Directors Report - CCBER

The Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) fulfills the university's mission of research, education, and public service through stewardship and restoration of campus lands, preservation and management of natural history collections, and through learning experiences and programs, which offer unique opportunities for students of all ages.

In February 2015, CCBER received an incredible gift from Dr. Shirley Tucker, a retired botanist and plant anatomist from Louisiana State University who once studied with CCBER’s namesake and former UCSB Chancellor, Dr. Vernon Cheadle.  Dr. Tucker’s generous gift will fund, for three years, the CCBER Tucker Collections Manager position.

The Director’s Council was established in 2014 with the goal of supporting, promoting, and guiding CCBER and to serve as the primary conduit between the CCBER and the community at large.  The Council has met several times to assist CCBER in strengthening long-term relations with the community. Many members of the Director’s Council have made generous gifts to CCBER’s operations and endowment campaign.

A CCBER Advisory Committee was established in 2014.  The Advisory Committee is composed members selected based on their expertise in our three programmatic areas—collections, restoration, and education.  This year, the Advisory Committee has played a key role in succession planning for the retirement of Jennifer Thorsch and the selection of a new director.

Our restoration staff continues to successfully manage and expand UCSB’s natural areas.  The North Campus Open Space (NCOS) has increased CCBER’s impact on local ecology and restoration.  A NCOS Advisory Committee composed of faculty from various disciplines provides guidance and expertise. Funding (please see Research Abstracts) has been received and planning for the restoration efforts has begun.  Throughout the planning and restoration period, the project will provide research and educational opportunities for faculty, staff, and students while also engaging the community in restoring and learning about these historic wetlands.

We completed our final year of funding from the National Science Foundation for databasing and georeferencing target taxa in our herbarium.  We received another Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant in September 2013 to continue databasing and barcoding the plant collections and for digitizing (imaging) the herbarium sheets.  To date on both projects, we have databased, barcoded, and imaged 41,714 herbarium sheets and have almost reached our project goal of georeferencing target taxa in Ventura County.  This data is being uploaded to the California Consortium of Herbaria (CCH) database.  From July 1, 2014, through mid-September, 2015, the data at the CCBER herbarium has been accessed over 244,754 times.

We completed our 15th year of the Kids in Nature program and, due to the support of the Executive Vice Chancellor’s office, the Mosher Foundation, Office of Academic Preparation (Faculty Outreach Grants) and the Coastal Fund, will be able to continue this program for another year. With funding from the Coastal Conservancy, we offered a new program, KIN2, to eleven schools and 18 4-6th grade teachers and their classrooms in the Santa Barbara Unified and Goleta School Districts.  Over 540 students were able to attend one of our coastal focused sites for a field trip led by specially trained UCSB students. In addition, 25 place-based activity boxes were completed for teachers to borrow as well as 40 downloadable lesson plans and activities, which are available on the CCBER website.

A generous donation from the Outhwaite Foundation and the Coastal Fund allowed CCBER to develop  “Nature Saturdays” at North Campus Open Space. One Saturday each month for 12 months, CCBER offered a variety of activities for both adults and children ranging from ethnobotany to citizen science. The activities included an education component, natural history walk and a planting activity. Over the course of 12 months, approximately 350 adults and children took part in Nature Saturdays. 

CCBER also continues to offer a myriad of opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in research, collections management, restoration, and education. The Natural History Collections Club is very successful with over 50 students eager to explore the world of natural history collections through hands-on curatorial work, special learning experiences, and outreach events designed to engage the community in learning more about the importance of natural history collections as valuable historical records. We have worked with over 88 interns this academic year.  

The generous support of so many, be in in time or in financial support, made this an exceptional year for CCBER.  We are grateful for the generosity demonstrated by Dr. Tucker and the stability her gift will provide for CCBER collections.  We have received the benefit of collaborative efforts through the North Campus Open Space Scientific Advisory Committee, the Director’s Council, and CCBER Advisory Committee.  Both the Executive Vice Chancellor’s office and Office of Research have generously supported CCBER programs.  Over the course of the next year, we look forward to focusing on transitioning to a new Director while continuing the positive growth and impact of CCBER well into the future.