2025-2026 Jasper Ridge Annual Report

Explore the new 2025-2026 Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve Annual Report 

Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, ('Ootchamin 'Ooyakma), continued to serve as a place for research, education, and stewardship during the 2025 to 2026 academic year. The 2025-2026 Annual Report highlights the value of long term research and the people who make it possible. Studies of mountain lions, birds, grasslands, chaparral, fire, plants, fungi, and the Searsville watershed show how students and faculty returning to the same place year after year continue to discover new patterns that would otherwise remain unseen. This year, long term projects also opened the door to new questions, including how cultural burning may affect plants, animals, soils, and future stewardship, how wildfire resilience work can be monitored over time, and how changes in the Searsville watershed may shape willow recovery and habitat restoration. 

The people behind this work remain at the center of Jasper Ridge. Students, faculty, staff, docents, volunteers, alumni, Tribal partners, and community partners contributed to 92 research projects, 27 publications, 29 Stanford courses, and more than 5,600 educational visits. New research often began with curiosity in the field, a student asking a question, a docent sharing knowledge, or a new collaboration among researchers building on decades of observations. These efforts included projects supported by bird surveys spanning more than 30 years, grassland studies rooted in more than 40 years of work, herbarium collections dating back to 1893, bat monitoring, wildlife camera studies, and continuing field courses that introduce students to research through direct experience on the land. 

This year also brought challenges, including budget reductions and staff changes, but the Jasper Ridge community continued to show up with commitment and purpose. The report reflects a year shaped by care for the preserve, thoughtful questions, and collaboration across generations. Long standing programs such as the Ecology and Natural History of Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve course, Oakmead Herbarium work, stewardship internships, cultural burning partnerships, and wildlife monitoring continue to support both current needs and future discovery. We are grateful for everyone who helped sustain Jasper Ridge this year, and we look forward to seeing you again in our new academic year, 2026 to 2027. 

Explore the 2025-2026 Annual Report

Click on this link to explore our 2025-2026 Annual Report and its wonderful content. 

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Please continue supporting Jasper Ridge with your generous gifts that maintain our research and education programs. 

Jorge Ramos, Ph.D., Executive Director, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve