NOTE:
Unless otherwise stated, please make your reservations by calling
Cathy Koehler or Paul Aigner at (707) 995 9005, or emailing
mclaughlin@ucdavis.edu
Please provide your name, phone number, and the name of each person for
whom you are also making reservations.
Presentations &
Lectures
|
Hikes (rainy weather cancels) |
Volunteer Days |
| March 16 | March
22 |
|
| March 29 | March 30 | |
| April 20 | ||
| May 18 | May 25 | |
| June 29 | ||
| July (Date to be announced) |
Three Counties Hike
Geologist Dean Enderlin and UC Davis McLaughlin Reserve Co-Director Cathy Koehler will lead this tour of the remote corners of Lake, Napa, and Yolo counties, where the three intersect. This hike crosses Reserve and BLM lands, with highlights including Davis Creek Canyon (part of the Cache Creek watershed) and the historic Reed Mine. Along the way we will observe unique geologic formations, early-season wildflowers, and other plants such as the primitive conifer California nutmeg. Wear sturdy hiking boots, bring lunch and plenty of water, and dress for all weather. Be prepared for one section of the hike which is steeply uphill for ¼ mile. Rain cancels. Meeting location will be provided to registrants.
To sign up, contact Cathy Koehler or Paul Aigner at 707 995 9005 or mclaughlin@ucdavis.edu (and please give us your phone number).
Rating: Strenuous (with a steep uphill grade), approximately 5 miles.
Meeting time: Sunday, March 16, 9:00 am
Leaders: Cathy Koehler & Paul Aigner (lead); Dean Enderlin (guide)
Sixth Annual Broom Bash
Brooms (French, Portuguese, Scotch, and Spanish) have invaded more than one million acres in California. They frequently form dense stands that exclude all other vegetation. Try your hand with a weed wrench, and help us in our sixth year of removing French Broom from the banks of Hunting Creek. Those feeling adventurous can take a short hike to help remove newly discovered populations of Spanish Broom near Davis Creek. Bring work gloves. Lunch will be provided, and we will cook a group dinner at the reserve field station at the end of the day.
To sign up, contact Cathy Koehler or Paul Aigner at 707 995 9005 or mclaughlin@ucdavis.edu (and please give us your phone number).
Studying the ecological consequences of global warming: insights into species distributions, migrations, and evolutionary responses.
A lecture by Dr. John Harte, University of California, BerkeleyWe are starting to understand that global warming has the potential to greatly impact all aspects of the natural world and to alter weather patterns, landscapes, and the oceans as we know them. For the most part, however, the popular focus on changes to weather patterns and their impacts on our daily lives leave less room for discussion of other impacts that are somewhat less tangible to us but no less important. For example, how will the changes in weather affect wild-lands and the plants and animals that live in them, as well as ecosystem processes such as CO2 consumption and water cycling? We also encounter little information on how the various ecological impacts of global warming are studied, and how scientists develop an understanding of how those impacts might play out over time.
Dr. John Harte, Professor of Ecosystem Sciences at UC Berkeley, began his studies of the ecological impacts of global warming 22 years ago, when the effects of global warming started to become clearly evident but the general concept had not been popularly accepted. Through his timely and innovative research, Dr. Harte has become one of the preeminent experts in the field, and is greatly contributing to our understanding of the interconnections between climate and ecosystems.
Saturday, March 29, 2008 at the UC Davis McLaughlin Reserve, Lower Lake, CA
1:30 - 3:00 pm: Lecture and discussionReservations are required and are accepted on a first-come first-serve basis.
To make your reservations call the Reserve at (707) 995 9005, or email mclaughlin@ucdavis.edu.
Please provide your name, phone number, and the name of each person for whom you are also making reservations.
Knoxville Blue Ridge "Cliff Climb"
Starting on Knoxville-Berryessa Road in the Knoxville Wildlife Area, we’ll head straight uphill to the sandstone cliffs of the Blue Ridge. We’ll climb about 1,000 ft above the valley floor for a spectacular view of spring wildflowers, the central valley, and the complex hills and valleys of Lake, Solano, and Napa Counties. We may also encounter prairie falcons nesting in the cliffs. Be prepared for a stream crossing each way, uphill hiking with very steep terrain as we approach the cliffs and, of course, steep downhill hiking on the return trip.To sign up, contact Cathy Koehler or Paul Aigner at (707) 995-9005, mclaughlin@ucdavis.edu (and please give us your phone number).
Rating: Very Strenuous, approximately 4miles
Meeting time: Sunday, March 30, 9:00am - 4:00pm
Leaders: Cathy Koehler & Paul Aigner
A web of evolving interactions: plants, the bugs that eat them, the spiders that eat the bugs, and what plants do about all of this.
A lecture by Jon Haloin, Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, DavisHow many of us have been annoyed by insects that eat our favorite plants? Some of us may even encourage predatory insects, like ladybugs or spiders that catch the herbivorous insects under the assumption that they might protect the plants. But what many of us might not realize is that the plants are actively involved in this web of interactions.
Plants can respond to the insects that harm them by producing distasteful or toxic chemicals, growing long hairs, producing more leaves, or in a myriad of other ways. Investing in these of defenses might use up energy and resources plants could otherwise use to produce more seeds. So, how plants can best respond to herbivory may depend on what the predators of herbivores are doing. These complex interactions among plants, herbivores, and predators can affect both the reproductive success and the evolutionary trajectory of plants, but they are not particularly clear or simple to study.
This ecological puzzle is the focus of research for Jon Haloin, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Davis. Initially spurred by a fondness for insects, Jon has traveled down the path of studying the complex interactions of the plants and insects that use each other as they attempt to have productive lives. Join us as Jon illuminates the world of plant-insect interactions and discusses his own research, and how the results of this research shed light on the complexities of these ecological webs. Following the lecture, Jon will lead a short field trip to one of his research sites, where we can continue discussions about his studies.
Sunday, April 20, 2008 at the UC Davis McLaughlin Reserve, Lower Lake, CA
1:00 - 2:30 pm: Lecture and discussion
2:30 - 4:00 pm: Field trip (optional)Reservations are required and are accepted on a first-come first-serve basis.
To make your reservations call the Reserve at (707) 995 9005, or email mclaughlin@ucdavis.edu.
Please provide your name, phone number, and the name of each person for whom you are also making reservations.
Ticks, lizards, squirrels, and Lyme disease: why I'm glad I live in California.
A lecture by Dr. Dan Salkeld, University of California, BerkeleyMost people who spend time outdoors are familiar with the potential hazard of Lyme Disease. Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria that can be carried by ticks and transferred to humans if an infected tick feeds on a person. In northern California, Lyme disease can be transmitted by the western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus), which feeds on a wide variety of animals such as mice, woodrats, squirrels, lizards, and deer, and occasionally (to our disgust) on humans. On the east coast, where mice, chipmunks and shrews all carry the bacteria and infect ticks, human rates of infection by Lyme disease are high. However in California, human rates of infections are much lower. This may be because various hosts that ticks feed on have different roles in the disease dynamics: some hosts are good 'reservoirs' of the disease, whereas other species, like the western fence lizard (common bluebelly), destroy the disease. Understanding the ecology of the hosts and disease is an important part of understanding why it's much better to be living in California, compared to New England!
Dan Salkeld, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, is part of a team studying the dynamics of Lyme disease in northern California. Join us for Dan's lecture, followed by a short field excursion to continue talking about ticks and Dan's field work.
Sunday, May 18, 2008 at the UC Davis McLaughlin Reserve, Lower Lake, CA
1:00 - 2:30 pm: Lecture and discussion
2:30 - 4:00 pm: Field trip (optional)Reservations are required and are accepted on a first-come first-serve basis.
To make your reservations call the Reserve at (707) 995 9005, or email mclaughlin@ucdavis.edu.
Please provide your name, phone number, and the name of each person for whom you are also making reservations.
Goat Grass Grab
Serpentine areas in California provide some of the few remaining examples of truly native California grasslands. Over most of California, our native grassland species have been replaced by invasive annual grasses from Europe and Asia. Most of these invasive species are unable to tolerate the harsh soil conditions on serpentine, and so serpentine meadows have become a refuge for our native grassland flora. Barbed goatgrass is a noxious weed from the Mediterranean and Asia that shows unusual tolerance to serpentine and it is rapidly invading serpentine meadows and other grasslands throughout California. Our mission during the goat grass grab will be to comb some of the best native serpentine meadows at the McLaughlin Reserve, and selectively remove goatgrass before it has a chance to spread. Bring work gloves. Lunch will be provided, and we will cook a group dinner at the reserve field station at the end of the day.
To sign up, contact Cathy Koehler or Paul Aigner at 707 995 9005 or mclaughlin@ucdavis.edu (and please give us your phone number).
Ecosystem impacts of invasive species
A lecture by Dr. Rebecca Drenovsky, John Carroll UniversityCalifornia is known for its spectacular native plant diversity. However, pressure from non-native plant species is changing California’s landscapes. Areas previously rich in native California flora now are dominated by non-native plants. Even sites with extreme characteristics, such as the unique serpentine soils of the McLaughlin Reserve, have been invaded by non-native plants. Although their most obvious impact is their effect on plant community composition, invasive species have the potential to alter multiple factors in an ecosystem. At the McLaughlin Reserve, serpentine grasslands have been invaded by goatgrass. Following invasion, not only have aboveground plant communities changed, but the belowground soil microbial communities have changed, as well. Soil microbial communities play multiple ecosystem roles, and a change in their composition potentially could alter ecosystem function. Do changes in aboveground and belowground communities alter ecosystem function? Understanding how invasive species change ecosystems is necessary if we are to assess the ecological, economic, and societal impacts of these non-native species.
Rebecca Drenovsky is Assistant Professor of Biology at John Carroll University. Her interest in altered ecosystem functions with goat grass invasions was piqued while she was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis; helping a colleague with an experiment in an invaded meadow at McLaughlin started her wondering about related questions, and a new research direction was born. Please join us as Rebecca talks about some of her research at the McLaughlin Reserve, followed by a field excursion to witness the ferocity of goatgrass firsthand.
Sunday, May 18, 2008 at the UC Davis McLaughlin Reserve, Lower Lake, CA
1:00 - 2:30 pm: Lecture and discussion
2:30 - 4:00 pm: Field trip (optional)Reservations are required and are accepted on a first-come first-serve basis.
To make your reservations call the Reserve at (707) 995 9005, or email mclaughlin@ucdavis.edu.
Please provide your name, phone number, and the name of each person for whom you are also making reservations.
Fire Ecology of California's coast range.
A lecture by Dr. Jon Keeley, USGS, Western Ecological Research Center