Description
These records were created and maintained by Wayne Ferren, Associate Director of the UCSB NRS from 1997 to 2001and Reserve
Manager of the Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve 1987 to 2001. They are arranged alphabetically in four series.
Background
During formation of the NRS and early consideration of sites for potential reserves, Kenneth S. Norris, then a Professor of
Zoology at UC Santa Cruz and co-founder of the NRS, identified Carpinteria Salt Marsh as an important coastal wetland system
that was already used as a study area for students at UCSB. The estuary was also among those sites suggested by Carl L. Hubbs,
Professor of Biology at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as having a long range potential for acquisition by the University
of California. Furthermore, in correspondence with the California Department of Fish and Game in 1967, Dr. Norris expressed
hope that the University might obtain ownership of Carpinteria Salt Marsh and that mutually useful plans for the area might
be developed by both agencies. The California Department of Fish and Game also was interested at that time in acquiring the
estuary to make it a State Ecological Reserve. An informal survey of UCSB biologists in 1969 resulted in a vigorous affirmation
of the great value of the salt marsh as an outdoor laboratory for students. By December of that year, Robert Haller, then
an Associate Professor of Botany at UCSB, had prepared a proposal for a natural reserve at "Sandyland Marsh."