Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve Director's Collection

This collection contains administrative records, data, and documents pertaining to the Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve's two sites—the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory (SNARL) and Valentine Camp—which are run as a single unit affiliated with UC Santa Barbara. The documents contained in this collection provide insight into the land use and scientific histories of the reserve, as well as its broader role in conservation in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This collection includes two series:

The Administrative Records series includes: (1) files related to facilities, repairs, and proposed facilities projects undertaken from 1963-2011, (2) files related to procedures and regulations for working with animals, (3) drafts of reserve publications and proposals to the NRS, National Science Foundation, UCSB Foundation, UCSB Office of Research, American Honda Foundation, and others, as well as files related to the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project and lecture series, from 1995-96, (4) files related to the Mammoth Community Water District (formerly the Mammoth County Water District), including legal documents, notes, annual reports, and Environmental Impact Reports, from 1974 and 1991, (5) files on organizations in the surrounding area and community relations, (6) files related to a minor water dispute with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which owns the SNARL site, (7) clippings, dating from 1972-2009, related to the geography of the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, the history of the Mammoth area, and the Valentine reserve, including an oral history of the site, (8) files related to the Tejon Ranch, which the NRS considered for inclusion as a reserve, (9) files related to UCSB and the NRS system, including advisory committee documents and management workshop notes, (9) research project files, including correspondence, proposals, reports, and data, (10) files on fires including an assessment for prescribed burning at Valentine Camp, (11) files on hantavirus, including clippings related to an outbreak and student death at SNARL, in 1992-93, and plans for hantavirus prevention.

The Administrative Reference Files series includes: (1) files on neighbor relations and environmental impacts from developments near the reserve, including files related to the Juniper Ridge development, the hydroelectric development of Convict Creek proposed in the 1980s by Joseph Martin Keating, mining in Mono County, and other topics, (2) copies of the 1973 agreement with donor Carol Valentine regarding the acquisition of the Valentine Camp (3) water quality data from Valentine Springs and SNARL, dating to 1934-87, with the bulk from 1961-87, (4) files on the proposed acquisition of SNARL by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 1973, (5) weather data for the area collected by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, from 1930-85, (6) files on a boundary issue concerning Valentine Camp, from 1979-81, with the Bureau of Land Management and construction on neighboring private property, (7) materials related to a 1963 plan to create a resort at Valentine Camp, agreements between the Juniper Corporation and the Valentine Reserve, and materials related to property donations from the company to the UC in 1991 and 1999.