Davenport Año Nuevo Island Collection

This collection consists of Steve Davenport's files pertaining to Año Nuevo Island Reserve (ANI) and, to a lesser extent, Younger Lagoon Reserve (YLR) and the UC Santa Cruz Campus Natural Reserve (CNR). Davenport is affiliated with UCSC’s Long Marine Lab (LML), and is ANI’s former director. Davenport's records comprise the main historical collection for ANI, detailing its founding, use, and relationship with California Department of Parks and Recreation (CADPR) and Año Nuevo State Park.

This collection includes three series, one associated with each reserve:

The ANI series consists of: (1) a binder of printed photographs and press clippings concerning ANI and elephant seals, from 1997-2008, (2) a binder of slide photographs of scenery and people at ANI, from 1984-89, (3) ANI annual reports from 1966, 1968, 1972-1981, and 1995-2006, (4) research-related files, including research papers, undergraduate projects, and a talk by Bernie Le Boeuf, from 1982-88, (5) research proposals for ANI, from 1980-95, (6) maps of ANI, including some copied of historical maps, (7) documents related to campus and system-wide management of UCSC’s reserves, from 1992-93 and 2005-06, (8) memoranda and agreements between ANI and CADPR, from 1969-2006, (9) files on elephant seals, including brochures, pamphlets, and article reprints, (10) documents related to the Año Nuevo Island Committee involved in drafting reserve guidelines, and committee meetings agendas from 1971-96, (11) files from Steve Davenport’s involvement with the UCSC NRS campus advisory committee, from 2008-12, (12) and assorted historical files.

Of special note among this final group of historical files are: correspondence related to boating, a short history of ANI, scientific reports related to seals on ANI from 1962-66,  memoranda and correspondence related to ANI’s mainland expansion in the 1980s,  clippings and publicity materials for ANI and Año Nuevo State Park from 1967-81, infrastructure improvement recommendations from 1973, policy documents dating from 1967-74, staff correspondence with LML, materials related to a controversy over access to ANI for abalone fishermen, files related to the 1974 Richard Jennings (photographer) affair in which scientists were accused of harming sea lion populations.

The YLR series includes: (1) drafts of management plans and supporting documents from 1995, 2002, and 2004, (2) meeting documents and reports related to the inclusion of YLR in the NRS, and (3) files on reserve management issues, such as invasive ice plants and problems with falconers.

The CNR series includes: (1) a copy of an academic plan for the site, (2) general memos, brochures, and reports dating from 1980-2011.