Although the UC Natural Reserve System was created largely to support university-level teaching and research, public access to NRS sites is available through its outreach efforts and public service activities it hosts. Many people are unaware of the opportunities the NRS offers to groups, and even individuals, interested in learning about California’s wildlands, including community and environmental organizations, governmental agencies, private businesses, and ecologically minded volunteers. For example:
• Local organizations, such as the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, offer field trips to the Sedgwick and Carpinteria Salt Marsh reserves (both Santa Barbara County).
• Statewide organizations, such as the California Native Plant Society, which gives training in vegetation recognition and analysis, uses James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve (Riverside County) and other NRS sites, to study and appreciate rare and endangered flora.
• The California Department of Parks and Recreation coordinates limited guided tours of elephant seal breeding grounds on the mainland near Año Nuevo Island Reserve (San Mateo County).
• Each year hundreds of schoolchildren visit the Angelo Coast Range Reserve (Mendocino County), Quail Ridge Reserve (Napa County), Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve (Santa Barbara County), San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh Reserve (Orange County), and Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve (Los Angeles County).
• Bodega Marine Reserve (Sonoma County), Sagehen Creek Field Station (Nevada County), and Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve (Mono County) host public lectures on science topics of regional interest.
• Docents at Jepson Prairie Reserve (Solano County), as well as the Sedgwick and Carpinteria Salt Marsh reserves (both Santa Barbara County), give guided tours of those sites.
• Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve (Napa and Solano Counties) offers a public-access hiking trail, while visitors to the Coal Oil Point Natural Reserve (Santa Barbara County) can take themselves on a self-guided walking tour of the site’s perimeter and an internal interpretive trail using a two-page guide.
• Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve (San Diego County) hosts bird-watching events and features an interpretative kiosk that depicts bird migrations (with captions in both English and Spanish).
And, of course, nowadays many NRS sites can be visited via WebCam:
http://www.ucnrs.org/UCNRS-Cameras.html
One excellent way to learn about the access opportunities offered by an NRS reserve is to check that reserve’s website and search for search items as announcements of public lectures, calls for volunteer assistance, or the names of local and statewide organizations listed as having organized tours or workshops on-site.
