Foreword

The Management Plan for Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve presents a cooperative effort between UCSB Natural Reserve System (NRS) and the Museum of Systematics and Ecology (MSE). These two University organizations have many close affiliations in the management of NRS reserves and in the investigation of the biological resources that characterize them. The Management Plan provides a major step toward the development of a framework in which various private and public properties within the estuarine ecosystems can be managed in a cooperative manner by the UC Natural Reserve System in association with a broad-based Management Advisory Committee. The ecosystem functions and socio-economic values of the natural resources supported by Carpinteria Salt Marsh are significant at a state-wide level and include some of the most biologically important estuarine wetlands that remain in southern California. Implementation of the twenty management programs and their associated goals, policies, and actions will result in the inclusion of the entire estuary within the NRS Reserve and under one management structure. Although each of the 20 programs are integrated into one plan, growth and development of each program may result in the need for amendments to the Plan. This publication includes letters of support or endorsement of the Plan from various property owners within Carpinteria Salt Marsh (see Appendix F). The Management Plan will now serve as the document for implementation by many additional parties that assist in managing the Carpinteria Salt Marsh.

The Management Plan for Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve is printed as Environmental Report No. 5 of the MSE, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology (EEMB), University of California, Santa Barbara. The report series is produced on an occasional basis and includes the products of various contracts and grants awarded to the MSE. The Museum of Systematics and Ecology is a program-orientated facility that includes traditional roles of natural history museums such as biotic inventories, systematics, and biogeographic studies, voucher specimen preparation, and public exhibits, as well as extended roles such as organismal-level ecological studies, ecosystem evaluations, habitat management, and environmental impact analysis and planning. The academic mission of MSE is to provide research and educational services for EEMB and to initiate and support research and educational services at the campus, University-wide, regional community, and professional levels. The Museum’s professional role and public information mission is fulfilled in part through the MSE Environmental Report Series.

  
Wayne R. Ferren
Executive Director
Museum of Systematics and Ecology