Bear cub reintroduction

Last week, California Fish and Wildlife reintroduced a pair of bear cubs into the wild here at Sagehen. KGO-TV covered the event. Here are the three segments aired about the wildlife rehabilitation process:


Story #1.



Story #2.



Story #3.

Earthwatch caterpillars

Learn about Dr. Lee Dyer's Earthwatch caterpillar-climate change project at Sagehen that brings high school students into the field to help the University of Nevada at Reno scientists with their research.

Project sponsored by the Durfee Foundation.

Welcome to the Truckee

Here's a video we made in 2007, introducing the Truckee River Watershed Council. Sagehen partners with TRWC for many projects.

As part of their orientation, Jeff shows this video to all station visitors to demonstrate Sagehen's collaborative philosophy.

ARC Program Wins National Award

Katie Zanto, founder of Sagehen's Adventure-Risk-Challenge program, won L.L. Bean's 2011 Outdoor Heroes contest. Here is her contest video explaining the genesis of the program.

Jeff introduces Sagehen to the Aldo Leopold Foundation

Jeff presents to OBFS

Last week, we attended the annual meeting of the Organization of Biological Field Stations held in Bodega Bay, CA where our A.R.C. Program received the Human Diversity award.

Here's a video of Jeff's presentation to the attendees on the topic of "Adapting to a Changing Mission". It explains the overarching philosophy of decision-making at Sagehen since our arrival 10 years ago.

"The Leopold Family Legacy at Sagehen Creek Field Station".

Sagehen recently began working with the Aldo Leopold Foundation to promote the Leopold legacy. This week, we are hosting a number of screenings of their new documentary, "Green Fire".

Why? What is the connection between Aldo Leopold and Sagehen Creek Field Station? Why is the Leopold legacy important?

We created this short documentary to explain.



Here's a passionate review of the video from Sagehen alum, Dwayne Spencer:

"This video captures so much of what's influenced my life it almost makes me cry. Aldo Leopold, father of Wildlife Biology and Wisconsin icon (if you have never read Sand County Almanac, rectify that); Starker Leopold, his son, who brought me to Berkeley to study martens at Sagehen Creek, Dale McCollough, who served on my thesis committee.... Nearly all the people in this video are close, personal friends: Roger Harris, Marty Raphael, Dan Airola, Pete Stine, Jeff Brown.... All the places are friends too: the "fish house," the meadows, Sagehen Creek, Independence Lake, Starkers "lean-to"....

You might all not relate, but if you are at all interested in biology, history, or family... this is good. I'm very proud and happy that my sons know most of these people and places too... They've even helped the famous fisheries biologist Peter Moyle with the long-term sampling of Sagehen Creek that is chronicled herein."

Baby squirrels

What's cuter than a pail full of baby squirrels? Nothing I can think of.

Jeremy found a nest in the air filter while servicing the snowcat today. Not too uncommon. But this time, there were four noses looking up at him.

We had to move the little varmints, so I shot this video while we were at it.

We put them in a bucket and the mother moved them to new digs this afternoon when things quieted down.

Thanks to Per Johan and Frank Ritcey for additional wildlife footage.

Dual Projections

Environmental artists Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison were commissioned by the Center for Art + Environment, at the Nevada Museum of Art, to create Sierra Nevada: An Adaptation which proposes a series of long-term ecological responses to temperature increases in the Sierra Nevada. This visualization was created in collaboration with the Desert Research Institute (DRI), in Reno, Nevada, to demonstrate possible outcomes of differing forest management strategies - in this case for Independence Lake.

Learn more about the Harrison's potential project at Sagehen, in partnership with the Nevada Art Museum's Center for Art and the Environment, at Sagehen News.

Sagehen ants on National Geographic TV

We provided stock footage of Sagehen's slave-making ants for National Geographic's "When Aliens Attack!".

This segment about official protocol when encountering space aliens reminds me a lot of the brouhaha after the accidental discovery of the California wolverine by Sagehen researchers.

Much like in the program, Sagehen researcher Bill Zielinsky was presented with an official Forest Service plan for the encounter (which he himself had prepared many years before for just this eventuality, never really thinking it would happen, of course).

It's dumping!

After almost 2 months without snow, we finally got hammered with 10.5' in the upper basin.

The Last Self-Reproducing Lahontan Cutthroat Trout in the Truckee River Basin

The Last Self-Reproducing Lahontan Cutthroat Trout in the Truckee River Basin from F. Felix on Vimeo.
August 20, 2009: For Sagehen Speaker Series #27, Gary Scoppetone of the USGS talks about the past, present & future LCT recovery program at Independence Lake.

More information about LCT research and outreach at Sagehen.

Black Bear Research in Sagehen Basin

Black Bear Research in Sagehen Basin from F. Felix on Vimeo.

When we made this, our first Sagehen documentary, free web video was still pretty restricted; you couldn't put up longer content like this, and the quality was bad. Rather than breaking it into short chunks or creating six different, buggy file resolutions and formats for PC and Mac, we decided to distribute this program via download and DVD through Amazon and Createspace.

Now you can watch it on-line for the first time.

June, 2007: CA Dept. of Fish & Game researchers in California's Sagehen Creek Basin struggle to outsmart the black bears, hoping to GPS-collar them for further behavior studies...but the bears have other ideas.

Still photos and filmmakers blog.
Learn more or order DVDs.
More videos about Sagehen bears.
Sagehen bear news.

Preview of new Aldo Leopold film

Aldo's son Starker founded Sagehen Creek Field Station in 1951. After a recent meeting with the Leopold Foundation, Sagehen is looking forward to working with the Leopold Foundation in the future to promote this legacy.


Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and the Land Ethic in the 21st Century from Jeannine Richards on Vimeo.

Truckee Talks segment

The Sagehen Forest Project from F. Felix on Vimeo.
Jeff Brown, Malcolm North & Scott Conway talk to Maia Schneider about the Sagehen Forest Project underway in the Sagehen Experimental Forest.

More information on the project blog at http://sagehenforest.blogspot.com/

"Ants: The Invisible Majority"

Sagehen provided stock footage for this broadcast program about ants by KQED Quest. There are shots of our slave-making ants marching out on a raid & their hosts keeping house.


QUEST on KQED Public Media.

Or watch online & read associated materials.

UCNRS Annual Meeting at Angelo Reserve

UCNRS Manager's Meeting, 2009 from F. Felix on Vimeo.
The crew gathers at Angelo Coast Range Reserve for the annual meeting. Here are some highlights, including Don's amazing abalone technique.

Hummingbird research at Sagehen.

July 1, 2009: Chris Clark discusses his fascinating research into hummingbird courtship displays that include mysterious sounds that are not vocalizations.


Hummingbird research at Sagehen from F. Felix on Vimeo.

Here's a short video from Chris introducing his research:

Sagehen Pine Martens

August 23, 2007: For Sagehen Summer Speaker Series #18, Dr. Bill Zielinsky of the US Forest Service PSW discusses past & upcoming American marten research in Sagehen basin. He also discusses how forest management practice influences marten habitat.

Past & future pine marten research at Sagehen from F. Felix on Vimeo.

Katie Moriarty talks weasels.

August 7, 2008: For Sagehen Speaker Series #22, researcher Katie Moriarty discusses her work on martens in the Sagehen basin. She also discusses other Sierran predators, including the big surprise that turned up on her camera trap on February 28, 2008.

Moriarty, K. M., American Marten Distributions over a 28 Year Period: Relationships with Landscape Change in Sagehen Creek Experimental Forest, California, USA. 2009, OSU. 108 pp. [PDF]

Moriarty, K.M., W. J. Zeilinski, A. G. Gonzales, T. E. Dawson, K. M. Boatner, C. A. Wilson, F. V. Schlexer, K. L. Pilgrim, J. P. Copeland, M. K. Schwartz, Wolverine Confirmation in California after Nearly a Century: Native or Long-Distance Immigrant?

More marten research at Sagehen.

Watch Pine Marten videos.

American Martens in Sagehen Basin. from F. Felix on Vimeo.