JRBP('O'O) December 2023 Newsletter
December 2023
Link to 2023-2024 JRBP ('O'O) Newsletters.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Join us for the annual 2023 Jasper Ridge Holiday Celebration
Wednesday Dec 13, 2023, 4:30 PM.
Join us for the annual 2023 Jasper Ridge Holiday Celebration! What to bring? Beverages, favorite hors d'oeuvres, cookies, pan dulce, yourself. Remember to bring a new book or toy for the Native American Cultural Center annual Toy Drive for local Native youth! (unwrapped gift for children 0-18 years old). See event invitation here
New blog summarizing Jasper Ridge's 50th anniversary celebration.
As noted by Nona Chiariello, Rodolfo Dirzo, Cindy Wilber, Bill Gomez, Paul Ehrlich, and Hal Mooney, countless people have shaped the mission of the Preserve, and it was heartwarming to gather in the spirit of celebration. Whether you were able to join us for last week’s event or please enjoy reading the blog and watching the recording of the event,
Winter closure dates, Dec 21-Jan 4, 2024.
Following the Stanford holiday closure policy, Jasper Ridge will be closed to all tours and all casual visits from Thursday December 21 through Wednesday, January 3, 2024. During this time Jasper Ridge staff are off duty, 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 Thursday, January 4, 2024.
Jasper Ridge Staff Transitions
Dr. Nona Chiariello retiring from JRBP, Stanford University
Our very own Dr. Nona Chiariello will be retiring from Stanford University early next year. As many noted in the celebration last week, we can all agree that Nona is among the very few that have contributed the longest to the success of Jasper Ridge. Tad writes in his blog that literally, hundreds, if not thousands, of faculty and students have benefitted from Nona’s generosity and intellectual contribution. Anyone who has proposed and carried out a project at Jasper Ridge knows that Nona is such an indispensable person to consult with, always full of helpful information, advice, encouragement, inspiration, and many ideas. Read more about Nona's work at Jasper Ridge in our blog.
Dr. Adriana Hernandez joins JRBP, Stanford University
In September of 2023, a committee was set up to search and hire the person who will be leading the research pillar of Jasper Ridge. I am happy to share the news that we have found the next Associate Director for Research for Jasper Ridge: Dr. Adriana Hernandez. Adriana comes to us from the California Academy of Sciences and brings more than 12 years of scientific and research experience in institutions similar to Jasper Ridge in the fields of plant biology, evolution and conservation. Her degrees and training come from institutions such as University of California, Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens and Cornell University. Read more about Adriana and her background in our blog and please join us in welcoming Adriana on January 4, 2024.
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RESEARCH
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New Research
Mel Guo, a graduate student working with Prof. Elliott White Jr., received a grant from the Mellon-Stanford fund for student research to study tree species diversity in riparian woodland.
Prof. Jeff Dukes and his lab are installing an array of microclimate sensors to investigate differences in microclimate at JRBP as a function of vegetation type and topographic setting.
Prof. Florentine Rutaganira and her lab began sampling from Jasper Ridge creeks to use environmental DNA to survey for choanoflagellates in Jasper Ridge waterways.
New research video by Nona and Prof. Laureano Gherardi documenting the disturbance in the experimental plots of DRAGNet at Jasper Ridge.
New publication
"Mixed population trends inside a California protected area: Evidence from long-term community science monitoring" led by Stanford alumni and docent of Jasper Ridge Julien M. Wright-Ueda and co-authored with Prof. Rodolfo Dirzo and Dr. Tyler N. McFadden. It is important to note that the data utilized in this publication includes many observations by many docents and affiliates. They have contributed to the 31 years of data that Julien used in his project. It's hard to mention everyone who has participated in the bird monitoring over the years so please let us know and share with us if you have helped in the bird surveys. We thank everyone in the past and we would like to recognize the current birding team leaders, all of whom have been faithfully leading counts for years sometimes with their own guests include: Mary Ann Allan, Malia DeFelice, Edwin Ehmke, Sally Jackson, Richard Jeffers, Emily Kim, Gary Nielsen and Maya Xu. Gracias!
Publications
As we close the year, review the list of publications of Jasper Ridge of 2023 (Thank you Nona for always updating our publication list!): https://jrbp.stanford.edu/research/publications
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EDUCATION
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NSF SOAR Updates
Our NSF SOAR Research Coordination Network grant led by Prof. Rodolfo Dirzo and coordinated by Katie Glover, launched its first All-Hands Meeting which started with a bird handling demonstration for students and participants by our collaborator from SFBBO, Dr. Katie LaBarbera. Learn more about SOAR here.
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STEWARDSHIP
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Fuel-reduction for 2023 along Sand Hill Road and Westridge completed
We completed the fuel-reduction for 2023 along Sand Hill Road and Westridge. Read the latest blog from stewardship scientist Sheena Sidhu on the summary of our 2023 wildfire mitigation work. Stanford University has reported on the burn piles that have been built as part of the overall fuel-management strategy. Please read the report to learn more about the piles and the tentative timeline.
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GRACIAS! THANK YOU!
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Thanks to our docents that led tours in the month of November: Alan Cuevas, Adelaide Nye, Xavier Gomez, Jane Moss, Caroline Blythe, Mary Bernstein, Syndey Lee Schmitter, Cheryl Gold, Helen Quinn, Stu Koretz, Lydia Villa, Mireille Vargas, Jonathan Segal, Katharina Stromeyer, Diego Perez, Klaus Porzig, and Catherine Magill. As always, thanks to Seth for helping with the tours!
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PICTURES OF THE MONTH
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Above. Nona Chiariello reflecting on the work by Dr. Paul Ehlich and Dr. Hal Mooney along with her friends Bill Gomez, Cindy Wilber, Rodolfo Dirzo and Tad Fukami during the 50th anniversary celebration of Jasper Ridge (please enjoy this video of the program). Picture credit to LiPo Ching, Stanford University.
Below. Past, present and future of faculty at Jasper Ridge. From the 50th anniversary celebration blog, shown in this photo are four professors, who have each used Jasper Ridge for their research and teaching: Professors Barnabas Daru, Erin Mordecai, Chris Field, and Hal Mooney (clockwise). Please enjoy this video of the program in this link. They have been on the Stanford faculty since 2023, 2015, 1986, and 1968, respectively. Photo by LiPo Ching.
