Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve is a unit of the
University of California Natural Reserve System
The University of California Natural Reserve System (UCNRS) is a system of protected areas throughout California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents acro ...
and is administered by the
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...
. It is within the
Blue Ridge Berryessa Natural Area
The Blue Ridge Berryessa Natural Area is a conservation area forming a contiguous corridor of in northern California. It is a mix of public and private lands overseen by the Blue Ridge Berryessa Natural Area Conservation Partnership. The Partne ...
, in the Northern Inner
California Coast Ranges
The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains.
Ph ...
.
It is located in
Solano County
Solano County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 453,491. The county seat is Fairfield.
Solano County comprises the Vallejo–Fairfield, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which i ...
and
Napa County
Napa County () is a county north of San Pablo Bay located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 138,019. The county seat is the City of Napa. Napa County was one of the original c ...
10 km (6 mi.) west of
Winters, California
Winters is a city in rural Yolo County, and the western Sacramento Valley, in northern California.
The population of Winters was 6,624 as of the 2010 Census. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Yuba City, CA-NV Combined Statistical Ar ...
and 0.8 km (0.5 mi.) east of
Monticello Dam
Monticello Dam is a high concrete arch dam in Napa County, California, United States, constructed between 1953 and 1957. The dam impounded Putah Creek to create Lake Berryessa in the Vaca Mountains.
Lake Berryessa is currently the seventh-larg ...
on the south side of
Putah Creek
Putah Creek (Patwin: ''Liwaito'') is a major stream in Northern California, a tributary of the Yolo Bypass, and ultimately, the Sacramento River. The creek has its headwaters in the Mayacamas Mountains, a part of the Coast Range, and flows ...
. The reserve is 258 hectares (638 acres) in size with elevations ranging from .
Natural history
Underlying the reserve are
sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particle ...
s such as
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
s and
shales
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especiall ...
. Most of the reserve is
California interior chaparral and woodlands
The California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion covers in an elliptical ring around the California Central Valley. It occurs on hills and mountains ranging from to . It is part of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome, ...
habitat, with some valley and foothill
grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...
s,
blue oak
''Quercus douglasii'', known as blue oak, is a species of oak endemic to (and found only in) California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is California's most drought-tolerant deciduous oak, and is a dominan ...
woodland, mixed
riparian
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...
woodland, and intermittent ephemeral foothill stream.
The reserve provides habitat for many wildlife species including 108 bird species, eight amphibian species, eighteen reptile species, 43 mammal species, and more than 290 plant species.
Current activities
The reserve is used for many types of research projects, educational outreach programs, and public recreation.
See also
*
Chaparral
Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterrane ...
*
Natural history of the California Coast Ranges
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...
*
List of California native plants
California native plants are plants that existed in California prior to the arrival of European explorers and colonists in the late 18th century. California includes parts of at least three phytochoria. The largest is the California Floristic ...
*
Plant communities of California
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...
*
Flora of California
Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Sometimes ...
References
External links
Official Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve website
{{Authority control
University of California Natural Reserve System
Protected areas of Napa County, California
Protected areas of Solano County, California
University of California, Davis
Vaca Mountains
California chaparral and woodlands
Natural history of the California Coast Ranges
Natural history of Napa County, California
Natural history of Solano County, California
Winters, California