Wild wild west
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 19, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Photos by JANA SUMMERS Jean Ridgeway
teaches children about Chumash Indians at Stunt Ranch, a piece of
land set aside for University of California field studies in Santa
Monica Mountains.
By Carolina Reyes
Daily Bruin Contributor
A mosaic of chaparral, live-oak woodland, riparian and grassland
surround Stunt Ranch ““ and a variety of animals such as
raccoons, coyotes and bobcats form part of the wildlife there.
Today, many UCLA faculty members and students use Stunt Ranch,
named for the original owners of the land, to carry out their
studies because of the diversity of plants and animals at the
site.
In response to faculty and student need for nearby natural
habitats to carry out field studies, the UC Regents exchanged
approximately 400 acres of land in the Santa Monica Mountains for a
portion of the UCLA Stunt Ranch in 1984.
Here, UCLA students and researchers could have easy access to
natural wilderness.
Stunt Ranch officially joined the UC Natural Reserve System in
November 1995, and became the system’s 32nd site.
“It is the only unit of this system managed by UCLA and is
dedicated to academic research and environmental education in the
greater Los Angeles area and beyond,” states a 1996 letter
written by Carol Felixson, reserve director of education and
community outreach.
As part of the UC Natural Reserve System and UCLA, the Stunt
Ranch Reserve is central to the university’s teaching and
research mission and to the state’s environmental future, the
letter continued.
Because of the need for natural landscapes among university
faculty, the UC Regents established the Natural Land and Water
Reserves System in January of 1965 designating seven
University-owned sites as its first reserves.
Aviva Liebert, a fourth-year organismic, ecology and evolution
graduate student, is currently doing studies on the reproductive
behavior of two species of local paper wasps.
 Photos by JANA SUMMERS Stunt Ranch docent Kathy
Gillman (right) and Diana Cerda look at
sand paintings. “It’s worked out really well for me
because I have been able to conduct this research without
disruption, at a site not very far from the UCLA campus,” she
said.
Among the ongoing programs at the ranch is the Cold Creek
Docents program, which attempts to educate primary and secondary
school students on the area’s natural and cultural
features.
“Students hike, learn about plants and animals, and
participate in Chumash games,” said Felixson.
A number of college departments, ranging from astronomy and
anthropology to geology and biology use Stunt Ranch as an outdoor
laboratory for classes and field trips, according to the ranch Web
site.
Martin Cody, a professor in the OBEE department, said students
set up experiments early in the quarter at the ranch and revisit
them later in his OBEE 136 class titled, “Lab in Ecology,
Behavior & Evolution.”
“It’s very convenient to UCLA. The ranch has good
oak woodland, and lots of chaparral, so there is some habitat
variability,” he said.
Researchers used the Malibu Creek watershed ““ streams and
the areas that wash into them ““ at Stunt Ranch to uncover how
humans have impacted Southern California’s entire system of
watersheds, according to Richard F. Ambrose, director and associate
professor in the department of environmental health sciences.
“Stunt Ranch is important in that context because it
represents one of the best, most pristine places left in the
watershed,” he said. “It’s especially valuable
because there’s been so much development in Southern
California that we sometimes have a hard time finding anywhere that
hasn’t been seriously impacted by human
activities.”
 Illustration by GRACE HUANG/Daily Bruin
Other visitors to the ranch include groups from local
organizations involved in resource management, archaeology and
wildlife ecology, according to Felixson.
Before the Spanish colonists settled in the Topanga Canyon area
in the late 1700s, the Chumash Indians inhabited the area
encompassing Stunt Ranch.
Shortly after an arsonist set fire to Stunt Ranch in 1993,
neighbors and researchers found signs of their existence in bedrock
mortar sites that previously lay hidden by the dense brush of the
chaparral, according to the ranch Web site.
“One of the things they did was to burn the under story of
oak trees to make the acorns, a staple of their diet, larger and
more plentiful the following year,” Felixson said.
The Stunt brothers ““ Harry, Walter, and Ernest ““ and
their cousin Sidney from England settled and farmed the land in the
late 1800s, building a small cabin on the site around 1885. Their
sister, Ethel, later joined them at the ranch in 1936. After the
1700s, European settlement of the Cold Creek watershed began with
the arrival of the Stunt brothers.
The original oak at Stunt Ranch is named after Ethel Stunt. This
majestic tree is said to be between 500 to 1,000 years old, and was
central to many Chumash ceremonies, according to the ranch Web
site.
Today, it serves as more than a religious object or a wonder of
nature.
“The Ethel Stunt oak tree has served as creative
inspiration to the poets, artists and photographers who have
visited Stunt Ranch,” Felixson said.
Each year, more than 4,000 guests visit the reserve to engage in
teaching, research and public education activities, according to
their site.
“Although, all of Stunt Ranch burned in 1993, it has since
re-grown and the site provides excellent educational and research
opportunities,” Felixson said.
