JRBP ('O'O) December 2024 Newsletter
December 2024
____________________________________
SUPPORT JASPER RIDGE'S
NEW CHALLENGES
____________________________________
Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve ('Ootchamin 'Ooyakma) has a strong 50-year track record of environmental research and education. The beautiful landscape of the preserve is now undergoing changes of an unprecedented scale, with fire fuel reduction efforts recently initiated and dam and watershed modification projects soon to begin and continue over the next few decades. This will be a period of major transformation, which can be a source of extreme anxiety. However, it also brings unique opportunities for innovative research and education on environmental stewardship. Initial steps are being taken on this new frontier, guided by both Western and Indigenous science, the approach known as two-eyed seeing. However, given the sheer scale of landscape changes to come, philanthropic support would help greatly to advance Jasper Ridge toward a future where faculty and students continue to learn and make discoveries that inspire the world like it always has.
To support JRBP ('O'O) new challenges, please visit our
Gracias! Thank you!
____________________________________
ANNOUNCEMENTS
____________________________________
WINTER CLOSURE: DEC 23-JAN 6, 2025.
Following the Stanford holiday closure policy, Jasper Ridge will be closed to all tours and all casual visits from Monday December 23, 2024, through Friday, January 6, 2025. During this time Jasper Ridge staff are off duty enjoying the holiday break, so we will not have the capacity to schedule tours or handle other logistics related to casual visits. Thank you for understanding and following the winter closure dates. We will resume all activities on Monday, January 6, 2025.
SAVE THE DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 2025, 4 PM: Evening Lectures with Katie Glover, Ph.D
Join us on Jan 21, 4-6 PM to meet and be in conversation with our very own associate director for environmental education, Katie Glover. Katie will share her presentation titled: “Exploring the Past and Future of California’s Ecosystems” and incorporate the material to tours at Jasper Ridge! Bring a friend with you! For more information, visit our educational event page.
Data Bits: As of yesterday, Dec 16, 2024, we have received 5.71 inches of precipitation since the 2025 water year started on Oct 1. Feel free to track the San Francisquito stream gage and discharge by monitoring the USGS monitoring location downstream of Searsville reservoir.
Former Executive Director Philippe Cohen was honored at the 2024 OBFS annual meeting last month at Hobcaw Barony in Georgetown, South Carolina. Phlippe was awarded a Distinguished Lifetime Service Award for his years of support and leadership with OBFS, an engagement he has maintained throughout his career and continues today. Video to the history of OBFS, award ceremony.
____________________________________
RESEARCH
____________________________________
New Research
Daniel Neamati, PhD Candidate working with Prof. Grace Gao in the Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, will optimize computer vision models, previously developed in the Gao lab, to reconstruct environmental landscapes. He will collect images using handheld equipment to reconstruct digital 3D landscapes of the burn piles, Searsville Reservoir, and the Leslie Shao-ming Sun Field Station at Jasper Ridge.
Publications
Congratulations to student Chrysanthe publishing her undergraduate research project!
Frangos C, Dirzo R, Peláez M (2024). Long-term impacts of nurse plants on evergreen and deciduous oak saplings in Northern California. Forest Ecology and Management, 577, 122426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2024.122426
Peláez M, López-Sánchez A, Wilson Fernandes G, Dirzo R, Rodríguez-Calcerrada J, Perea R (2024) Responses of oak seedlings to increased herbivory and drought: a possible trade-off?. Annals of Botany, mcae178. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcae178
In the news!
Congrats to Professor Rodolfo Dirzo and his collaborators Marta, Aida Geraldo, Jesus y Ramon for their publication being showcased in Science News in their news article titled: “During a baby oak’s first summer drought, a little leaf munching may help it survive”.
____________________________________
EDUCATION
____________________________________
Professor Tad Fukami, Katie Glover and many other Stanford partners were awarded 2025 Community Engagement Impact Funds titled: 'Ootchamin 'Ooyakma Youth Campout: Muwekma-Stanford Partnership for Land Stewardship.
Next summer, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve ('Ootchamin 'Ooyakma) will collaborate with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area to hold the 2025 'Ootchamin 'Ooyakma Youth Campout with other Stanford partners: Native Plants Garden, Native American Cultural Center, Heritage Services, and Conservation Program. By deepening mutual understanding with the Tribe, everyone will co-create environmental research, education, and stewardship programs with tribal members. To read more about the 'Ootchamin 'Ooyakma Youth Campouts read blog #1 and blog #2.
20+ years later the Stanford SEEDS chapter and Redwood High School REAL program continues ecological experiences at Jasper Ridge
We were thrilled to host the 20-year partnership Stanford SEEDS Chapter and Redwood Environmental Academy of Leadership (REAL) program last month! Nineteen students attended with their teacher, Trevor Leach. Students were guided on an educational ecology scavenger hunt designed by Prof. Rodolfo Drizo and SEEDS students, Chrysanthe Frangos and Kelly Benitez. Executive Director Jorge Ramos, SEEDS Alumni, and Kelly Benitez, Docent, encouraged students to consider applying to Stanford, and shared their story as first generation students pursuing an environmental degree program.
Continuing to strengthen and bring Indigenous knowledge and practices to Jasper Ridge, read more how Director Tad Fukami organized and hosted a workshop that describes the teachings on basket artistry and Indigenous meaning behind the craft shared by facilitator, Corinne Pearce.
New blog: 1,600 Ticks, (Un)Translating and Recipes
Katie Glover showcases three projects from the last cohort of BIO/ESYS 105 students, now Jasper Ridge docents. Explore the topics: 1) “Lessons Learned from 1,600 ticks” by Derek Knowles; 2) “Meditation on Pedagogy: (Un)translating Jasper Ridge” by AJ Naddaff; and 3) “Food as Medicine” by Pearl Shing-Roth, Isabella Cruz-Krahn, and Tina Truong.
FOR DOCENTS: Title IX and Safe Field Practices Training Refresher coming Winter 2025!
Join representatives from Stanford University’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Education (SHARE) Title IX Office for the required refresher on how to create and maintain a safe and inclusive environment at Jasper Ridge. Katie Glover will be sending out the event as soon as it is scheduled.
These past weeks, we were happy to host groups from Redwood High School, San Jose State University, Stanford University, Mid Peninsula, Doerr School of Sustainability, Graduate School of Business, Stroke Survivors, Sequoia Audubon Society, School of Medicine, School of Law, H&S Dean’s Office, and many more.
A reminder that docent course projects are showcased in our “Ecology and Natural History of Jasper Ridge” course alumni directory. Docents are encouraged to review their own entry and be in touch with Assoc Director of Environmental Education Katie Glover (kcglover@stanford.edu) about sharing their own projects.
____________________________________
STEWARDSHIP
____________________________________
Stewardship Scientist Sheena Sidhu will be leading the development of two major stewardship plans for JRBP ('O'O) preserve: an Invasive Species Management plan, and a Fuel Monitoring & Maintenance plan. The plans will be co-developed with input from the entire JRBP ('O'O) community, Stanford colleagues and outside experts. These two plans will be central to guiding our science informed stewardship and will identify opportunities for research and education activities at the preserve. We expect these to be “living documents” as we continuously learn and adapt from the monitoring and implementation practices. Members of the Oakmead Herbarium (see work here), Living Lab fellow Rachel Lit and past summer Stewardship Interns, Nick Rodriguez and John Lowndes, all contributed to developments of the plans through past knowledge and literature reviews.
____________________________________
GRACIAS! THANK YOU!
____________________________________
Thanks to our wonderful docents and staff for helping lead tours in November and December: Polly Diffenbaugh, Sue Schmitt, Tom Schnaubelt, Dan Quinn, Jackie Magno, Dawn Neisser, Marty Freeland, Helen Quinn, Adelaide Nye, Laney Cogner, Jerry Hearn, Vivian Neou, Sally Jackson, Bob Seigel, Diane Renshaw, Teal Derrer, Paul Heiple, Aiyana Washington, Jonathan Segal, Klaus Porzig, Lydia Villa, Sonoo Thadaney Israni, Katharina Stromeyer, Sarah Hawthorne, Tom Lockard, Cheryl Gold, Chrysanthe Frangos, Kelly Benitez, Rodolfo Dirzo, Jorge Ramos, Katie Glover, Jane Moss, Catherine Magill, Emily Kim, Sonny Mencher, AJ Naddaff, Adriana Hernandez, Kathleen Bennett, Kim Biel, and Jeff Schwegman
____________________________________
PICTURES OF THE MONTH
____________________________________
Happy Holidays from JRBP ('O'O)! Here is a collage put together by Katie Glover commemorating the woodrat nest themed cake and various groups of friends who had their photo taken in front of the oak woodland photo booth with woodrat and a mountain lion! Thanks to Katie for building up the cake / nest and Adriana and Trevor for building the photo booth! See you all next year 2025!
