Project Description
In November 2005, the USDA Forest Service announced the designation of the upper Sagehen Creek watershed as an Experimental Forest, California’s 11th such research site and the first to be created since 1962. The watershed features a diverse riparian zone associated with the perennially flowing Sagehen Creek, including meadows, fens, and a high-elevation, virgin fir forest. The basin’s fens are especially well known for their scientific value.
The objectives for the 9,000-acre Sagehen Experimental Forest are: (a) to provide lands dedicated to enabling research that would guide the management of the Tahoe National Forest and other national forests of the Pacific Southwest Region, (b) to serve as a site for local, regional, and global, long-term monitoring data, and (c) to provide educational facilities for Forest Service staff and for the general public.
The Sagehen Creek Field Station, located within the new experimental forest, has been operated by UC Berkeley under a special use-permit from the Tahoe National Forest since 1951 and has provided facilities for research and education in biology, fisheries, forestry, hydrology, entomology, and wildlife. The field station’s 50-year record of research and monitoring draws researchers from universities across the country, as well as government agencies, and non-profit institutions. The Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) administers a network of experimental forests in California and brings 75 years of outstanding research and long-term data to the collaboration.
The long-term Fuel Management Pilot Project and the Keck HydroWatch Center, each described elsewhere in this publication, will benefit greatly from the creation of the Sagehen Experimental Forest and will contribute materially to its central research emphases.
Online Information
Tahoe National Forest: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/tahoe/index.shtml
Pacific Southwest Research Station: http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/
Sagehen Creek Field Station: http://sagehen.ucnrs.org/
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