Scientific and Educational Opportunities
The Hollister Ranch presents scientists, educators, and students with a unique opportunity to study and observe a relatively undisturbed coastal environment in southern California. Most other comparable habitats to the south have been severely impacted by excessive visitor use, development, or pollution. Further, its geographical location proximate to Point Conception, a major biogeographical boundary, increases the significance of its coastal location. The HROA/HRC provides significant environmental and public benefit in their commitment to maintaining a managed-access program to provide opportunities for scientific research and educational experiences for schools and special interest groups. HRC provides financial support to qualified groups for transportation and to independent researchers without university or institutional support. Recently, the HRC received a grant for $2,000 from Terra Marine Research and Education, Inc. of Ventura, California to supplement their environmental education programs, including defraying transportation expenses for school groups.
Scientific and Educational Access Program
Researchers wishing to conduct studies on Hollister Ranch request access through the HRC scientific and educational access program. Scientific access is generally granted to or through the review of the requests for access, the HRC encourages collaboration among various research groups with similar research needs and agendas to keep impacts to sensitive areas to a minimum and to preserve their ecological integrity.
Scientific Studies
Scientific studies on the Hollister Ranch are of three basic types. The first type includes studies contracted by the HRC. An example of this type of study is the botanical resource survey conducted by UCSB (Hendrickson et al. 1998). The second type includes studies conducted by the owners, generally with direction from HRC members. The long term monitoring program begun by the HRC in 1990 at the Hollister Ranch Shoreline Preserve at Alegria Beach is an example of this type of study. The third type of study, and the most common, includes those conducted by university researchers that involve various resources on Hollister Ranch properties. These studies commonly involve the marine resources of the rocky inter-tidal areas and also involve aspects of the terrestrial and wetland biological resources.
Summary of Educational Activities
The site of most interest to environmental education groups visiting Hollister Ranch is the Hollister Ranch Shoreline Preserve at Alegria Beach. Alegria Beach is of interest because of its' relatively large amount of rocky intertidal area which includes several species of invertebrates, and some algal species, that are not commonly seen on other southern California rocky shores. Included among the invertebrates are Kellets whelk, owl limpets, black turban snails, California sea hares, extensive aggregations of large sea mussels, and many sea star species. The absence of these species at other sites along the Gaviota coast is attributed to direct human impacts such as collecting and harvesting. Indirect human impacts may also be important at these beaches such as when the continued presence of humans scares off potential predators such as black oyster catchers, a bird that preys on limpets and influences the structure of intertidal communities.
Environmental Education
Environmental education at Hollister Ranch consists of two primary user groups: local schools and groups with special environmental interests, such as those organized through the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Both groups are supplied with a trained naturalist (docent) and Ranch host. Many school groups and special interest groups have their own knowledgeable field trip leaders. For other groups, the HRC trained naturalist will lead the field trip.
Groups are encouraged to keep their numbers to 45 persons or less, although
larger groups have been accommodated by breaking into two or more smaller
groups, each with a naturalist or trip leader. School groups have consisted of
up to 60 students and parents/teachers per visit although generally the groups
are kept much smaller. Schools are generally well prepared prior to field trips
and generally have specific tasks to accomplish. The recently received grant to
the HRC from the Terra Marine Research and Education, Inc. is being used to
develop a curriculum for intertidal studies for local schools, supply
educational materials, and defray transportation expenses for school trips to
Hollister Ranch.
There have been up to 8 school visits in a given year. Certain special
interest groups may visit Hollister Ranch 1 to 3 times per year. Visits were
more frequent in the early 1990s with over 800 visitors per year. However,
numbers have dropped over recent years to 200 to 300 visitors per year. Various
factors contributed to the decline in educational visits per year. A significant
decline in educational visits occurred in 1995 when the Los Marineros Program, a
marine educational program for 5th and 6th graders in Santa Barbara County
administered by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and Channel Islands
National Marine Sanctuary, decided it was not practical to use Hollister Ranch
for tidepool visits due to constraints of time and finances. Other factors
contributing to the decline in educational visits included a lack of workable
low tides during school field trip 'windows', transportation logistics,
including funding, and adverse weather conditions during scheduled visits with
the related problem of poor road conditions due to bad weather (the
State-maintained road crossing at Gaviota Creek has washed out several times
during bad weather and heavy rainfall).
Partial List of Participants
The following is only a partial list of schools and special interest groups participating in educational field trips to Hollister Ranch.