Sedgwick Reserve

University of California, Santa Barbara

2025 Year-in-Review

Public Use

    • In 2025, Sedgwick Reserve brought in 705 people for public programs including

    Barn Dance
    Family Birding Adventure
    Full Moon Hike
    Winter Public Hikes
    Spring Public Hikes
    Little Lupines Early Childhood Program

    In 2025, Sedgwick Reserve docents gave 1,178+ user days of service for public programs, trainings, and projects including

    Docent Citizen Science Projects

    • Birding Census
    • Floral Phenology
    • Reserve Photo Plots
    • Herbarium and Collections

    Docent Stewardship Projects

    • Landscape maintenance
    • Oak restoration
    • Trail marker installation
    • Mouse proof fencing
    • Outdoor classroom
    • Trail and road clearing
    • Rebar pulling
    • Wire cleanup
    • Poaching patrol

    Docent Training

    • Fourteen new docents trained

    Docent Public Program Roles

    • Interpretive tables
    • Hike Leaders
    • Hike Centers
    • Hike Sweeps
    • Registration
    • Safety
    • Sign-in

    In 2025, Sedgwick Reserve supported educational and workshop visits for 40 groups (with many of these groups visiting multiple times) including

    University Groups

    UC Santa Barbara

    • Benioff Ocean Science Lab Annual Research Strategy Planning
    • Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration
    • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
    • Humanities
    • Marine Science Institute Education and Outreach
    • Police Department
    • Smithsonian Scholars Program
    • UC NRS Data Science Training Essentials
    • WAVES lab
    • West Coast Math Ecology workshop
    • Wildfire resilience in the Western United States

    UCLA

    •  Institute of the Environment and Sustainability – Graduate Group Retreat

    UC Natural Reserve System

    UC Office of the President

    • Tom Smith Symposium

    California Institute of Technology

    • Computer Vision 4 Ecology

    California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

    • Natural Resources Management
    • Research Experiences for Southern California Undergraduate Ecologists-Network (RESCUE-Net)

    K-12 Education

    • NatureTrack
    • Midland School
    • Nature Rangers Home School

    Nonprofits

    • Central California Coast Chapter of the Wildlife Society
    • Climate Science Alliance
      • Southwestern Tribal Summit
    • Mindful Hearts Program
    • Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
    • Birds of winter
    • Santa Ynez Valley Natural History Society
      • Bryant Baker and Fire Ecology
      • Geology and Dibblee Maps
      • Twenty-fifth Anniversary
      • Tarantula Walk
    • Santa Ynez Valley Women Hikers
    • Sierra Club
    • Southern California Artists Painting for the Environment
    • The Fund for Santa Barbara
    • The Nature Conservancy
      • Point Conception Institute
    • Watershed Research and Training Center
      • Cultural prescribed burn and cultural fire training for the Native Coast Action Network and co-hosted by The Nature Conservancy and Sedgwick Reserve
    • The Western Section of the Wildlife Society
      • Marine Mammal ID Workshop
    • Western Watersheds Project

    Other

    • Alisal Ranch
    • Blue Dot Institute
    • Government Agencies
      • NASA Student Airborne Research Program
      • Santa Barbara County Sheriff
    • Patagonia
    • Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians

    Education

    •  In 2025, Sedgwick Reserve supported visits from 10 university-level classes.

    • Allan Hancock College
      • General Zoology
    • University of California
      • California Ecology and Conservation
    • University of California, Los Angeles
      • Soils and the Environment
    • University of California, Santa Barbara
      • Biological Community Survey and Analysis
      • CCBER Training for Undergrads
      • Ecological Management of California Wildlands
      • Measuring our Environment
      • ROTC
      • Terrestrial Vertebrate Ecology and Evolution
      • Writing in Nature

    Research

    • Acoustic Bat Surveys on Sedgwick Reserve
    Bill Haas
    Central Coast Bat Survey

    Aridland Catchment Chemistry after Wildfire Events
    Shanthini Ode
    University of California, Riverside

    Assessing Post-fire Changes in Bird Community with Passive Bioacoustic Monitoring
    Conor McMahon | Leonardo Salas
    University of California, Santa Barbara 

    Birch Effect in Different Soils and Under Different Soil Moisture Regimes
    Liviu Iancu
    UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management | University of California, Santa Barbara | UCSB Marine Science Institute | Johns Hopkins University | Bren School of Environmental Science

    California Ecosystem Resilience with Climate Change
    Anna Trugman | Leander Love-Anderegg
    University of California, Santa Barbara | University of California, Berkeley | Santa Barbara Focalplane | University of Utah | University of California, Davis | University of California, Santa Cruz | Western Sydney University | Universidad de Alcalá | none Santa Barbara | UCSB

    California Endemism Book
    Ivan Parr
    Western Section of the Wildlife Society

    California Native Bee Survey
    Alicia Fox
    Allan Hancock College

    Climate-tracking serpentine communities
    Andrea Nebhut
    Stanford University | Carnegie Institute, Department of Global Ecology

    Conservation and Management of Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Communities on Department of Defense Lands
    Elizabeth Crone | Cheryl Schultz
    Washington State University | University of California, Davis | Tufts University

    Conserving California Wildlife in the Age of Megafire
    Kendall Calhoun
    University of California, Los Angeles

    Cycles of Renewal
    Carlie Domingues | Teresa Romero
    University of California, Davis | Native Coast Action Network | The Nature Conservancy

    Demography of California Poppy
    Elsa Cleland
    University of California, San Diego | UC San Diego

    Divalent Cation (Di-Cat) Soil Lithosequence
    Heath Goertzen
    University of California, Davis | University of California, Santa Barbara | UCSB | UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management

    Eco-evolutionary feedbacks in annual plants
    Zach Gold | Jonathan Levine
    Princeton University

    Effects of environmental variation on evolution of wing polymorphic crickets
    Caroline Williams | Kristi Montooth | Colin Meikeljohn | Lisa Treidel
    University of California, Berkeley | University of Nebraska | Chinese Academy of Sciences | University of California, Merced | Appalachian State University | West High School | University of Washington | University of Oslo | University of Louisville | University of California, Santa Barbara | College of William and Mary

    Evolutionary Ecology of Reptiles
    Amanda Sparkman
    Westmont College | Auburn University | Pennsylvania State University

    Filling Gaps in Status and Conservation Needs of the Tricolored Blackbird in Southern California
    Lori Hargrove
    San Diego Natural History Museum

    Geologic Nitrogen Inputs to Xeric Soils with Mammalian Bioturbation at Sedgwick Reserve
    Iris Holzer
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Heat plume induced embolism in Quercus agrifolia from prescribed burning
    Shane Dewees | Leander Love-Anderegg | Max Mortiz
    University of California, Santa Barbara | University of California, Berkeley | UCSB | University of Utah

    Higher Order Interactions (2021-)
    Nathan Kraft | Jonathan Levine
    University of California, Santa Barbara | University Club of Santa Barbara | UCSB Marine Science Institute

    Impact of Monarthrum and Pseudopityophthorus Bark Beetles on Varietal Oak Woodlands After Fire Events
    Brooke Ryan
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Impact of Monarthrum and Pseudopityophthorus Bark Beetles on Varietal Oak Woodlands After Fire Events
    Brooke Ryan
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Impacts of prescribed fire on oak recruitment
    Shane Dewees
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Incorporation of locally adapted photobionts (Trebouxia) influence on the distribution of cosmopolitan lichen Flavoparmelia caperata (Parmeliaceae)
    Jeremy Howland
    City University of New York

    La Kretz Research Center
    Frank Davis
    Sedgwick Reserve

    Long term monitoring of water stress of oaks
    Anna Jiselle Ongjoco | Leander Love-Anderegg
    University of California, Los Angeles | California State University (CSU), Los Angeles | University of California, Santa Barbara | Princeton University | University of Utah | UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability | University of Wisconsin – Madison

    Moore grant – Meteorological flux tower
    Gert-Jan Duine | Leila Carvalho | Charles Jones
    UCSB Earth Research Institute | University of California, Santa Barbara | Scripps Institution of Oceanography

    NASA Carbon Monitoring System
    Dar Roberts
    University of California, Santa Barbara | UCSB | US Forest Service | USDA Forest Service | Michigan Tech Research Institute

    NASA Student Airborne Research Program
    Dan Sousa
    San Diego State University (CSU) | University of California, Los Angeles | University of California, Santa Barbara | NASA

    Passive Pesticide Sampling in Monarch Breeding Habitat Using Silicone Bands
    Haylie Wilcox | Elizabeth Crone | Cheryl Schultz
    University of California, Davis | Washington State University

    Performance-Dispersal Feedbacks
    Lauren Glevanik | Nathan Kraft
    University of California, Los Angeles

    Personality/Life History Affect on Harvester Ant Colony Smoke Response
    Bear Waymire | Noa Pinter-Wollman
    UCLA | University of California, Los Angeles

    Phenology of flowering and acorn production in Quercus lobata on the Sedgwick Reserve in the Figueroa watershed
    Victoria Sork
    University of California, Los Angeles | University of California, Santa Barbara | Dudek | California Polytechnic State University (CSU), Pomona | Other | St. Mary’s High School

    Plant Bug Biodiversity in the California Floristic Province
    Christiane Weirauch | Michael Forthman
    University of California, Riverside | California Department of Food & Agriculture

    Post-Fire Time-Lapse Photography
    Ethan Turpin
    Bren School of Environmental Science

    Post fire survey
    Carla D’Antonio
    University of California Santa Barbara

    Project MALADPT: Oak common garden project
    Leander Love-Anderegg | Frank Davis | Victoria Sork
    University of California, Santa Barbara | University of California, Los Angeles

    Quantifying Nutrient Cycling Properties of Coast Live Oak Populations at Sedgwick Reserve
    Chris Hyder
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Reducing Ignition Potential Through Ignition-Prone Area Restoration
    Robert Fitch 
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Scaling Science-Driven Vegetation Treatments for a Wildfire Resilient California
    Oscar Garcia Companys
    University of California, Davis

    Santa Barbara County Oak Project
    Claudia Tyler | Bruce Mahall | Frank Davis
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Sage scrub seedbanks and fire
    Carla D’Antonio
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Scrub-Jay caching behavior & Post-fire recovery
    James Mouton
    Ohio State University

    SDSU – NASA FireSense
    Dan Sousa
    San Diego State University (CSU) | The Nature Conservancy | NASA

    Serpentine influence on plants and streams
    Piper Lovegreen
    University of California Santa Barbara

    Soil Ecology in Droughted Grasslands
    Brooke Wainwright | Ava-Rose Beech | Morgan Harper
    University of California, Davis

    Soils and Landscape
    Oliver Chadwick
    University of California Santa Barbara

    Soil transport of nitrogen and phosphorus following fire retardant application
    Iris Holzer
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Spectral Surveying
    Francisco Ochoa | Gregory S. Okinc
    University of California, Los Angeles | Jet Propulsion Laboratory (California Institute of Technology) | University of California, Santa Barbara | University of Wisconsin – Madison | San Diego State University (CSU) | UCLA | The University of Texas at Austin

    Spectrophotometric Observations of Recurrent Nova T CrB
    David Gay
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Subsurface Influence on Plant Traits
    Piper Lovegreen
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Supporting recovery of Yellow-billed Magpie on California’s Central Coast
    Gregor Yanega
    California Central Coast Joint Venture

    Tech Transfer – Fire disturbance recovery
    Sam Prentice
    US Forest Service

    Thermal Tolerance and Water Use Strategies in Oaks
    Scott Mauffet-Smith
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    UC NRS Community-egaged pilot project: fuels management for climate enhanced fire risk reduction.
    Anthony Westerling | Karen Shapiro | Rich Applebaum
    University of California, Merced | UCSB | University of California, Santa Barbara

    Unseen California
    Lacey Lennon
    University of California, Santa Cruz 

    Valley oak seedling competition with near neighbors
    Claudia Tyler | Shelly Cole
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Weekly ornithology survey
    Laura Baldwin | Brenda Juarez
    Sedgwick Reserve

    Weekly phenological survey
    Andy Lentz
    Sedgwick Reserve

    Wildlife Sensing and Monitoring with WiFi signals
    Yasamin Mostofi
     University of California, Santa Barbara

    Wildlife Use of Burned vs Unburned CCS
    Hillary Young
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    Where’s The Bear (WTB): Automating Wildlife Image Processing Using IoT and Edge Cloud Systems
    Chandra Krintz | Rich Wolski
    University of California, Santa Barbara