Stunt ranch presents a natural wonderland in our own backyard

Acorn Staff Writer


JOHN LOESING/The Acorn  ROCK OF AGES--Ecologist and UCLA biology professor Philip Rundel stands near all that's left of a 1919 home at Stunt Ranch in the rural portion of Calabasas. The ranch is a 310-acre natural preserve that contains not only remnants of Americana, but other artifacts going back thousands of years.

JOHN LOESING/The Acorn ROCK OF AGES–Ecologist and UCLA biology professor Philip Rundel stands near all that’s left of a 1919 home at Stunt Ranch in the rural portion of Calabasas. The ranch is a 310-acre natural preserve that contains not only remnants of Americana, but other artifacts going back thousands of years.

With spring just around the corner, signs of life are sprouting everywhere at the Stunt Ranch Reserve in rural Calabasas.


As the flowers and trees begin their annual growth spurt, birds warm up to the idea of nesting here. A tiny bush tit scouts the terrain from the branches of a California live oak, while a ground squirrel peaks out from the shelter of a nearby rock.


At the heart of the 310-acre property, another creation is about to unfold: UCLA announced plans to build a new 3,000 square-foot education center with classrooms and workrooms for students.


The $1.6 million facility will stand at the site of a 120-year-old homestead once occupied by the Stunt brothers of England, the original settlers.


"We consider Stunt Ranch a living laboratory and an outdoor classroom," said Carole Felixson, the director of education and community outreach for the university-owned property.


The homestead cabin and another ranch house built in 1919 burned to the ground in the 1993 Topanga fire. The 200-foot flames cut a swath of destruction from the freeway to the beach and left little in the way of surviving vegetation or wildlife.


A portable nature center is one of the few man-made structures currently remaining on the site.


Stunt Ranch joined the University of California’s Natural Reserve System in 1995. There are 33 UC reserves occupying more than 140,000 acres from Mendocino County to Palm Desert, and Stunt Ranch is considered one of the crown jewels of the system.


UCLA acquired 67 acres of the ranch as part of a land swap deal with California State Parks.


Located in the Cold Creek watershed of the Malibu Creek, Stunt Ranch is considered some of the most fertile territory in the Santa Monica Mountains, its lush riparian wetlands flanked by steep rock cliffs and oak-studded woodlands.


"This is the most pristine and has the most bio-diversity of all the watersheds in the mountains," says Philip Rundel, a professor of biology and ecology at UCLA and the Stunt Ranch director.


At certain times of the year, visitors can view colorful wild orchids growing near the streambed, Rundel said.


Overall, there are more than 300 plant species in the area, including the endangered Pentachaeta lyonii, a rare member of the sunflower family. The reserve also harbors an abundance of fauna, particularly birds, and two rare reptile species: the San Diego horned lizard and the San Diego Mountain kingsnake.


An occasional mountain lion can be seen roaming the hills, but most of the larger animals that live here are coyotes, bobcats and badgers.


College students visit Stunt Ranch regularly and study everything from anthropology to zoology. The area has become a virtual test tube for such arcane research topics as "post fire successional dynamics," "bush poppy demography and productivity," and "reproductive flexibility of the paper wasp."


Stunt Ranch isn’t just a local attraction; curious students come to learn from as far away as Ohio State University. And not all of the 3,500 students and guests who visit the reserve each year are experts.


In a cooperative program with the award-winning Cold Creek docents, students as young as kindergarten tour the ranch and learn about the natural and cultural history of the area. During the past five years, more than 150 different middle schools and elementary schools—many of them from the inner city—have visited Stunt Ranch.


"We teach them about the chaparral ecology and we also bring in the geology," said Gail Boudreaux, one of the Cold Creek docents. "We focus on the how the Chumash Indians used the land and respected the land."


Adjacent the nature center and its plethora of artifacts sits a replica of a Chumash "ap," a dome-shape structure used as an Indian dwelling.


"Our archeological people say this is one of the richest early sites in the Santa Monica Mountains," Rundel said.


Some of the artifacts found on the Chumash site go back as far as 3,000 years.


A model Chumash village will be part of the new Stunt Ranch construction, according to Rundel.


Stunt Ranch is especially popular for students in the fourth grade, when outdoor education begins in earnest. Docents take the students on trail hikes and show them how the native Americans would grind acorns with large rocks, using the grist as flour.


The guides also give the students a native tool demonstration and let them try their hand at cave art. The students learn how the Indians prepared medicine out of seeds and berries and how they used certain leaves to manufacture soap.


Before work can begin on the new education center, however, another $400,00 is needed, Rundel said. Fundraising efforts are underway.


For more information about the UCLA Stunt Ranch Reserve, call (310) 206-3887. To contact the Cold Creek Docents, call (818) 346-9620.



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