy(TNC) in 1959, making it the firstTNC preserve in the western UnitedStates. In 1994, the NRS accepted thesite from TNC and dedicated it as theHeath and Marjorie Angelo CoastRange Reserve. — EMB

The Regional History Project of the University Library of UC SantaCruz has announced the fall 1999 publication of Kenneth S. Norris:

Naturalist, Cetologist, Conservationist, 1924-1998.

This 400-page, illustrated oral history discusses the genesis of the NRS,Norris’s scientific legacy, and the UCSC Natural History Field Quarter. Itincludes an index, an introductory essay by documentary historian RandallJarrell, and features oral history interviews with: Kenneth S. Norris (in hisown voice), Robert M. Norris, William N. McFarland, William F. Perrin,J. Roger Samuelsen, Shannon M. Brownlee, Lawrence D. Ford, DonaldJ. Usner, and Stephen R. Gliessman.

To order a copy of this tribute to Ken Norris’s life, contact: Regional His-tory Project, McHenry Library, University of California, Santa Cruz, SantaCruz, CA 95064; phone: 831-459-2847; e-mail: ihreti@cats.ucsc.edu.Until November 1, 1999, this limited-edition volume is available for $20(includes shipping, but CA residents must add $1.60 for tax). After No-vember 1, the book will be available for $24. Checks should be madepayable to The UC Regents. — SGR

Norris oral history coming soon!

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U n i v e r s i t y o f C a l i f o r n i a10

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N a t u r a l R e s e r v e S y s t e m11

After more than three decades, the re-serve system and its importance as awhole to the University and to theworld beyond is still greater than asimple sum of individual campus in-terests. Yet integrating the teaching andresearch potential of a system that com-prises 33 diverse sites into the academicstructure of a multicampus universityis no small challenge.

While individual reserves require daily,intimate campus contact, the overallnetwork of field sites requires strongcentral guidance. At both levels, UCfaculty play principal roles. Often it isthe very same faculty managing at bothlevels of involvement.

At the grassroots, each NRS site is as-signed to a faculty reserve manager,who oversees — often in a very hands-on fashion — its instructional and re-search activities. This supervisory re-sponsibility is shared with a staff reservemanager, who sometimes resides at thereserve.

Meanwhile, ongoing and overall sys-tem guidance is provided by theUniversitywide NRS Advisory Com-mittee to the NRS systemwide officedirector and staff. Most UniversitywideNRS Advisory Committee membersare UC faculty, and they represent eachof the eight general UC campuses, aswell as a variety of disciplines. A com-mittee term runs three years. The cur-rent roster for UC faculty on the com-mittee includes:

• From UC Berkeley (which managesfour NRS sites): David B. Wake, Mu-seum of Vertebrate Zoology (as bothchair and Berkeley representative);

• From UC Davis (which manages sixNRS sites): Susan Harrison, Environ-mental Studies;

Generous donors make sure thereserve system is well grounded

O ver the past couple of years,individuals, foundations,and corporations have given

the NRS gifts and services that totalwell over $.5 million. In addition, halfa dozen reserve sites have recently beenenhanced by land gifts with a com-bined value of over $1.5 million.

The 160 acres that the Angelo CoastRange Reserve (Mendocino County)received from Dean Edell and SharonJohnson protect an importantviewshed, as well as a previously un-buffered, old-growth redwood grove.Additionally, 20 acres were donated tothe reserve by Eleanor H. Power, pro-tecting this land as well from future de-velopment.

The Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Re-search Center (Riverside County) willbenefit from 160 acres, plus easementsand funding for additional watersources and laboratory/housing facili-ties, promised by Lowe DevelopmentCorporation. Lowe, which is develop-ing a large housing complex adjacentto and north of the reserve, will fur-ther support Boyd through a portion

Continued on page 12

of future sale revenues donated to theUC Riverside Foundation.

The Dawson family has enlarged theDawson Los Monos Canyon Reserve(San Diego County) by 16.6 acres,bringing that site’s total acreage up toabout 234. Meanwhile, GertrudeEmerson donated 10 acres to enhancethe Emerson Oaks Reserve (RiversideCounty), now 255 acres. Such gifts areall the more crucial in the midst of therapid development taking placethroughout the two counties in whichthese reserves are located.

Valentine Camp, a component of theValentine Eastern Sierra Reserve(Mono County), received a 2.3-acreparcel of adjacent land from Stuart Wil-son, Michael Wilson, John Wilson III,and Theresa Wilson Flynn, the great-grandchildren of one of the site’s origi-nal owners, Henry O’Melveny.

Finally, the Motte family, continuingtheir long-standing support of theMotte Rimrock Reserve (RiversideCounty), contributed an importanteasement to the site’s entrance. — SGR

Since last fall, more than$12K have been donated tothe Kenneth S. NorrisScholarship Fund, created in1991 with donations fromgrateful former students.The Norris Fund supportsundergraduate field studiesrelating to California’snatural environment. Aportion of funding recentlyreceived was given tocomplete publication of theKen Norris Oral History (seepage 10, opposite). Photo byNorden H. (Dan) Cheatham

A few wordsContinued from page 1

TransectSpring / Summer 1999 • 17:1

Transect is published biannually by the NaturalReserve System (NRS), part of the Division ofAgriculture and Natural Resources (DANR), inthe University of California Office of the Presi-dent (UCOP).

Subscriptions are free, available upon request.Contact: Transect Editor, Natural Reserve System,University of California, 1111 Franklin Street, 6thFloor, Oakland, CA 94607-5200; phone: 510-987-0150; fax: 510-763-2971;e-mail: Jennifer.Bello@ucop.edu.

Recent Transect issues are also available for view-ing on the World Wide Web at:<http://nrs.ucop.edu>.

Managing Editor: Susan Gee RumseySenior Science Writers:

Elaine Miller BondPatti Parisi

Web/Circulation Coordinator:Jennifer Bello

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100% Recycled paperprinted with soy-based inks

The University of California prohibits discrimination against orharassment of any person employed by or seeking employmentwith the University on the basis of race, color, national origin,religion, sex, physical or mental disability, medical condition(cancer-related), ancestry, marital status, age, sexual orientation,citizenship, or status as a Vietnam-era or special disabled veteran.The University of California is an affirmative action/equal oppor-tunity employer. The University undertakes affirmative action toassure equal employment opportunity for underutilized minori-ties and women, for persons with disabilities, and for Vietnam-eraveterans and special disabled veterans. University policy is in-tended to be consistent with the provisions of applicable state andfederal law. Inquiries regarding the University’s equal employ-ment opportunity policies may be directed to the AffirmativeAction Director, University of California, Division of Agricultureand Natural Resources, 1111 Franklin Street, 6th Floor, Oakland,CA 94607-5200; phone: 510-987-0097.

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Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDUniversity of

California

04-UJ14Natural Reserve SystemUniversity of California1111 Franklin Street, 6th FloorOakland, CA 94607-5200

• From UC Irvine (which manages twoNRS sites): Peter A. Bowler, Ecologyand Evolutionary Biology;

• From UC Los Angeles (which man-ages one NRS site): Richard F.Ambrose, Environmental Sciences andEngineering;

• From UC Riverside (which managessix NRS sites): John T. Rotenberry,Biology;

• From UC San Diego (which managesfour NRS sites): Joshua R. Kohn, Bi-ology;

• From UC Santa Barbara (which man-ages six NRS sites): Scott D. Cooper,Ecology, Evolutionary and Marine Bi-ology; and

• From UC Santa Cruz (which man-ages four NRS sites): Daniel P. Costa,Biology.

The committee also includes two at-large members who are faculty: formerchair Mary E. Power, Integrative Biol-ogy, UC Berkeley; and UC presidentappointee John A. Endler, BiologicalSciences, UC Santa Barbara.

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The managerial involvement of facultymembers at particular reserves tends tobe an outgrowth of having used thosesites to instruct their classes or conducttheir own research. Yet taking thatquantum leap to the next level of re-sponsibility for site and system be-comes public service of the first order.

UC faculty are world-class and oftenrecognized with professional awards —but NRS work confers little visibility.Everyone knows faculty must publish— but NRS work competes for thetime available to pursue the usual av-enues of academic achievement. A dif-ficult and time-consuming business,NRS work is also mostly voluntary, inthe very best pro bono sense of service.

Yet this free labor by perhaps two scoreof dedicated UC faculty members iswhat supports this reserve system,which in turn enables so many otherteachers and scientists (literally, thou-sands each year) to carry out their ownwork — just as Ken Norris and all theoriginal NRS founding members firstintended. The NRS systemwide officesalutes their unsung service. — SGR