UPDATED DIRECTIONS: Meet at the preserve gate at the intersection of Sand Hill Road & Lakeshore Drive. The docent will unlock the gate. (Map) Tour takes place rain or shine.
Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve is a field station located near Stanford University in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The preserve encompasses Coast Range such as oak woodland, serpentine grassland, and aquatic wetlands within its 485 hectares (1198 acres). This natural laboratory attracts researchers from all over the world, provides educational experiences to students and docent-led visitors, and serves as a refuge to native plants and animals. The preserve's ecosystems are managed to remain in as natural a state as possible. This allows scientists to quantify changes observed in similar ecosystems affected by a range of human impacts. In addition to facilitating research, this highly accessible field station provides undergraduate educational experiences and helps to educate the general public about environmental issues. The preserve is the site of discoveries important both to fundamental scientific questions and to society. Professor Paul Ehrlich's discoveries about the disappearance of Bay checkerspot butterflies demonstrated the value of long-term research in ecology, and helped foster federal programs to fund such studies. Professors Christopher Field and Harold Mooney established principles driving the largest research program now at JRBP, a study of ecosystem responses to a suite of environmental changes that are occurring globally. A long-term monitoring project by Professor Deborah Gordon's lab has mapped the invasion of Argentine ants and used "before and after" comparisons of ecological communities in the path of the invasion to better understand the ants' impacts. We’ll take a guided tour led by docents, and end with a picnic at the field station itself before departing. Bring comfortable walking shoes, a hat, layers, and water. Enjoy a BYO picnic lunch on reserve grounds after the tour. Time and Date Sunday, October 30, 10:30 a.m. Tour will last about 2.5 hours. Directions (Map) Take Highway 280 to Palo Alto. Exit Sand Hill Road going west.
Meet at the preserve gate at the intersection of Sand Hill Road & Lakeshore Drive. The docent will unlock the gate.
Turn left onto Lakeshore Drive. Continue along Lakeshore Drive until you see the field station buildings and parking lot.
Refund/cancellation policy
Cancellations made before midnight on Tues., Oct. 25, will receive a credit that can be applied toward a future NCSWA event. No refunds or credits will be given after that date.
