The highlight of the year was the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve (VESR). Carol Valentine and the Valentine Foundation made the generous gift of the reserve and its endowment to UCSB in 1972. The event, attended by approximately 80 people, took place on October 4, 1997. Attendees, including many members of the Valentine family, past and current users of the reserve, and local dignitaries, enjoyed tours of SNARL, some short speeches, a beautiful luncheon by the creek at SNARL, and tours of Valentine Camp. Speakers included Resident Reserve Director Dan Dawson, Faculty Reserve Manager John Melack, Carol Valentine, UC Vice President Reg Gomes, and UCSB Vice Chancellor of Research France Córdova. UCSB Executive Vice Chancellor Don Crawford dedicated a plaque to honor former UCSB Natural Reserve System (NRS) Director Henry Offen. For many of the administrators it was their first visit to VESR and was a very special event.
The K-12 Outdoor Science Education Program continues to be one of the main users of the reserve. During the summer, one and two-week classes were offered for second through seventh grade children. In the fall, 1997, the reserve hosted field trips from local schools. The program is on firmer footing with two recent grants. Dan Dawson was awarded a grant from the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association (ESIA), which allowed the program to be expanded in the local schools. During fall, 1997, and spring, 1998, Education Coordinator Leslie Dawson went to classrooms in Mammoth Elementary School to teach lessons that prepared children for their upcoming field trip to the reserve or followed what they had recently studied at the reserve. A second grant, obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency in partnership with the Inyo National Forest, will fund the field trip program for two more years. The program still suffers from the lack of facilities at Valentine. Fundraising continues toward construction of a Science Center at Valentine and endowment for the Outdoor Science Education program.
Other public outreach activities at the reserve include the annual open house conducted as a benefit for the Mammoth Lakes Hospital Auxiliary. Dan Dawson missed the open house for the first time since 1980 when he was forced to make use of the hospital facilities for a case of viral encephalitis. Dawson continues to work closely with the town of Mammoth Lakes and other nearby landowners. Intrawest Corporation, a large resort developer, is constructing an adjacent hotel and condominium project. Dawson has worked very closely with Intrawest to design mitigation measures that will protect the reserve from impacts from the project and has assisted them during construction with water quality problems. At the opposite corner of the reserve, the town of Mammoth Lakes is improving roads and water drainage. The reserve has agreed to accept some additional intermittent stream flows with safeguards that have been designed to protect against excessive erosion and sedimentation.
This year we have undertaken considerable planning at the reserve. An outbreak of Mountain Pine Beetles in the Lodgepole Pine near the entrance to the reserve has killed many trees. Consultation with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection convinced us that unless measures were taken to thin the forest and remove live trees fostering beetle larvae, most of the Lodgepole Pines would be killed. We retained the services of a registered professional forester, David Early, of Carson City, Nevada to help us with the required Emergency Timber Harvest Plan. Over 300 trees have been marked for removal. An inmate crew from the Owens Valley Conservation Camp will begin removing trees in August, 1998. In addition, the draft of the first comprehensive management plan for Valentine Camp has been reviewed at UCSB and will next be considered by the systemwide NRS office. Following that review, it will go to the UCSB NRS Advisory Committee for adoption. The plan attempts to identify strengths, opportunities, constraints, and information shortfalls in such areas as research support, education support, resource management, facilities development, equipment acquisition, and administration and staffing. The plan is designed to serve as a template for reserve planning and development for the next five years.
Although facility improvements continue at Valentine Camp, we are getting a late start this year due to extreme winter and spring weather. The last major snowstorm of the year took place on May 29, 1998. At the normal June 1 opening date of the reserve, there was still 100% snow cover, 2'-4' deep in all the forested areas. Following an extensive remodel, including replacement of several decayed logs, the University Cabin is open for class and researcher use. Resident Caretaker Scott Christensen and Reserve Steward Cabot Thomas have done a beautiful job on building renovations. Additional work is planned on the University Cabin to increase the number of available beds from eight to twelve. New boardwalks have been constructed in wetland areas of the reserve. Boardwalk construction will continue, as work schedules permit, for several more years until all trails have been raised above sensitive habitats. A recent visit by the acting campus veterinarian, Susan Hoegeman, led to the approval by the Campus Animal Care Council of the use of the old wood shed for bird research. The shed will be improved to permit new activities in the ongoing research on Brown-Headed Cowbirds by Dr. Stephen Rothstein of UCSB.
Progress continues steadily on all fronts at Valentine Camp. The short season at the reserve limits both research and maintenance productivity. Several new users were at the reserve this year and started new projects both on and off-site. The reconstruction of the University Cabin continues to be the primary capital project. With the replacement of the rotten logs, substantial rethinking was required. The floors have been resheeted and new vinyl floors installed in the living room, kitchen, and baths. The kitchen is being remodeled with new appliances. The cabin will be ready for occupancy in September, 1997. In the summer, 1998, the lofts in the cabin will be finished, creating bunk and office space. Efforts to boardwalk the wet and sensitive parts of reserve trails continued with new sections installed in key locations. We plan to do substantial boardwalk construction when the cabin projects are completed.
The Outdoor Science Education Program has grown to be one of the main users of the reserve. In the summer, 1996, our first summer school classes were offered. Two groups of 10 students studied the natural history of the reserve for two weeks. The culminating activity was taking their parents on a guided tour of the reserve. In fall, 1996, 780 K-12 students visited Valentine on school field trips where they learned about forest ecology, mammals, and birds. Two undergraduate interns were recruited from UCSB. Following training, they gained valuable experience assisting with the teaching of the K-12 lessons.The Outdoor Science Education program reveals an obvious limitation in the physical improvements at Valentine Camp. There is neither good interior work space for classes visiting the reserve, nor convenient restrooms for their use. To this end we are proposing to construct a Science Education Center at the reserve. Carol Valentine, donor of the reserve, has demonstrated her support for this project by pledging $25,000 toward the construction. We are very appreciative of this pledge and hope it is just the start of a successful fundraising effort.
Environmental monitoring continues at the reserve. In addition to the gauge on the north spring, a flume, pressure transducer, and datalogger were installed to monitor the flow from the middle springs complex. These are the springs that feed the Valentine meadow and were once gauged with Ed Valentine's old wooden flume. The new flume is located just downstream from the old one and was purchased for the reserve by Mammoth Mountain Ski Area.VESR Resident Director Dan Dawson continues to work closely with local government, federal and state agencies, and major private concerns in the area. Intrawest Corporation, the largest ski resort developer in North America, is planning to construct a large hotel just north of the reserve. Dan is working closely with them to mitigate potential impacts on the reserve from the project and to generally make their project more "green".
Valentine Camp was donated to the University in 1972 followed by the acquisition of SNARL in 1973. 1997 marks the 25th anniversary of the creation of VESR and we are planning a celebration for October 4, 1997. The celebration will include tours of both SNARL and Valentine Camp, short speeches from Resident Director Dan Dawson, Faculty Manager John Melack, Carol Valentine, UCSB Executive Vice Chancellor Don Crawford and Vice Chancellor of Research France Córdova, and DANR Vice President Reg Gomes. There will also be the dedication of a plaque commemorating the long and valuable service of former UCSB NRS Director Henry W. Offen.
Upgrading reserve facilities continues to be a high priority at Valentine. With the short season of operation, typically June 1 - October 31, and the extensive work associated with spring start-up and fall shut-down, little time is left for construction. Rotten logs were replaced in the University cabin, and one bathroom and the kitchen in this cabin were gutted for remodeling. We hope to have the cabin freshly remodeled and back in operation by mid-summer, 1997.
With the start of the Outdoor Science Education Program and increased public use of the reserve, it has become clear that many of the old bridges and boardwalks on the reserve present a safety and liability hazard. We have started replacing all such structures with raised boardwalks, with the added benefit of raising foot traffic above sensitive wetland portions of the trail system. Until supplementary funding is found, small sections of the trail system will be constructed each year. In addition, a portion of the meadow trail, prone to erosion, was abandoned and a new route constructed.
Use of the reserve was higher this year because the cabins were occupied for part of the season by a group from University Research Expeditions (UREP). UREP is a UC-based program similar to Earthwatch where interested members of the public pay their own way to assist on research projects. Two teams of 6 volunteers assisted Dr. Tom Kucera from UC Berkeley in his study of the ecology of the American marten in the forest between Mammoth Lakes and June Lake.
Hydrological monitoring continued at the reserve with a new sensor being installed at the north springs. With the new sensor in place we plan to monitor spring discharge all year long instead of only over the summer months. Mammoth Mountain Ski Area donated several thousand dollars toward the purchase of additional hydrologic monitoring equipment that will be installed on the south and middle spring complexes. Progress on the Fire Management Plan has been slow but steady. A report prepared by Scott Stephens, consultant to the reserve, estimates the historical fire frequency in the reserve to be every 7-30 years, depending on forest type. It also reported that the last fire took place some 120 years ago. Fuel mapping continued with the goal of developing a complete Fire Management Plan by the end of 1997.
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Valentine Camp: Highlights 1994-1995
The continuing upgrade of the reserve residences was a main priority this season. Both the Old Valentine Cabin and the Cookhouse have been refurbished and rodent-proofed to the best of our abilities; they are now available for research and teaching use. Work has begun on the University cabin, but the required replacement of some rotten logs makes that a larger project. Until the work on the Cookhouse was completed, researchers only had the use of one cabin. Use was low this year, in part due to that constraint. Interest in Valentine Camp is growing, and we expect to see use of the reserve grow in upcoming seasons.
Valentine Camp has had a continuing mountain bike trespass problem owing, in part, to the opening of a trail for bikes on National Forest land above the reserve. We have finally reached some resolution with the Forest Service toward the mitigation of that problem. An additional trail is scheduled to be constructed by the Forest Service during summer 1995. This trail will provide cyclists with a route between Old Mammoth and the Lakes Basin above Valentine that will not go through the reserve. We are optimistic that this improvement will reduce mountain bike trespass significantly.
We continue to monitor spring discharge at the reserve as well as activities of the Mammoth Community Water District (MCWD) that may affect the reserve. In consultation with hydrologist Chris Farrar of the U. S. Geological Survey we are comparing spring discharge records at Valentine with groundwater pumping records of the MCWD to see if there is any correlation. In conjunction with the California Department of Fish and Game, we have proposed a new pump test to the MCWD to help establish if any connection exists between our springs and the groundwater pumping. MCWD has also petitioned the State Water Resources Control Board for new (reduced) minimum stream flows in Mammoth Creek. Mammoth Creek flows through the reserve and reduced minimum stream flows affect resources at Valentine Camp.
We have continued work on the Fire Management Plan with Scott Stephens of UC Berkeley. Slabs were cut from over 30 fire-scarred trees, and the slabs are being analyzed to provide us with information on fire history and recurrence intervals. Preliminary analysis of the data has revealed excellent information with fire scars dating back to the late 17th century. Tree ring counts show that large mature Jeffrey Pines are up to 800 years old. We will develop a detailed fire history which, coupled with stand age analysis and maps of fuel loading, should give us the base of information necessary to develop a plan. With the support of Eric Rainbolt in the systemwide NRS office, a Geographic Information System (GIS) database is being developed as part of the planning and analysis process. Vice President Farrell awarded VESR $20,000 to continue this planning effort and expand environmental monitoring at VESR.
Homes are being developed on the ridge along the north border of the reserve, forever changing the wilderness like atmosphere. We review the architectural plans of each new home to ensure compliance with restrictions developed during the project's environmental review. We are continuing to work closely with the owners of the Juniper Ridge property to mitigate any impacts to the reserve, as the owners proceed with their plans to develop a new base lodge and hotel for the ski area.
Each year Valentine Camp hosts an open house. The community is invited to attend. UCSB provides tour guides in the form of faculty, staff, students, and friends who lead the participants around each of the reserve's two loop trails. Proceeds of the sale of tickets benefits the local hospital auxiliary. The event is always a great success.
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Valentine Camp: Highlights 1993-1994
This year was dominated by the death of Jeanne Messier, a graduate student from UCSB, working on the reserve. Jeanne died on July 30 and her death was attributed to Hantavirus. Although the reserve was never officially closed, use remained low. There was a significant response to the event from the media, the Center for Disease Control, and the California Department of Health Services, and Dan Dawson spent a tremendous amount of time dealing with these agencies. At the request of the University, we undertook a plan to upgrade and attempt to rodent-proof all of the buildings at both Valentine and SNARL. An additional summer steward, Cabot Thomas, was added to assist. This effort was funded by the NRS systemwide office.
Earlier in the year, the UC Office of General Counsel filed suit in Mono County Superior Court against the Mammoth County Water District, alleging non-compliance with CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. The district had developed a well field for water extraction in the town and failed to consider potential impacts to the spring at Valentine Camp. As part of the settlement, we monitored spring flows at the reserve during additional pump tests by the district. The suit was successfully settled.
A project to monitor winter furbearers at Valentine was initiated with Tom Kucera of the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. Dan Dawson worked with a local junior high student who ran the photo-monitoring station. Photographic evidence of pine martens, coyote, raccoon, and bear was obtained.
Development of a Fire Management Plan, which will examine the historical and ecological role of fire in the system, was initiated in June, 1994 as a component of the to-be-prepared Valentine Camp Management Plan. Scott Stephens, a PhD student under Bob Martin of UC Berkeley, was retained to help develop the plan, map fuels, coordinate with fire management agencies, and identify alternatives for managing fuel loads.
The annual Valentine Open House continues to be a success. Proceeds of the sale of 225 tickets benefited the local hospital auxiliary. UCSB provided tour guides in the form of faculty, staff, students, and friends who conducted the participants around each of the reserve's two loop trails.
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