The James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve is located on an alluvial bench situated at the lower end of Hall Canyon, a steep, western flank of Black Mountain. The reserve hosts a wide variety of plant communities: Sierra mixedconifer riparian forest, oak woodlands, montane chaparral, alder-willow-cedar riparian forest, and dry meadows. Habitats include mixed conifer and hardwood forest, montane chaparral, montane riparian forest, rapidly flowing mountain stream with manmade reservoir (Lake Fulmor) immediately downstream. The entire watershed is protected for research and study by the U.S. Forest Service. There are records of 259 species of vascular plants, 35 bryophytes, 6 amphibians, 18 reptiles, 125 birds (60 percent nesting), 35 mammals, and ~1,000 invertebrates.

Operating as a satellite to the James Reserve, the Oasis de los Osos Reserve is located at the west end of the Coachella Valley, north of Palm Springs, and encompasses 65 hectares (160 acres) situated on a steep elevational gradient near the base of the north-facing escarpment of Mount San Jacinto. A perennial stream, Lambs Creek, runs through the site, supporting on of the very few riparian woodlands in the Colorado Desert. Oasis de los Osos is protected by The Nature Conservancy (TNC).                             

Field courses:
Extensive teaching use of the site by university-level courses in biology, botany, animal tracking, earth philosophy, zoology, ecology, others.

Public outreach
Local community welcomed for tours and courses on site; Riverside County K-12 students visit for daylong and overnight field trips; Idyllwild community can use GIS for fire prevention and planning.

Photo Gallery

 Selected Research
• Forest-stewardship database and multimedia geographic information system (GIS): Comprises multiple-scale remote-sensing inventories of land use, plant communities, species observations, digitized photo-monitoring images of the San Jacinto Range.
• Long-term monitoring: Extensive data sets collected from seasonal bird banding/ nest box; mark/recapture of herpetofauna; surveys of vernal pools, rare plants, California spotted owls, declining mountain yellow-legged frogs; dendrochronology-climate reconstruction studies; continuous recording of weather variables.

Special Research of National Significance
• Science and Technology Center (STC): Center for Embedded Networked Sensing .."wireless embedded networked sensing systems developed by CENS provide essential infrastructure for NSF-funded ecological observatories..." (detailed description...)
• North American Carbon Program Determining California’s Carbon Budget (detailed description...)
• Physiological, Demographic, Competitive and Biogeochemical Controls on the Response of California’s Ecosystems to Environmental Change (detailed description...)