This document is separated into narrative sections for SNARL and Valentine Camp.

For previous years, please use this link:

SIERRA NEVADA AQUATIC RESEARCH LABORATORY (SNARL)

RESEARCH:

It was a very active year for research in eastern, central California. Some fifty-five research projects used the facilities and protected lands at SNARL to support their work, up from ~forty last year. Thirty-five institutions and agencies were represented including eight campuses of the University of California and twelve institutions from out of state. Researchers using SNARL for all or a part of their research published twenty-three research papers in refereed journals this year. This yields a total of fifty-six refereed publications in the last two years, a remarkable number. This demonstrates the true significance of SNARL as a base for research in the region.  Demand for housing and laboratory space remains high with facilities near capacity from April through September. One hundred fifty-seven individual researchers used SNARL for a total of 3552 research user-days. General research areas of high activity include alpine lake ecology, Mono Lake, stream ecology, animal behavior, and plant community response to climate change. Considerable time was spent with Drs. Roland Knapp and Cherie Briggs of UCSB, along with various regulatory staff from campus successfully developing a large mesocosm project involving Mountain Yellow-legged frogs and the newly discovered fungus affecting them, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. 2007-08 Research Projects [PDF]

For the fourth year VESR was able to offer a graduate student grant competition with the support of the Valentine Reserve Fund. Fourteen proposals were received and seven were funded to a total of $11,628.

INSTRUCTION:

College and university instructional use of the Reserve is up from last year with eighteen college and university classes using the Reserve this year. However, this is not entirely reflective of demand as many groups were turned away during peak periods. This year we hosted forty instructors, two hundred forty-four students for a total of nine hundred sixty-three user-days. Once again a large group from Indiana University traveled to the eastern Sierra Nevada for an eleven-day geology course. CSULA used the station for their geology field camp and incoming UC Davis ecology graduate students visited SNARL as part of their annual “Odyssey” to field sites of California.

PUBLIC SERVICE:

The Spring SNARL lecture series, held at the Green Church, was once again very successful. The series, which actually carried over into FY 08-09 this year, had approximately 350 people attending the talks. This year’s speakers and topics were:

April 23 -- Here, There, and Everywhere: Mechanisms of Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) Invasion at the Edge of the Sierra Nevada Alden Griffith, Ph.D. Candidate, Environmental Studies Department, UC Santa Cruz

May 7-- Emerging Disease and the Decline of Amphibians in the Sierra Nevada Dr. Roland Knapp, Aquatic Biologist, SNARL, UC Santa Barbara

May 21 -- Adaptation to Oxygen Levels During Global Change Dr. Frank Powell, Director, White Mountain Research Station, UC San Diego

June 4 -- Recent Changes in Thermal Springs at Hot Creek Geologic Site Chris Farrar, Hydrologist, US Geological Survey

June 18 -- Fringe-toes I Knows: Some Natural History of Two Species of Sand Lizards Dr. Allan Muth, Herpetologist, Philip L. Boyd-Deep Canyon Research Center, UC Riverside

July 2 -- Rocket Fuel or Au Natural? Perchlorate in Our Food and Water, and How It Gets There Dr. David Parker, Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, UC Riverside

July 16 --  The Causes and Consequences of Species Extinction in Sierra Nevada Streams Dr. Brad Cardinale, Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, UC Santa Barbara

The VESR Outdoor Science Education Program (OSEP) is the primary UC public service element in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Fifty-one classes from six different schools in five different districts visited SNARL for lessons reaching approximately 1014 students. Another 205 adults accompanying the students were exposed to the Reserve and its programs. A significant part of the OSEP are lessons that are taught off the Reserve. Leslie Dawson and Sherry Taylor taught lessons in the classrooms at Mammoth Elementary School as well as at Mammoth Creek. The Native Plant Project, partially funded by the CA Native Plant Society, grew native plants with the Mammoth Elementary 4^th grade and then the students used the plants to landscape the local community college campus. In all, in-class lessons were taught to another 485 students this year.

 Reserve Director Dan Dawson engages in a number of public service projects with local government and agencies. Currently Dawson is working with a stakeholder group on general plan implementation for the Town of Mammoth Lakes, working on a project to develop minimum bypass flows in Mammoth Creek with the Mammoth Community Water District (MCWD), working with MCWD on development of a recycled water project, and working with a very large stakeholder group planning an Integrated Watershed Management Plan for Inyo and Mono Counties.

STEWARDSHIP AND ADMINISTRATION:

Each season Reserve staff conduct a number of maintenance, construction and stewardship projects. This fiscal year, in addition to routine maintenance projects, emphasis was once again on energy conservation. Incandescent lamps and fixtures were replaced with compact fluorescents; additional windows were replaced in Residence Q8 and the Dormitory. Residence Q1 was completely remodeled, including new windows, an on-demand water heater, and a complete new kitchen. The potable water filtration system was reconstructed and a new backup 40 kW generator was purchased and installed.

The new high-speed, wireless, point-to-point Internet connection was constructed by Dawson and SNARL computer resource specialist Marshall Minobe. The connection originates at the Mono County Office of Education in Mammoth Lakes and then has a ~9 mile wireless link from the roof of Mammoth Middle School to a pole on Doe Ridge above Mammoth Airport. A second radio link connects Doe Ridge and SNARL. The system has operated reliably through very inclement weather and yields download speeds at SNARL of ~20 Mbps.

Working with 4 grad students from the Advanced Power and Energy Graduate Program in the School of Engineering at UCI. we completed a comprehensive energy conservation and generation white paper for SNARL. Much of the conservation work is conventional and is largely complete. The overriding conclusion from the energy generation study is that SNARL is ideally suited for photovoltaic electrical generation. We have 320 clear days per year with very high solar insolation due to our elevation (7000’asl). Using only 55% of our 650 m² of south facing roof area for PV panels we estimate we could generate 173,000 KWh/year of electricity, or 315% of our annual demand of ~55,000 KWh. We are seeking campus green initiative funds (TGIF) for partial implementation of a first phase of  PV.

Working with Scheurer Architects of Newport Beach, CA we completed site plans and schematic design for new facilities at SNARL. This includes a new classroom/lecture hall, teaching laboratory, small, private housing units, and a researcher lounge. Substantial private funds will have to be raised before this project can move forward.

Triad/Holmes Engineering of Mammoth Lakes completed detailed plans and specifications for reconstruction of the SNARL road and parking areas. The plan is to grind all of the existing asphalt, reshape and compact it as base, then repave the entire area. As part of the project we are including new utilities for our planned new facilities. We are planning to combine this project with the lab modernization project (see following) as the next phase of facilities upgrades.

We retained architect Charles Woodburn of Santa Barbara to prepare schematic design for a lab modernization. The main lab at SNARL was constructed in 1962 and added onto in 1987. The new plan calls for a more open floor plan with new windows, floors, casework, heating, and alarm systems. We will be seeking partial NSF support for the project in 2009.

The current twenty-year lease for the SNARL site from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) expires in early 2009. Dawson has commenced lease renewal talks and has several meetings with LADWP about new terms including extending the lease period to thirty years. At this time, we do not anticipate concluding the lease renewal before the old lease expires.

On June 12, 2008 SNARL suffered a flood that was considerably larger than any historic runoff event. Apparently the outlet of Convict Lake had become clogged with debris and 18”-24” of additional water had become impounded behind the dam. Not only had the US Forest Service not noticed this problem, they had failed to respond to phone calls alerting them to the problem. On the evening of June 11, as the lake was about to breach, Dan Dawson called the Sheriff’s and Fire Departments. This, in turn, generated some action by the USFS. On the morning of the 12th USFS staff starting pulling debris from the clog with a backhoe. Not content with just increasing flow and slowly lowering the impounded water, a condition they successfully achieved, they pulled debris until the entire clog let loose and some 500-1000 ac-ft of water was discharged into Convict Creek. Fast action on the part of the 4 VESR maintenance staff prevented any damage to buildings and minimized damage to roads and other facilities. Almost all of SNARL outside the building compound was under water, in some places more than 24” deep. The flood subsided after about 12 hours. Most of the damage is in the form of debris spread far and wide over the Reserve, some accelerated degradation of old concrete stream structures, and erosion on the dirt roads. USDA investigators visited the site over the next three days and Dawson has filed a modest claim for damages with the US Government.

Dawson concluded his term as the Reserve Director’s representative to the Universitywide NRS Advisory Committee and attended the November 06 and May 07 meetings. Dawson did additional work with the UCLA Tejon Reserve Planning Group, doing ground-truthing of the proposed reserve site and potential conflicting uses. Dawson continued as the NRS representative on the White Mountain Research Station MRU Advisory Committee.

At the request of NRS Director Alex Glazer Dawson served on a 3-campus committee to evaluate the inclusion of the UCM Wawona Field Station into the NRS. A site visit was made to UCM and Yosemite in March 2008.

VALENTINE CAMP

RESEARCH:

Nine research projects used Valentine Camp this year. Twenty-one researchers from six institutions, including four UC campuses used the Reserve to support their research. Six of these researchers were either current or past VESR Graduate Student Grant recipients, which demonstrates that the grant program is doing its job of recruiting new researchers.  Researchers using the Reserve for all or part of their research published four papers in peer reviewed journals.  Due to excessive snow, the Reserve is closed from November-May. Research Highlights 2007/08[PDF]

INSTRUCTION:

With a short season and limited housing Valentine Camp is generally not an overnight host for university level courses. Typically, courses staying at SNARL use Valentine for part of their teaching activities. For the sixth time, the Mulago Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to sustainable development, conservation, and health care in the third world, used the Reserve. They brought in their Rainer Arnhold Fellows from around the world for a weeklong assessment and training session. Shorty Boucher and her colleagues from UC Davis taught Field Methods in Nature and Culture, using Valentine Camp as a base.

PUBLIC SERVICE:

The VESR Outdoor Science Education Program is active at Valentine Camp with approximately 511 Inyo and Mono County elementary school students from seven different schools visiting on field trips this year. Another 98 adults participated as teachers or chaperones and were thus exposed to the Reserve. A significant part of the OSEP are lessons that are taught off the Reserve. Leslie Dawson and Sherry Taylor taught lessons in the classrooms at Mammoth Elementary School as well as at Mammoth Creek. The Native Plant Project, partially funded by the CA Native Plant Society, grew native plants with the Mammoth Elementary 4^th grade and then the students used the plants to landscape the local community college campus. In all, in-class lessons were taught to another 485 students this year.  In addition, 103 students attended two-week summer courses at Valentine. The 2007 classes, spread over three sessions were:

Capturing Science through a Lens  - Grades 6-8 Janis Richardson, teacher Mammoth Elementary School

Hurray For Habitats!  - Grades 2-3 Sherry Taylor, Valentine staff instructor

Science through Art  - Grades 4-6 Janis Richardson, teacher, Mammoth Elementary School

Beautiful Bats - Grades 1-2 Jessica Sharkey, Phelan Elementary School

Trees are Terrific  - Grades 1-2 Jessica Sharkey, Phelan Elementary School

Prehistoric Life Skills (taught at SNARL) - Grades 5-9 Leslie Dawson and Sherry Taylor, Valentine staff instructors

World of Water - Grades 4-5 Gwen Noda, Valentine Staff teacher

Bones, Beads and Baskets (2 sessions) - Grades 2-3 Rosanne Higley, Valentine staff teacher

Where Wild Things Grow: Native Plant Investigations  - Grades 4-5 Sherry Taylor, Valentine staff teacher

A Bug’s Life - Grades 2-3 Debra Hawk, Fisheries Biologist, CA DFG

Each class also has a volunteer teacher's aide resulting in a student/adult ratio of 5/1. These volunteers or docents have been trained by Leslie Dawson and also assist with the school field trips. Many of our summer programs and school field trips make use of animal mounts and study skins. This year, contracting with curator Paul Collins of the Santa Museum of Natural History, we had a large number of new specimens prepared that we had acquired (primarily from road kills) over recent years including both bear and badger hides.

As part of our Community Outreach Program, VESR Education Coordinator Leslie Dawson offered several thematic tours of the Reserve. These tours now take the place of our annual open house. The tours are advertised via local media and an email list and were all fully subscribed. 2007 offerings were:

Early Season Wildflowers of Valentine Reserve July 5, 12, 19 (same talk each day) Sherryl Taylor, Valentine staff

Anthropologists, Indigenous Peoples, and the Great Basin July 6, 20 (same talk each day) Ken Irvine, Anthropology Professor

Living History-Los Angeles to Valentine Camp in the 1920’s July 13, 27 ( same talk each day) Old Timer Ken Irvine local historian and storyteller

Introduction to the Wildflowers of Valentine Reserve    July 17, 31, August 2 (same talk each day) Leslie Dawson, Valentine Reserve Education Coordinator

Introduction to the Forest of Valentine Reserve July 18 Leslie Dawson, Valentine Reserve Education Coordinator

Black Bears  August 1 Leslie Dawson, Valentine Reserve Education Coordinator

On November 10, 2007 Dan and Leslie Dawson and Reserve volunteers Ken and Edyth Irvine took one program on the road. Ken presented his Living History program (above) at Casa Dorinda, an assisted living facility in Santa Barbara and home of Carol Valentine, the donor of the Reserve. Carol is 98 years old and could not come to Mammoth to see the program. Approximately 70 Casa Dorinda residents enjoyed the program along with UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang and his wife Dilling.

Reserve Director Dan Dawson engages in a number of public service projects with local government and agencies. Currently Dawson is working with a stakeholder group on general plan implementation for the Town of Mammoth Lakes, working on a project to develop minimum bypass flows in Mammoth Creek with the Mammoth Community Water District (MCWD), working with MCWD on development of a recycled water project, and working with a very large stakeholder group planning an Integrated Watershed Management Plan for Inyo and Mono Counties.

STEWARDSHIP AND ADMINISTRATION:

Several stewardship projects were undertaken during the short summer season at Valentine Camp. New boardwalk was constructed across wetlands at the north end of the new Mammoth Creek bridge installed last year. Last year’s reconstruction of the Cookhouse was completed with all new chinking and we again contracted with John McGrath to replace rotten logs in the Caretaker’s shed and the cabin adjacent to the Caretakers. Our plan is to refurbish that cabin into a small Reserve office and an overflow housing unit.

Implementation of the Valentine Camp forest management plan continued in fall 07. The final one-year extension of our Modified Timber Harvest Plan expired at the end of November. Future work in the forest at Valentine will take place under special exemptions now contained in the Forest Practice Rules rather than though processing another Plan. Valentine is cooperating with the Mammoth Lakes Fire Protection District and the Inyo National Forest on a grant that would provide funding for fuel reduction adjacent to Valentine. This work is critical for protection of the Reserve. Some funds will be available to support additional forestry work on the Reserve. Slash burning took place over a multi-day period in early December. As part of our cooperation with the Fire District we conducted a mock fire drill at Valentine on a late summer evening. Volunteers responded to a real call but upon arrival simply deployed and “put out” fire depicted by flagging. Water was drafted from both the ponds and Mammoth Creek. It was a big success giving the volunteer firefighters experience in a challenging location and getting them familiar with the Reserve.

Work continued on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power complaint filed with the Water Rights Division of the State Water Resources Control Board alleging that the diversion off Mammoth Creek that supplies the ponds at Valentine Camp is illegal. Reserve Director Dawson and attorney Jennifer Buckman of Best, Best and Krieger provided the Water Rights Division with additional information. A site visit took place in September 2007.

We secured two 1600 permits from the California Department of Fish and Game for projects at Valentine.  “1600 permit” is the generic name for a stream alteration permit, which fall under a number of Section 1600 Fish and Game Code sections.  Our attorney has suggested we apply for one for the historic stream diversion and ponds still under consideration by the Water Rights Division of the State. That application was submitted and accepted by CA DFG with no agreement required. . We also received a permit to remove some brush and install some gabions to inhibit down-cutting and trap sediment in the small spring-fed stream behind the caretaker’s cabin.

At long last Internet service was developed at Valentine Camp. A high-speed wireless point-to-point system originating at the Mono County Office of Education office in Mammoth was constructed. Because we have no line of sight, an intermediate station was constructed at the home of Sharyar and Sharon Baradaran, members of the Valentine Reserve Fund, above the Reserve in Juniper Ridge. The Internet signal comes into the Valentine Family cabin, the only one we can see from Baradarans, and then is distributed around the camp using 900 Mhz radios which have better penetration in forested terrain.

Cabot Thomas returned to full time employment with us on May 1. At that time we also hired the returning seasonal workers Keith Fohs and Tim Lacey.

Page last updated Wednesday, February 04, 2009