WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE

Our ongoing projects involve experiments with managing oak landscapes from a holistic, regenerative perspective. For example, we’ve been ‘Ranching Without Cows’ since 2019 and following changes in vegetation, germination and survival of oaks and native shrubs, exotic ‘weedy’ species, wildlife populations and anything else that seems interesting.

We’re aided in this effort by our partners from the Geography Department at California State University, Long Beach who regularly fly the ranch with drones and high-resolution cameras, tracking changes at the landscape level. Their before-and-after data and images of the 2023 floods is remarkable.

One of our recent projects is hosting REU students- Research Experiences for Undergraduates. This is a program of the National Science Foundation in which undergraduates from across the United States spend seven weeks on the ranch. They design and carry out unique research projects and then present them to the faculty and their fellow students. The program hosts 8 students, who receive room and board and a generous monetary stipend to make it all possible.