Serving as a place for Cal Poly to carry out its “Learn by Doing” experience, Swanton Pacific Ranch offers a range of educational experiences and internships. The 3,200-acre ranch located in Santa Cruz County was donated by Cal Poly alumnus Al Smith in 1993.
The Cal Poly Corporation now owns the land, and the property is managed by faculty, staff and students in Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. The property features an array of landscapes that allows students to get hands-on experiences they can carry into their future careers.
In the past, Swanton Pacific Ranch has provided in the past a plethora of opportunities that allowed people to get a taste for what land management looks like in practice. These opportunities included short courses, field trips, workshops, demonstrations and even full-length internships. These unique opportunities were formed with the goal of sparking curiosity in those visiting the ranch.
However, in August 2020, the CZU Lightning Complex fires swept through Swanton Pacific, destroying most of the ranch and its structures.
A blog post from Swanton Pacific Ranch’s website gives updates on the rebuilding and recovery efforts happening at the ranch. While the fires may have destroyed structures, it couldn’t destroy the spirit of positivity that the ranch generates.
Photo by: Joe Johnston, Cal Poly University Photographer
Alumna Monique Rea (Earth and Soil Sciences, ‘20) offers a personal insight into the effects of the damage. Rea got involved with Swanton Pacific Ranch during a volunteer weekend where she planted redwood trees on the property during her sophomore year at Cal Poly. The following summer she chose to take a sustainable forestry class at the ranch where she learned about forest management and even wrote a timber harvest plan that she was able to use as her senior project. At the end of her senior year at Cal Poly, Rea worked as a forestry intern at the ranch, eventually becoming a forest technician. Though she has moved into a different job off the ranch, she continues to use the skills that she learned at Swanton.
“Honestly, the fires have provided a unique opportunity for research about what happens to land post-fire. It would be really cool to go back and collect new data about what kind of plants are growing there, how the land is adapting after the fire, and just see the new potential”, says Rea, sharing her positive outlook on an otherwise grim situation.
Rea goes on to talk about how the recovery process goes beyond the land and its restoration. She explains that this also gives an opportunity for students going into livestock and crop management, by allowing them to observe recovery efforts while being backed by a larger team. The research opportunities that come from the fires are plentiful and have created yet another outdoor classroom at Swanton Pacific Ranch.
“Earlier in 2020, daily ranch life was already on a different rhythm because of COVID-19”, said Grey Hayes, an education and research coordinator at Swanton. He notes the shift in attitude and opportunities now available with virtual learning. Learn by Doing at Swanton has become, for a time, a virtual experience where students visit the property to view fire damage courtesy of drone footage. Rangeland management classes also get an up-close and personal look at the after-effects of wildfires.
Photo by: Joe Johnston, Cal Poly University Photographer
Although a great deal of work lies ahead to restore the ranch to its pre-fire conditions, Swanton’s student and professional staff members have built new fencing and can see native plant species beginning to return to the damaged land. Though devastating, the CZU Lightning Complex fires have created both opportunities for learning and renewal at Swanton, turning a devastating event into fresh opportunities for Cal Poly and its students.
