Steve Monfort, executive director of the UC Natural Reserve System shares why biodiversity is the key to our future and how UC’s reserves are its best-kept secret.
Imagine, as a researcher, the value of accessing an array of intact ecosystems, representing the diverse flora and fauna of the Golden State; areas free from urban pressures, where faculty, students and researchers work together to understand and protect the state’s precious natural heritage.
That was the dream of pioneering University of California scientists in the mid-20th century who worked alongside the UC Regents to create the UC Natural Reserve System (NRS). The charge was led by storied biologist, conservationist and naturalist Kenneth S. Norris, who got the idea for the reserve system in the 1960s after seeing one of his field research sites bulldozed to become a motel. As a new faculty member at UCLA, he became aware of other UC colleagues who were losing their longtime field research and field teaching sites to a wave of post-WWII development. Norris presented his idea for a systemwide reserve system to then-UC President Clark Kerr, and later, the Board of Regents. After gaining Regental approval in 1965, Norris partnered with Mildred Mathias of UCLA and Wilber “Bill” Mayhew of UC Riverside to identify and document regions of ecological significance that he believed should be included in UC’s new living library.
In May 1968, Norris published an article in BioScience magazine, in which he wrote, “I toured the state from top to bottom, inspected nearly 90 sites, hiked shorelines, mountains, grasslands and deserts and emerged from it not only with a firm grasp of what is needed, but also with a reaffirmation of the magnificence of our opportunity and the importance of rapid action. Time is short. Habitat destruction is appalling and everywhere evident. Although some habitats are gone, we are generally in time.”
More than five decades later, this vision carries on: The UC NRS has expanded to 41 sites throughout California. It encompasses more than 47,000 acres and represents every major habitat in the state, making it the largest system of natural reserves in the world.
This incredible resource is even more important today, as climate change threatens biodiversity across California and the world and scientists increasingly look to nature-based solutions to the climate crisis.
UC’s wild, wonderful natural reserves
Imagine, as a researcher, the value of accessing an array of intact ecosystems, representing the diverse flora and fauna of the Golden State; areas free from urban pressures, where faculty, students and researchers work together to understand and protect the state’s precious natural heritage.
That was the dream of pioneering University of California scientists in the mid-20th century who worked alongside the UC Regents to create the UC Natural Reserve System (NRS). The charge was led by storied biologist, conservationist and naturalist Kenneth S. Norris, who got the idea for the reserve system in the 1960s after seeing one of his field research sites bulldozed to become a motel. As a new faculty member at UCLA, he became aware of other UC colleagues who were losing their longtime field research and field teaching sites to a wave of post-WWII development. Norris presented his idea for a systemwide reserve system to then-UC President Clark Kerr, and later, the Board of Regents. After gaining Regental approval in 1965, Norris partnered with Mildred Mathias of UCLA and Wilber “Bill” Mayhew of UC Riverside to identify and document regions of ecological significance that he believed should be included in UC’s new living library.
In May 1968, Norris published an article in BioScience magazine, in which he wrote, “I toured the state from top to bottom, inspected nearly 90 sites, hiked shorelines, mountains, grasslands and deserts and emerged from it not only with a firm grasp of what is needed, but also with a reaffirmation of the magnificence of our opportunity and the importance of rapid action. Time is short. Habitat destruction is appalling and everywhere evident. Although some habitats are gone, we are generally in time.”
More than five decades later, this vision carries on: The UC NRS has expanded to 41 sites throughout California. It encompasses more than 47,000 acres and represents every major habitat in the state, making it the largest system of natural reserves in the world.
This incredible resource is even more important today, as climate change threatens biodiversity across California and the world and scientists increasingly look to nature-based solutions to the climate crisis.
UC’s wild, wonderful natural reserves