Projects

A higher standard of Stewardship uses the best available science and includes:

Strategies for habitat protection, restoration and public access in a way that ensures the long-term well-being of native habitats and wildlife;
Hands-on, long-term field work to restore habitats, and remove invasive weeds at a landscape scale;
Ongoing reserve-wide biological monitoring to assess the health of native plants and wildlife and identify emerging issues;
A group of committed volunteers serving as everything from naturalist-guides to citizen scientists helping collect the data that informs wise management decisions, to lead land stewards, leading restoration and invasive weed control projects.

The Irvine Ranch Conservancy is engaged in a wide variety of stewardship and habitat restoration projects on the Landmarks independently and with partners.

LANDSCAPE SCALE HABITAT RESTORATION

Conservation Challenge: The Conservancy identified the need to restore nearly 3,000 acres of degraded habitat back to native shrubland, woodland, and healthy riparian communities. To do this requires significant financial and human resources.
Strategy: With major funding from partners such as OC Parks, the City of Irvine, the City of Newport Beach, Orange County Transportation Authority, OC Waste and Recycling, and others, the Conservancy is currently actively restoring hundreds of acres of habitat across four sub-watersheds, and several other smaller areas. Applying innovative techniques such as strip seeding, passive restoration, targeted weed control, large-scale native seed propagation and optimizing timing of control creates efficiencies and allows restoration funding to go further. Incorporating community volunteer participation also reduces costs and actively involves the public in stewardship. The Conservancy stretches every dollar invested to maximize the acreage restored.
Conservation Objective: Increasing the acreage and health of native habitat increases its resilience to disturbances such as fire, invasive species and climate change, and improves available habitat for wildlife and for humans to experience and enjoy.

WILDLIFE AND HUMAN ACCESS MONITORING

Conservation Challenge: At the core of our Mission is finding and effectively managing a long-term dynamic balance between people's increasing desire to enjoy the land and preserving the rare and spectacular natural resources for future generations. To do this, it is important to monitor and better understand how wildlife and habitats respond to different types and levels of public access and recreation.
Strategy: The Conservancy partners with the Natural Communities Coalition, OC Parks, academic researchers and federal and state wildlife agencies to study the effects of public access on wildlife and habitats and to identify core sensitive habitats across the reserve. Remotely-triggered cameras are located throughout the Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks and are maintained primarily by trained Conservancy volunteers. The candid photos from these cameras allow researchers to observe wildlife and how it responds to people. Results to date appear to show that while wildlife responds negatively to human activity within a single day, we have not observed a landscape-scale impact on the areas we monitor. Importantly, wildlife also appear to react differently to varying types of human activities. For instance, a group of mountain bikers has a different affect on mule deer than a solitary hiker or several equestrians.
Conservation Goal: Learning how wildlife and habitats respond to types and levels of human activity allows us to adapt public access, recreation patterns, and land management activities to achieve a sustainable balance long term. Our ultimate goal is to maximize opportunities for the public to enjoy these unique lands, while ensuring that it doesn't have long-term impacts on habitat and wildlife. In this way we can encourage people to connect to the land sustainably today while ensuring that future generations will also experience its wonders.

CITIZEN SCIENCE

Conservation Challenge: Protecting and enhancing natural resources on the Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks is a never-ending responsibility. There is always a need to collect and assess scientific data and use it to inform decisions about protection, management and recreation. The Conservancy's hundreds of dedicated volunteers eagerly contribute their time and energy to our Mission. Combining this management need with the desire to participate, the Conservancy implements an active "Citizen Science" program for volunteers to contribute actively to real-world science and the future of the Landmarks.
Strategy: Conservancy scientists train and guide volunteers to get involved in many research projects including wildlife and human access monitoring, bird of prey nest monitoring, butterfly population monitoring, vegetation health monitoring, and a variety of other projects working hand-in-hand with Conservancy staff. The Conservancy is expanding this program even further in collaboration with UC Irvine. Even non-scientists with no previous experience are welcome to participate in caring for the land -- anyone who is interested may sign up for stewardship activities here.
Conservation Goal: Well-trained, active Citizen Scientists greatly enhance the Conservancy's ability to conduct the excellent science that underlies all our activities and management decisions. It is also a way to strongly connect people to the land. The ultimate beneficiaries of of both are the lands, wildlife and natural communities that live there, and the people who live in Southern California.