Vandalism

Last Tuesday night, we had our first aggressive case of vandalism in 10 years.

People sometimes carve their name into our weather towers, dump garbage at the highway garage, or damage something trying to remove it. But this is the first time someone has inflicted damage on us just for the mindless sake of doing damage.

The vandals walked in from the public campground, shot up and stole signs, then graffiti-ed the inside of the Leopold Cabin.

Please contact us if you have any information that would lead to an arrest. With our minuscule, largely self-funded operating budget, clearly we're highly motivated to discourage this type of behavior in the future.

NRS Reserve Wins Human Diversity Award

June 17, 2011 By Kathleen Wong:

Sage­hen Creek Field Sta­tion’s Adven­ture Risk Chal­lenge (ARC) pro­gram has won the 2011 Human Diver­sity Award from the Orga­ni­za­tion of Bio­log­i­cal Field Sta­tions. The award rec­og­nizes pro­grams that increase the involve­ment of under­rep­re­sented groups in field science.

Read full article.

Environmental Artists and Art Museum Director Visit Sagehen

Today, we had a follow-up meeting with Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison, renowned environmental artists, and Bill Fox, Director of the Center for Art and the Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art.

From their website:
"The Harrisons have worked for almost forty years with biologists, ecologists, architects, urban planners and other artists to initiate collaborative dialogues to uncover ideas and solutions which support biodiversity and community development."

The Harrisons, in cooperation with the Center for Art and the Environment, envision a long term environmental art work installation at Sagehen and at the Nevada Museum of Art. The work would focus attention on and propose solutions to issues surrounding soil and water resources, long-term climate change and downstream services of a healthy watershed.

• Watch a visualization produced by the Harrisons for Independence Lake.

Sagehen is very excited about the possibility of working with the Harrisons and the Nevada Museum of Art. We hope that it is the start of a larger integration of the communicative power of art with the education and research programs at Sagehen.

Sagehen management reports

I've scanned and uploaded a couple of interesting planning documents this week:

• Wild and Scenic Rivers Study Report and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (PDF-9.5MB): this document includes extensive descriptions of Sagehen Creek and nearby watersheds, including Alder Creek and Independence Creek. Included are lists of sensitive plants, and descriptions of designated Special Interest Areas (SIAs), like the Mason Fen and Sagehen Headwaters. There are also discussions of additional recommended SIAs.
• 1990 Tahoe Forest Plan (PDF-716KB): I scanned the specific sections that describe Sagehen Basin and the Sagehen Creek Field Station.

Camas Lilies

The famous camas lilies are popping in the Lower Sagehen meadows. Here's a photo and update from Amy Horne:

Sagehen Camas Lilies 6/15! Why I live in the Sierra....

Highway sign for Sagehen!

We've been trying to get a highway sign almost since the day we arrived 10 years ago. It's finally here.

Thanks Caltrans!

Climate change information tool

From Verna Bowie at the BNHM:

Cal-Adapt is a web-based climate change adaptation information tool that has been designed to provide access to the wealth of data and information that has been, and continues to be, produced by the State's scientific and research community. The data available in this site offer a view of how climate change might affect California at the local level.

This site has been developed by UC Berkeley's Geospatial Innovation Facility, with funding and oversight from the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research Program, using data gathered from California's scientific community, including the California Energy Commission, Google, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Santa Clara University, U.S. Geological Survey, UC Merced, and Pacific Institute.

Learn more about the development of Cal-Adapt from the UC Berkeley News Center, and in a highlight article published in the June 2011 issue of PE&RS.

Nina Leopold dies.

Nina Leopold passed away this week at the age of 93. She was the daughter of Conservationist Aldo Leopold, and sister to Sagehen founder Starker Leopold.

Here's a video about Nina's life-long phenology project at the Leopold Preserve in Wisconsin.

Camera-trapped deer

Update from the Highway-89 Stewardship Team:

"Attached [are] the first image[s] we have captured of a deer with a GPS collar. This location is just south of the underpass where there have been so many GPS collared deer [GPS] “tracks”.

Mike

Michael "Mike" De Lasaux
Natural Resources Advisor
Plumas & Sierra Counties
University of California Cooperative Extension
208 Fairground Road
Quincy, CA 95971"

New PSW liaison.

Sagehen is cooperatively managed by UC Berkeley's Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, the Tahoe National Forest, and the US Forest Service Pacific South West Research Station (PSW).

PSW recently reorganized. Sagehen Experimental Forest's previous liaison, Pete Stine, is now the National Coordinator for Experimental Forests and Ranges, a new position reflecting the growing importance of these research properties.

Our new liaison is Rick Bottoms. We're looking forward to working with Rick in the future!