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Department Facilities
Field Study Areas
The Botanical Garden is located 1 mile from the entrance to Poly Canyon. Trails lead through approximately 75 acres up to the summit of the hill behind the Poly "P" and a view of campus, San Luis Obispo and the Cuesta Grade.
The Cal Poly Pier in Avila Beach was established under a grant from Unocal to promote and facilitate basic and applied interdisciplinary studies of coastal marine systems for the purpose of addressing environmental concerns and fostering hands-on student learning through discovery and outreach.
The Chimineas Ranch at the Carrizo Plains is a 31,000-acre property in eastern San Luis Obispo County. The oak and juniper studded grasslands serve as an important wildlife corridor between Carrizo Plain National Monument and Los Padres National Forest. The ranch harbors a diverse array of native animal and plant life, including blue oak, saltbush scrub, annual grasslands and juniper woodlands. Almost all of the mammals found on the central coast can be found on the property, including endangered species such as the San Joaquin kit fox and giant kangaroo rat. In addition, the ranch is home to deer, pronghorn, black bears, mountain lions and more than 200 tule elk. PERL, the Physiological Ecology of Reptiles Laboratory at Cal Poly, conducts studies on Western Fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis) and Northern Pacific rattlesnakes (Crotalus oreganus) on the Ranch.
El Chorro Biological Reserve is located adjacent to the Los Padres National Forest near the headwaters of Pennington Creek. The reserve provides another opportunity close to campus for vegetation and wildlife studies.
Hi Mountain Hi Mountain is home to the California Condor Lookout. The Hi Mountain Condor Lookout Project is a joint venture between the Morro Coast Audubon Society, the US Forest Service, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Ventana Wildlife Society and Cal Poly Biological Sciences, to monitor movements of the endangered California condor population from the strategically placed Hi Mountain Lookout. The lookout is also a functional field-research station and interpretive center staffed by volunteers, students, and condor biologists. Students conduct endangered species conservation and field ecology research using the Lookout as a rustic, but comfortable home base. Information is available at http://www.condorlookout.org/ or by contacting Dr. Villablanca
Morro Bay is at the heart of Estero Bay. Morro Rock, the last in a chain of long-extinct volcanoes, covers over 50 acres at its base and towers 576 feet above the entrance to Morro Bay. The waters that make up the bay are contained within a three-mile sandpit and the shores of Morro Bay and Los Osos. The Morro Bay National Estuary Program protects and restores the physical, biological, economic, and recreational values of the Morro Bay Estuary.
The Poly Canyon Ecological Study Area provides a diversity of natural communities including rocky slopes, coastal scrub, yucca scrub, chaparral, native grassland, coast live oak woodland, and riparian woodland.
Twenty two acres in the Ragged Point area of San Luis Obispo County's North Coast, donated by James Keefe and Lorna Lee, provide field botany and plant ecology opportunities to biological sciences students.
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