Science and Stewardship in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Photo by staff
Two weeks ago, on January 30, a sold‑out event brought hundreds of scientists and stewards together for the Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network’s first‑ever Science & Stewardship Symposium. From the opening welcome by SCMSN Manager Dylan Skybrook and Midpen’s Natural Resources Manager Kirk Lenington through a full‑day program, the excitement was obvious at The Grove in Santa Cruz. It felt like this gathering was both timely and needed. The symposium was designed not just for SCMSN members. We, the organizing committee, worked months in advance to invite a balanced mix of practitioners and researchers to create a time and place to learn, connect, and collaborate across disciplines in the region. Another goal was simple: we wanted people to have a good time!
Plenaries by Don Hankins, Jennifer Norris, and David Ackerly were inspiring, each with its own call to action: reconnecting ecosystems and processes through Indigenous knowledge; showing how stewards and scientists can help policymakers set innovative conservation goals; and exploring new ways to adapt ecosystems to a rapidly changing climate. Seven themed sessions kept the program moving: Indigenous stewardship, rare species, aquatic restoration, prescribed fire, forest management, monitoring and adaptive management, and landscape‑level tools. The speakers showcased stewardship practices and research already being applied at multiple scales across the Santa Cruz Mountains.
As moderator of the Prescribed Fire session, I met many new stewards and researchers who shared insights relevant to what we are experiencing at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve ('Ootchamin 'Ooyakma). I learned about practical site‑preparation and understory burn methods from Spencer Klinefelter, new experimental designs to study prescribed broadcast burns from Ian Cook and Georgia Vasey, and gained new perspectives on smoke, policy, and public health from Arjan Walia. The volume of audience questions and the follow‑up conversations clearly highlighted the growing interest and urgency to continue bringing good fire back through both stewardship and science. This session provided new contacts and perspectives that will help our Jasper Ridge community plan, implement, and study future prescribed and cultural burns at JRBP ('O'O).
Jasper Ridge was present throughout the day, highlighted by many speakers. Bernadette Quiroz, Director of Language Revitalization Programs for the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, shared her Two‑Eyed Seeing experience with the Tribe and 'Ootchamin 'Ooyakma through language revitalization and youth campouts, and Tadashi Fukami described how Jasper Ridge helped the Tribe with the return of their cultural burning at 'O'O, with training support from the North Fork Mono Tribe for the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. He also touched on how this burn provided research and education opportunities for Stanford students and faculty. Don Hankins noted the Two‑Eyed Seeing collaboration between the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and 'Ootchamin 'Ooyakma, and David Ackerly reflected on the beginnings of his scientific work in California’s ecosystems at Jasper Ridge. During the poster session, I joined Stanford researchers Kiara Fufunan, Katie Huy, and Jaime Yu to present various posters on different topics: collaborative wildfire‑resilience framework, soil nutrient pulses after fire, and machine‑learning maps that flag invasive plants before they spread. These all showcased the ongoing stewardship work and scientific projects at Jasper Ridge. The poster hall was lively, people were chatting about projects and building new friendships. Judging by the energy in the room, the community is already asking, “When’s the next one?”
You might be wondering why this short summary of an SCMSN event appears on our Jasper Ridge blog. Jasper Ridge has deep ties to SCMSN’s history: former Executive Director Philippe Cohen was involved in the network’s official formation in 2015–2016. In 2023, former Executive Director Anthony Barnosky and former postdoc Kelly McManus Chauvin led the creation of the Sustainable Landscape Health Assessment in collaboration with SCMSN. Now, as the current Executive Director of JRBP ('O'O), I represent the preserve in the SCMSN convenings. The organizing committee of the SCMSN Symposium was led by Dylan Skybrook and Kirk Lenington, and included me and Lucy Bennett, Aaron Hébert, Joshua Hugg, Kellyx Nelson, Michael Powers, Laura Schickman, and Sheena Sidhu.
Authored by Jorge Ramos, ED, JRBP ('O'O)
Figure 1: From top left to bottom. Dylan Skybrook, Bernadette Quiroz and Tad Fukami, The Grove venue in Santa Cruz, Kiara Fufunan, Katie Huy, Jaime Yu, and the lively crowed during the poster session. Photos by Jorge Ramos.