We would like to use the Big Creek Reserve over Presidents' Day weekend 2014 as a "Public" visit. Our purpose is to experience and scout the Reserve as a potential site for a future community college biology class field trip, possibly during Fall Semester 2014. Our proposed dates are February 14 - 17, 2014 (three nights). We propose to stay in the Whale Point Research Cabin or, if that is not available, to camp at Redwood Camp. We aim to explore the reserve via the system of hiking trails, experiencing the rugged mountain ridges, coastal headlands, and possibly riparian areas along the creeks. All the members of our group work in education. Timothy Orr, Ph.D., is a specialist in Western U.S. and environmental history and teaches history at Sacramento City College. Khue Duong is a science librarian at Cal State Long Beach. The principal member of our group, Dr. Lori Krueger, earned her Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis in Cell and Developmental Biology in 2010. In addition to her doctoral research in developmental genetics and embryogenesis, Lori has a background in botany and marine biology. She holds a B.S. in Botany from the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, and has done field research in the Caribbean National Forest (in Puerto Rico), and also at UWs Friday Harbor Marine Laboratories. Lori is now a professor of Biology at Solano Community College in Fairfield, CA, and teaches an introductory Biology survey course for non-science majors. In addition to basic molecular biology and genetics, this course covers the foundations of the scientific process, principles of evolution, and segments on biodiversity and conservation. For many of these students, this course is their sole academic exposure to these concepts and to the biodiversity of the natural world. Lori's aim is to explore this Central Coast reserve--both to develop material for the biodiversity and conservation segments of her course, and as a potential site for a future class field trip. Given the Reserve's unique coastal setting with access to both terrestrial and marine intertidal habitats, it would provide rich material for course segments on plant diversity, animal biodiversity, ecology, evolution, and conservation. A visit to the Reserve would be an especially enriching experience for Lori's undergraduate students from Solano and Yolo Counties, many of whom have never explored the rich natural areas of their own state, and who, because of the colleges location in the Sacramento Valley, do not have access to coastal habitats. Thank you for your consideration.

Approved