Sedgwick Reserve (SYV)
NOTE: This field trip is no longer available for the 2016-17 school year.
Edging down from Figueroa Mountain, the reserve has 6000 acres of re – wilding ranch land suitable for research and outdoor education. Over 40 miles of trails bid the nature explorer to learn about California habitats ranging from chaparral to grasslands. Blue oak woodlands and savanna populated by great valley oaks make up classroom space unequaled between walls. Seasonal changes bring wildflowers in the late winter and spring, with ripening fruits and acorns from late spring through the summer. Early fall or winter rains bring “spring” greenery to the hills. Faults create dual boundaries to the subduction zone with unique geologic and botanic features that provide eyewitness opportunities to experience the effects of ancient seabed geology on the living landscape above the Camuesa Fault zone that can be compared with the lower, younger soils. Pillow lava, blue schist, chert and serpentinite provide readily identifiable geo – markers of the unique mid – ocean strip of land thrust up to the surface. Gray pine, buckwheat and yucca thrive there while in the riparian zone there are mulefat, willow, common monkey flower and juncus. Wildlife is abundant with deer, coyote, squirrels usually seen and more shy animals often present and unseen include bobcat, skunk, rattlesnake and weasel. Most birds seen in Santa Barbara County inland from the shore are present or seen seasonally at the pond and meadows or woodlands at Sedgwick.