ARCHIVES -- Annual Highlights

1997-1998 | 1996-1997 | 1995-1996 | 1994-1995 | 1993-1994

1997-1998 Highlights

This has been another very successful year at SNARL. Research, teaching, and public outreach use of the reserve was very high; research productivity and extramural support remain strong; and facility improvements continue. The UC/NSF funded Database Center and Headquarters was occupied in July, 1997. Everyone who has visited has marveled at the restoration work completed on the old 1935 Caltans bunkhouse by Reserve Maintenance Supervisor Scott Roripaugh. The computer network came on-line in August with networked computers, peripherals, and dedicated Internet access. Later, the network was extended to the laboratory building and the director's residence. An Internet and email "kiosk" has been installed to allow quick communication by researchers in residence here. The VESR database has been expanded and refined. Monitoring data from the Mono Basin as well as bibliographic data on publications resulting from research at VESR have been incorporated. Other facility projects have moved forward as part of the UC/NSF-funded effort. The director's old office, located in the lab building, has been renovated into a new lab and occupied by Dr. Roland Knapp, a resident research biologist at SNARL, and his crew. Dr. David Herbst, another resident research biologist, moved his office in the old lab building, restoring space to the library. Library collections are being upgraded and a computer installed there to facilitate on-line searches using Current Contents and BIOSYS. Long-term storage space for researchers, identified in the 1993 Management Plan as a high priority need, has finally been provided. A 40" steel cargo container, partitioned into eight storage units with roll-up doors, lights, and power has been installed at SNARL. Since the unit was constructed, its occupancy has been ca. 75%. A pad has been created and plumbing extended for the new SNARL garage building. The 2400 ft steel building has been purchased and will be operational in the fall of 1999. The building will allow us to store research and maintenance equipment, such as the dumptruck, loader, backhoe, and snowmobiles, during the inclement winter weather.

Resident Director Dan Dawson continues to work closely with federal, state, and local agencies in the eastern Sierra. Dan was on the planning committee for a meeting of the California Biodiversity Council (CBA) held in Mammoth Lakes in September, 1997. The CBA is an interagency council charged with fostering interagency cooperation and maintenance of biodiversity in California. The heads of resource management agencies, such as the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Department of Fish and Game, and the Resource Agency, sit on the council. The University of California is represented by NRS Director Alexander Glazer. The meeting featured a panel discussion on research by SNARL biologist Roland Knapp on the impact of introduced trout on the native biota of the alpine watersheds of the Sierra Nevada. Dawson is serving this year as chairman of the Owens Valley Interagency Committee (OVIAC), a regional interagency group dealing with resource management. Dawson recently served on an NSF funded review of the Oak Lake Field Station of South Dakota State University. Many of the issues examined in that review are germane to VESR.

Education activities at VESR include the K-12 Outdoor Science Education Program, the SNARL Seminar Series, and visits by a number of university classes. Once again, Dan Dawson and Robert Jellison collaborated to teach a portion of the White Mountain Research Station Supercourse.

Another milestone was passed this year when Scott Roripaugh, reserve maintenance supervisor, completed ten years of service with UCSB at VESR. Scott is a tremendous asset to the reserve and we appreciate his years of service and look forward to his good work for the next 10 years.

back to top

1996-1997 Highlights

1996-97 was a banner year at SNARL. Use of the reserve was at an all-time high. Researchers from all nine campuses of the University of California used SNARL facilities as did researchers from 14 other colleges and universities across the country. The focus of this year's staff effort was the completion of the UC/NSF funded Database Center. The building, purchased from Caltrans and moved to SNARL in September, 1995, required total refurbishment. Under the skillful hand of Maintenance Supervisor Scott Roripaugh, the building has been transformed and is now occupied. Computer network cabling is in place, computers are in place, and the SNARL LAN, complete with dedicated Internet link, is ready to come on-line. To this end, Mr. Mark Wong has been hired as a part-time programmer analyst. Over the course of the coming year fiber optic cabling will be run underground to other buildings at SNARL, including the laboratory, to extend the network to all of our primary facilities. SNARL users now have at their disposal a PowerMac 7300, a 233 Mhz Pentium II PC, a 486 50 Mhz PC, a network 600 dpi laser printer, a top-of-the-line color printer, a flatbed scanner and a digitizing tablet. We have the capability to add both short and long-term users of the reserve to the network and provide users with Internet access.

As part of the Database Center project, Dr. Robert Jellison was hired as a part-time database manager last year. Dr. Jellison has developed a sophisticated, yet user-friendly data management system based on Microsoft Access. The system employs a powerful search engine that can query across VESR databases, including SNARL meteorological data, SNARL hydrological data, Mammoth Mountain meteorological data, Mono Lake meteorological data, Valentine hydrological data and the VESR bibliography. Special emphasis has been placed on the capture of metadata so all users of the data can interpret the data for themselves.

Other capital improvements include the development of 8 storage units for long-term researcher equipment storage and modification of the experimental stream diversion structures to permit higher stream flows without flooding. The storage units were identified in the 1993 SNARL Management Plan as a high priority. The modifications to the stream structures were made just in time for the floods of late December and early January. The floods, while causing extensive damage in northern Mono County, caused no damage at SNARL. As part of the UC/NSF funded project, a large steel building intended to shield large equipment from the harsh mountain elements will be constructed this coming year.

The Outdoor Science Education Program and SNARL Summer Lecture Series were described in last year's highlights. The program has proven to be a complete success with support from local school districts, teachers, parents and students. In spring, 1997 approximately 900 students from eight schools in five school districts visited SNARL on field trips and participated in the program. Demand has far outstripped the available days in May and June when the weather is predictable. In a pilot program funded by the Inyo National Forest and the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association (ESCIA) Leslie Dawson, VESR education coordinator, will go into Mammoth Elementary classrooms and provide pre-field trip lessons for spring visits and post-field trip follow-up lessons for fall field trips. There is every indication the funding for this program will be on-going. The SNARL Summer Lecture Series took place in both the summers of 1996 and 1997. Talks ranged across all discipline with average attendance of approximately 50 people. The 1996 talk by Chris Farrar of the U. S. G. S. on carbon dioxide emissions on Mammoth Mountain drew a capacity crowd of 118 people.

back to top

1995-1996 Highlights

Resident Manager Dan Dawson continues to be active in issues that affect the reserve. As newly elected vice president of the Organization of Biological Field Stations, Dan will serve as program chairman for the next two annual meeting, including the 1996 meeting at SNARL and White Mountain Research Station. Dan served as host and program chairman for the 1995 UC Natural Reserve System Management Workshop which took place at SNARL in October, 1995. During the last year, Dan has worked closely with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to insure access by SNARL-based researchers to LADWP land in Long Valley. As a member of the Eastern Sierra Technology Forum, Dan worked with other computer nerds to bring commercial Internet access to the eastern Sierra. As a member of the Long Valley Hydrologic Advisory Committee, Dan has worked closely with representatives from the U.S. Geological Survey, the California Department of Fish and Game, and the Mammoth Community Water District to design a new aquifer test to explore the extent and connectivity of groundwater resources in the town of Mammoth Lakes.

The SNARL "staff" was further augmented with the arrival of Makenna Jee Eun Dawson from Korea on August 3, 1995. Makenna was born April 18, 1995, and adopted by Dan and Leslie Dawson.

New Outdoor Science Education Program and SNARL Summer Lecture Series

The most exciting development at SNARL this year was the development of the Outdoor Science Education Program. Leslie Dawson was hired last year as education coordinator for VESR in an effort to improve university outreach to the local communities and schools and to inform them about VESR. Leslie developed a program with four components, including school field trips to the reserves, an intensive summer school class at Valentine Camp, UCSB student internships, and mentorship of motivated high school students by VESR researchers. In 1995-96, the school field trips were started by sending letters regarding VESR's availability for field trips to all the local schools. In May and June, 1995, 562 students from 6 different schools in 4 school districts visited SNARL. The students participated in hands-on lessons devised for their age group. Teacher, student, and parent response was overwhelmingly positive. The pilot program has been funded from reserve operating funds but we are seeking permanent funding for the program. As a part of her public outreach responsibilities Leslie offered several adult tours of the facilities at SNARL and organized the SNARL Summer Lecture Series. The public tours were oversubscribed and very popular. The first two lectures in the series, by Drs. Roland Knapp and Robert Jellison of SNARL, drew crowds of 75 people each. These educational programs have greatly increased VESR's profile in the local community.

SNARL continues to be heavily used. Two hundred fifty nine users spent 5116 user days at SNARL during the 1993-1994 fiscal year. Office space is fully occupied year around with lab space fully occupied during the summer months. The UC/NSF funded experimental stream system has been very successful. The first publications resulting from research in the system should appear in press this year and Scott Cooper of UCSB has been successful in obtaining a second three-year NSF grant to continue his work on predator/prey relationships and the community ecology of stream invertebrates. SNARL scientists had their first involvement in so-called "rocket science" when the Space Shuttle flew an earth observing mission in April that included snow-covered targets around the area. Funded by a NASA grant to Jeff Dozier and John Melack of UCSB the project involves radar imaging of snow-covered terrain. Personnel at SNARL deployed pyramidal shaped aluminum corner reflectors that appear as a bright spot in the radar image. This locates the image, as well as calibrates the return signal. This same project sponsored two Russian scientists who wintered at SNARL.

Vladimir Aizen and Elena Lolctionova from the Russian Academy of Sciences are collaborating with SNARL scientists on characterization of the climate, streamflow, snow cover, and water balance of the Tien Shan Mountains of central Asia. Roget Dajoz, from the Museum of Natural History in Paris, and Aline Dajoz made their third lengthy visit to SNARL in their ongoing study of the ecology and biodiversity of the Order Coleoptera (beetles).

This year saw the conversion of an old steel shed to animal quarters for which we hope to gain USDA approval. The $10,000 project was jointly funded by the UCSB Office of Research and the University of Michigan. A University of Michigan researcher is the primary user of the facility at this time. A visit to SNARL by members of the UCSB Animal Care Council gained their unanimous approval of the facility, which should provide excellent support for any project involving holding of wild vertebrates. In order to improve water quality through SNARL, as well as adjacent habitat, we cooperated with the Forest Service and the local grazing permitee to fence the cows off Convict Creek above SNARL. SNARL constructed a fence, using convict labor from the Owens Valley Conservation Camp, and a solar pump, tank, and trough system to provide an alternate water supply for the cows. In conjunction with the project, we did a prescribed burn of approximately 10 acres of Great Basin Sagebrush scrub to improve forage for deer and small mammals. The heavy winter of 1992-1993 underscored the need to improve our snow removal capabilities. Using funds from the NRS systemwide office we purchased a small loader, a backhoe, and a surplus dumptruck/snowplow from Caltrans. We also did some additional paving to facilitate the snow removal. Excluding snow removal, the equipment has already paid for itself by enabling us to do projects in-house that were previously contracted (or usually not done at all).

In an effort to forge additional ties between the NRS and the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR), Dan Dawson attended the DANR Continuing Conference on Conservation and Natural Resources. Connections developed resulting in SNARL co-hosting a meeting of the Society for Range Management, an informal workshop on stream ecology with DANR Cooperative Extension staff, and the volunteering of Cooperative Extension Staff for SNARL research projects. SNARL scientist David Herbst will be collaborating with CE Specialist Rhonda Gildersleeve to give a workshop on The Application of Bioassessment Monitoring to Evaluate Rangeland Stream Quality. This workshop will be funded by a UC/RREA (Renewable Resources Extension Act) Grant.  1

back to top

1994-1995 Highlights

SNARL continues to be the research center for eastern central California. This year SNARL had users from all eight general campuses of the University of California, including faculty from seven campuses. At one point during the summer, faculty from four different campuses were in residence. In addition, we had users from seven out-of-state colleges or universities and from two federal laboratories.

This year saw the development of an ambitious plan to augment SNARL's office space and create a database center with special emphasis on spatially related data sets. This center will have complete hardware and software systems to allow users to perform sophisticated analysis of data on site. A part-time database manager will coordinate use and make SNARL's existing data sets easily accessible. Physically, the center will be housed in a large, old building acquired from CalTrans, which is to be moved to SNARL and refurbished. Because of very similar needs at Santa Cruz Island Reserve, a joint proposal was prepared and submitted to the Equipment and Facilities at Field Stations and Marine Laboratories Program at the National Science Foundation. The proposal seeks to improve computing and database management at both of UCSB's remote field stations. Matching funds are required for this NSF program and we are especially appreciative of the significant commitment made by Executive Vice Chancellor Crawford and Associate Vice Chancellor Case toward our efforts.

We had a near record snowpack in the eastern Sierra Nevada during the 1994-1995 winter. It started snowing in October and did not stop until May. The snow removal equipment purchased two years ago was severely tested and performed perfectly. Winter closures on the SNARL road should become a rare event. Heavy snows mean high stream flows, and we are bracing for very high discharge in Convict Creek.

Physical plant improvements also continued with the remainder of SNARL's buildings having been "rodent- proofed" this season. This included pouring a new foundation under a portion of one residence. By ongoing trapping within the buildings, and continued education of our users, we seek to eliminate any rodent problems.

Resident Manager Dan Dawson continues to be active in issues that affect the reserve. As an executive committee member of the Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS), Dan served on the steering committee for an NSF-sponsored workshop on the role of field stations and marine laboratories in field sciences. The workshop, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in March 1995 resulted in a report to NSF titled "A New Horizon for Biological Field Stations and Marine Laboratories." Furthermore, specific recommendations from the workshop are being incorporated into the field station grant program at NSF. At the request of VP Kenneth Farrell and UCB Provost Carol Christ, Dan served on a committee to make recommendations on the fate of Sagehen Creek Field Station. Sagehen, a station in the northern Sierra Nevada administered by the UCB Dept. of Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management, was slated for closure by the department. The committee recommended that the site be incorporated into the NRS and administered by the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley. Locally, Dan was invited to join the Long Valley Hydrologic Advisory Committee. Originally set up by Mono County as an oversight committee for geothermal power development, the committee has expanded its charge to consider water issues in the upper Owens River watershed.

In an effort to promote additional educational use of the reserves and to participate more actively in K-12 education locally, Leslie Dawson was hired part-time as education coordinator for VESR. Leslie has 20 years of experience in outdoor and classroom education with California State Parks and local school districts. Her experience, her knowledge of the reserves, and her personal relationship with the scientists using the reserves, as well as with local teachers and administrators, created a unique opportunity to develop a new outreach program at VESR. As the program develops, we will be seeking outside funding to maintain it.

back to top

1993-1994 Highlights

SNARL continues to be heavily used. Two hundred fifty nine users spent 5116 user days at SNARL during the 1993-1994 fiscal year. Office space is fully occupied year around with lab space fully occupied during the summer months. The UC/NSF funded experimental stream system has been very successful. The first publications resulting from research in the system should appear in press this year and Scott Cooper of UCSB has been successful in obtaining a second three-year NSF grant to continue his work on predator/prey relationships and the community ecology of stream invertebrates. SNARL scientists had their first involvement in so-called "rocket science" when the Space Shuttle flew an earth observing mission in April that included snow-covered targets around the area. Funded by a NASA grant to Jeff Dozier and John Melack of UCSB the project involves radar imaging of snow-covered terrain. Personnel at SNARL deployed pyramidal shaped aluminum corner reflectors that appear as a bright spot in the radar image. This locates the image, as well as calibrates the return signal. This same project sponsored two Russian scientists who wintered at SNARL.

Vladimir Aizen and Elena Lolctionova from the Russian Academy of Sciences are collaborating with SNARL scientists on characterization of the climate, streamflow, snow cover, and water balance of the Tien Shan Mountains of central Asia. Roget Dajoz, from the Museum of Natural History in Paris, and Aline Dajoz made their third lengthy visit to SNARL in their ongoing study of the ecology and biodiversity of the Order Coleoptera (beetles).

This year saw the conversion of an old steel shed to animal quarters for which we hope to gain USDA approval. The $10,000 project was jointly funded by the UCSB Office of Research and the University of Michigan. A University of Michigan researcher is the primary user of the facility at this time. A visit to SNARL by members of the UCSB Animal Care Council gained their unanimous approval of the facility, which should provide excellent support for any project involving holding of wild vertebrates. In order to improve water quality through SNARL, as well as adjacent habitat, we cooperated with the Forest Service and the local grazing permitee to fence the cows off Convict Creek above SNARL. SNARL constructed a fence, using convict labor from the Owens Valley Conservation Camp, and a solar pump, tank, and trough system to provide an alternate water supply for the cows. In conjunction with the project, we did a prescribed burn of approximately 10 acres of Great Basin Sagebrush scrub to improve forage for deer and small mammals. The heavy winter of 1992-1993 underscored the need to improve our snow removal capabilities. Using funds from the NRS systemwide office we purchased a small loader, a backhoe, and a surplus dumptruck/snowplow from Caltrans. We also did some additional paving to facilitate the snow removal. Excluding snow removal, the equipment has already paid for itself by enabling us to do projects in-house that were previously contracted (or usually not done at all).

In an effort to forge additional ties between the NRS and the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR), Dan Dawson attended the DANR Continuing Conference on Conservation and Natural Resources. Connections developed resulting in SNARL co-hosting a meeting of the Society for Range Management, an informal workshop on stream ecology with DANR Cooperative Extension staff, and the volunteering of Cooperative Extension Staff for SNARL research projects. SNARL scientist David Herbst will be collaborating with CE Specialist Rhonda Gildersleeve to give a workshop on The Application of Bioassessment Monitoring to Evaluate Rangeland Stream Quality. This workshop will be funded by a UC/RREA (Renewable Resources Extension Act) Grant.

back to top