麻豆传媒映画

Mountain lions, steelhead trout and scarlet monkey flowers. Through conservation, research and partnerships with local tribes, 麻豆传媒映画 works to protect threatened species and Indigenous traditions alike鈥攁ll at the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve.

By Bryana Quintana
Photographs by Matt Furman

IT鈥橲 6 O鈥機LOCK IN THE MORNING, and Jamie Bourdon steps through spiny branches to access a narrow path invisible to untrained eyes. He casually approaches a camouflaged trail camera, beginning the first to-do item on yet another normal day as a researcher and grove manager at the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve. 

Bourdon reviews the footage with awe, watching as a mountain lion he鈥檚 tracking for research purposes appears on the screen. The lion takes Bourdon鈥檚 bait, a frozen deer carcass he had strategically dragged across rugged mountain terrain just days before, and feasts all night. Suddenly, in the early morning, its head jolts up, hearing something. The lion scampers off, and Bourdon鈥檚 mouth falls open as he sees himself appear on the video just 10 seconds later. 

A near brush with a powerful predator, but one Bourdon, a cat lover, would welcome. His mission is to gather DNA from mountain lions and collar them to study breeding and migration patterns. The end goal? Conserve the species by illustrating the critical need for a wildlife crossing system over Interstate 15, which divides the Peninsular Ranges between the Santa Ana Mountains to the west and Palomar Mountain in the east.

This freeway barrier particularly affects mountain lions and other large mammals that can鈥檛 easily traverse busy roads that smaller rodents and insects can more easily navigate. Obstructed from their routes, the lions are cut off from potential mates and from their primary food source, Southern mule deer. 

鈥淢ule deer are the only way the mountain lions survive,鈥� Bourdon says. 鈥淭hroughout the U.S. and areas of Canada, we鈥檙e seeing population islands where mountain lions are getting genetically isolated, unable to go to other areas.鈥�

DAVID LIPSON, PH.D., reserve director and biology professor, and Pablo Bryant (鈥�94), reserve manager, round out the 麻豆传媒映画 crew responsible for looking after the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve. This uniquely wild, over 4,300-acre stretch of land is a relatively small speck of natural wildlife among the sprawling mix of Southern California鈥檚 suburban and farming country. Located in Temecula, about 50 miles northeast of 麻豆传媒映画鈥檚 San Diego location, the reserve is a patchwork of untamed swaths of land dotted with avocado and orange groves, grapevines, designated areas for research and sacred Indigenous sites. 

鈥淭he pristine opportunity that exists in this small area is so rare in this country,鈥� says Bourdon, who has lived on the reserve for 12 years. 鈥淪an Diego County has more endangered species than anywhere else in the country, and this reserve in itself is a kind of microcosm, a concentrated portion of that.鈥� 

Collaring and studying mountain lions is a mere fraction of the duties performed by the team. The biodiversity of the region not only makes the reserve a perfect laboratory for conservation research but it also reflects the need to protect the land, the species and the Indigenous cultural ties. 

Bryant, an 麻豆传媒映画 biology alumnus who plans to retire from his 30-year career at the reserve in December, says conservation land management in such dense urban areas gets harder every year. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to get to a place where this land can be managed properly for the protection of biodiversity and culture for as long as possible,鈥� he says. 

FOR 麻豆传媒映画鈥橲 BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT, the reserve is a critical research tool to explore environmental solutions. 

鈥淓very day, the reserve, people around it and people involved in it are at the forefront of every issue we could talk about, whether it is climate change, housing, food security or water security,鈥� Bourdon says. 

Exemplifying this is a National Science Foundation鈥揻unded project investigating how the scarlet monkey flower, a native California species, responds to drought conditions. For the study, researchers across five institutions nationwide plant monkey flower seeds that survived the intense 2015 drought up and down the West Coast. The reserve houses the southern portion of the study with a garden of more than 5,400 plants that, around May or June, bloom into a red and green meadow over 3 feet tall.

鈥淭he reserve is at the forefront of every issue we could talk about, whether it is climate change, housing, food security or water security.鈥�

Since 2022, Lluvia Flores-Renteria, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, and her team have monitored the garden year-round. They measure growing results and compare them with the other localities. The study, which grant managers call 鈥渢he perfect experiment,鈥� takes a formidable team of researchers across all levels, including evolutionary biologist Jordan Waits (鈥�24), who used this project for his master鈥檚 thesis. 

鈥淭he reserve has offered the opportunity for a lot of students to get trained in field work and experimental design,鈥� Flores-Renteria says. 

Researchers also study how drought and heat stress affect wine grape varieties in the reserve鈥檚 1-acre vineyard. From there, Bourdon and his team turn the grapes into wine, which is used at select university events. 

Reserve managers don鈥檛 let other produce grown on former farmland go to waste either. BrightSide Produce鈥攁 program led by 麻豆传媒映画鈥檚 Iana Castro, Ph.D., a Zahn professor of creativity and innovation鈥攈arvests Haas avocados and Valencia oranges and delivers them to food desert communities across San Diego. 

THE LAND AT THE RESERVE has a long history. San Diego鈥檚 first external-reaching railroad line, which connected National City to Colton, once ran along the Santa Margarita River. Sections of track are still embedded in the riverbed. Various families farmed the lands, and 2,500 acres were even part of a utopian commune. 

In 1962, 麻豆传媒映画 was bestowed the responsibility of maintaining the expansive landscape, and now the College of Sciences serves as its designated caretaker. The collective owners include the California State University, 麻豆传媒映画 Research Foundation, Bureau of Land Management, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and The Nature Conservancy. 

But the land鈥檚 first guardians were seven local Luise帽o tribes: the Pechanga, Pala, Pauma, La Jolla, Rincon, Soboba and San Luis Rey. Since Bryant and Bourdon started working at the reserve, they have established and maintained close relationships with tribal members. 

鈥淲e believe that care by Indigenous communities is what鈥檚 going to save and keep this land in perpetuity,鈥� Bryant says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e kind of this blip that got to care for it for a little bit, and ultimately, it should go back to these Indigenous communities because they鈥檒l care for it best.鈥� 

The reserve, according to the Luise帽o Tribes鈥� Creation Account, is the birthplace of their people and encapsulates 鈥樏墄va Tem茅eku, which means 鈥渟and and sun place鈥攚here the earth and the sun joined together.鈥� 

鈥淓arth Mother, at that point, bore the world and everything in it: the rocks, rivers, trees, the sky, the sun. The first water of the world is T谩atamay, the Santa Margarita River,鈥� says Paul Macarro, Pechanga tribal member and cultural resources coordinator. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all there, where the reserve happens to be. There may be a 15 freeway between there, but in modern day, the religion, beliefs, language live on because of that place.鈥� 

The Pechanga, whose archaeological record dates back more than 10,000 years, shared this sacred Creation Account publicly for the first time in 2012. They were testifying against the construction of a mine鈥攄ubbed the Liberty Quarry鈥攐n the reserve. A mining company was targeting the granite mountain K谩amalam Pomk铆鈥�, 鈥渢he First People鈥檚 House,鈥� which Macarro says is central to their understanding of the world.

鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 have our unbroken cultural tie without it: It鈥檚 that important,鈥� he says. 

Ultimately, the mining project did not go through. 

In recent years, the Pechanga have regained access to the reserve through their relationship with Bryant. It had been about 100 years since they could use the land for gatherings, youth summer programs and ceremonies. 

鈥淚鈥檓 hopeful that ceremonies will continue, and they鈥檒l be held in our place of Creation because that is the one place that has this deep-rooted attachment for all of our relatives here on these lands,鈥� says Myra Masiel (鈥�13), Pechanga tribal member, curator and certified tribal archaeologist. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the place where all of our first relatives were born. It is the reason for our existence today. There鈥檚 that inherent spiritual attachment to those places, and that will never go away. It will never leave us because that鈥檚 our root.鈥� 

Masiel, who also sits on 麻豆传媒映画鈥檚 Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act board, earned a master鈥檚 in anthropology in 2013 from 麻豆传媒映画. 

The reserve team also aims to work with local tribes to reintroduce Indigenous land management practices and cultivate native plants traditionally used for food, medicine and dyes. Masiel supports these plans. 

鈥淲e are the first scientists,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e are the first researchers.鈥�

MAINTAINING THE RESERVE is not an easy undertaking for Lipson, Bryant and Bourdon. It鈥檚 labor-intensive, with dirt roads and trails requiring boots-on-the-ground maintenance, including fixing wells (Bryant and Bourdon watched multiple YouTube videos to figure that out), putting up fences, monitoring native plants, and removing invasive species with chainsaws and tractors. 

Trespassing is also a persistent issue. Every week is a new instance of individuals starting fires, vandalizing, destroying property or driving vehicles across the delicate natural ecosystem. 

鈥淥n a broader picture, this land is connectivity, on the biodiversity and cultural elements, but also just logistics. Every day is a different challenge in so many areas,鈥� Bourdon says. 鈥淚f we weren鈥檛 here, then who is? That鈥檚 when things get out of hand very quickly.鈥� 

The Santa Margarita River is one of the last free-flowing rivers in Southern California, meaning it runs naturally to the ocean without dams. It provides water to the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton downstream and supports an array of flora and fauna in Riverside, Orange and San Diego counties. This includes the endangered steelhead trout, gray foxes, ringtail cats, American badgers, Western pond turtles, red diamond rattlesnakes, California gnatcatchers and monarch butterflies. 

鈥淭he reserve starts at the confluence of the Murrieta Creek and the Temecula Creek [right by the 15 freeway], and that鈥檚 a very vulnerable area,鈥� Lipson says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very protected, high-quality watershed, important for wildlife crossing and reintroducing the steelhead trout.鈥� 

The reserve is open to visitors through a series of curated programs. Managers work with local teachers and youth organizations to facilitate field trips and engage K鈥�12 students in simple experiments. Volunteers also plan guided hikes on designated trails and other public events, with the hope to one day raise enough money for a visitor center. 

鈥淭his is the really hard balance, because we want people to appreciate it, know what a special thing they have, and how important it is to protect,鈥� Lipson says. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 really delicate. It has to be controlled to keep it as special as it is.鈥�