The folks involved with the UC Davis McLaughlin Natural Reserve and Homestake Mining Co. are throwing a big party Saturday, May 15, to celebrate the reserve's wealth--in two senses. First, Homestake Mining Co., which has been excavating at the junction of Yolo, Solano and Lake counties since the mid- 1980s, will fete the fact that it has processed its 3 millionth ounce of gold. And, second, more pertinently for UC Davis researchers and instructors, the party will offer free natural-history hikes, lectures and a picnic lunch to publicize the riches offered on the property being transformed into a University of California natural reserve. Already the campus has 300 acres in a reserve and the run of the remainder of 7,000 acres of coastal-range wilderness by permission of Homestake, reports Susan Harrison, professor of environmental science and policy and the first faculty director of the UC Davis Natural Reserve System. In three years, the mining company will turn over the remainder of the property to UC Davis under a long-term use agreement. Although Homestake will give the University of California a legal-use agreement, the company will retain title to the land, and thus be responsible for any liability involved with its mining efforts--which included mining 30 million tons of ore, according to Sid England, campus environmental planner. "Absolutely, we want people to come and see the reserve now," Harrison said, pointing to the attributes of this "very special natural habitat." The coastal-range property is a mixture of marine sedimentary rocks with a great variety of unusual plant communities, including oak woodlands, grasslands and serpentine chaparral. The fauna includes 66 species of butterflies, eight bat species and yellow-legged frogs. "Finally, there are healthy populations of black bear and cougar, and my students have seen them fairly often," Harrison said. Valuable resources The environmentally oriented Homestake Mining Co. offers researchers other valuable resources: an environmental database that it has maintained for several years as well as a monitoring system that can be useful in studies. Also, one of Homestake's buildings has been converted into a fully equipped field station available to researchers and classes. The May 15 party is being planned by a group called the Blue Ridge-Berryessa Natural Area Conservation Partnership, which includes UC Davis, Homestake, and a consortium of ranchers and government and environmental groups interested in the proper ecological management of a largely undeveloped 300,000-acre region that includes the McLaughlin reserve. Harrison's own research experiences with plant diversity at the McLaughlin reserve have convinced her that others on campus might benefit from using the land, she said. As the first faculty director of the Natural Reserve System, her ambition is to broaden the campus's participation in the McLaughlin site, as well as UC Davis' five other reserves--Bodega Marine Reserve, Jepson Prairie, Stebbins Cold Canyon, Quail Ridge and Eagle Lake. Last academic year, the reserves (excluding Bodega Marine Reserve) were used for research by 27 faculty members, graduate students and other researchers. In addition, 27 classes visited the sites. "The rationale for having a reserve system is having protected natural sites to do long-term research," Harrison said. That security includes both continuous ownership of the sites and security from vandalism so that researchers can leave their plots or equipment unattended, she explained. Plans for better management Under a plan Harrison developed last year as the reserve-system faculty coordinator, the faculty directorship as well as a manager position were created to better administer the reserves and thereby to increase the number of campus researchers and instructors who use them. The budget, which excludes Bodega, was boosted from $72,000 to $179,000 annually. Previously managed through the Office of Research, four of the reserves are now under the John Muir Institute of the Environment. Bodega Marine Reserve is managed by the Bodega Marine Laboratory, and California State University, Chico, manages the Eagle Lake Field Station. The new funding is being provided by the Office of Research and deans of the colleges and divisions that use the reserves, with additional support from the Muir institute and systemwide Natural Reserve System. Those interested in the reserve system should contact UC Davis Reserve Steward Dan Tolson at 752-6949 or dhtolson@ucdavis.edu or Harrison at 752-7110 or spharrison@ucdavis.edu. To attend the May 15 event, people should make reservations through Dean Enderlin at Homestake at (707) 995-6070, extension 274.