Management of the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve

Our Mission
The mission of the CSU, Chico Research Foundation’s Ecological Reserve System and especially the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve is to preserve critical habitat and to provide a natural area for environmental research and education.

History
The Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve (BCCER) is owned by the University Research Foundation and managed by the Institute for Sustainable Development of the California State University, Chico. The BCCER was acquired in two land purchases in 1999 and 2001. The University Research Foundation purchased 3,950 acres of land with grant money from the Wildlife Conservation Board, the Packard Foundation, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the River Network and Jack Henning. Part of the purchase agreement included a conservation easement held by the Wildlife Conservation Board and a Memorandum of Understanding with the CA Department of Fish and Game. A Technical Advisory Committee met monthly for two years creating a Master Management Plan for the reserve. Through adaptive management further details have been added to create supplemental Vegetation Management and Fire Management Plans. Executing these plans on such a large and varied piece of property is challenging, but we set priorities and do what we can as resources become available.

Management Team
Our Management Team has also changed as people moved to other interests and funds became available to add personnel but, though faces and approaches have changed, the team's commitment to the mission of the reserve remains firm.

John Rowden with weed wrench
in a thicket of the invasive Spanish broom.

Outsloping the road.