The Hollister Ranch Conservancy, in support of their mission to preserve and enhance the environmental values of Hollister Ranch, has developed a list of future projects and activities to benefit both owners and the general public. Future HRC efforts should continue to focus on increasing the awareness of the available science and education opportunities of Hollister Ranch and the conservation, preservation, and stewardship of its natural resources. Future projects should be designed to increase understanding of the Hollister Ranch environment and involve consolidating existing scientific and educational information, developing new educational materials for distribution, and exploring the use of computer-based geographic information systems (GIS) as a tool for data analysis, conservation, future planning, and information dissemination to interested scientists, educators, and groups.

Since 1975, the HROA/HRC has compiled records of requests for access, proposals for scientific studies, and completion and/or progress reports of scientific studies on Hollister Ranch. Beginning in 1990, these records were more actively compiled and maintained. HRC is currently improving the accessibility of these records and this summary report advances that goal.

The HRC distributes educational material to school classes prior to their field trips to the Hollister Ranch Shoreline Preserve. A recent grant to HRC from a private environmental education and research group has been used to improve these materials. These materials should be reviewed periodically and updated as necessary. As more resources are made available to HRC through donations or other grants, curricula should be developed specifically for field trips to the tide pools at would enable teachers to efficiently accomplish the specific teaching goals of the field trip (e.g., algal and invertebrate adaptations to life in inter-tidal zones, predator strategies, invertebrate defense mechanisms, etc.).

Hollister Ranch has an Internet web site. This site could be improved and upgraded to include, in conjunction with the above recommendation, educational materials. One idea currently under discussion by HRC members is the development of a "virtual tide-pool trip". An application such as this would provide the same information as the printed material to those classrooms equipped with Internet access. Other web site improvements might include how to contact the Ranch for access information, the application for scientific and educational access to download and print, and information about past or current scientific studies involving Hollister Ranch.

A geographical information system database was developed for some aspects of the terrestrial botanical resources of Hollister Ranch as part of the 1998 study of these resources funded by the HRC (Hendrickson et al. 1998). This program can be expanded and improved to a system that can be used for a variety of purposes including routine Ranch management (cattle management, land use decisions, road maintenance, fire protection, invasive species) as well as educational and scientific purposes including location of sensitive habitats, rare and endangered species status, species present in the marine and wetland areas, and bio-diversity (species richness) in each watershed.