The marsh is an important ecological resource and the University is committed to its stewardship.  Management staff work with conservation professionals to identify funding opportunities and engage students and the public to support ecological restoration and conservation activities.  Below are some examples of stewardship and monitoring activities:

Student engagement- Restoration and Monitoring

  • Students dug out, potted, and planted 3,500 plants among three species of bulrush to enhance species diversity and habitat in one of the marsh areas.

  • Six vernal pools have been built by students at the San Joaquin Marsh. They are functional, with fairy shrimp (Brachinecta lindahli) and vernal pool specialist plant species present! Students sample fairy shrimp (Brachinecta lindahli) to test the toxicity of the mosquito larvicide.  They found it is not toxic to them.

Resource Management- Restoration

  • Approximately 3 acres of new wetlands were created at the marsh by road removal and 2 acres of riparian woodland through mitigation projects in 2009.

  • In the 1990’s over three acres of coastal sage scrub was established around the Marsh which are now occupied by numerous pairs of California gnatcatchers and other passerines.  

Resource Management- Monitoring

  • Invasive shot-hole borers are beetles in the genus Euwallacea that have been vectoring a disease known as Fusarium Dieback across a wide variety of tree species throughout southern California since the early 2000s (http://ucanr.edu/sites/pshb). Infestation up to the landscape scale has occurred within urban, agricultural, and natural environments, and rates of tree mortality have been high in many areas. Reserve management staff have surveyed the San Joaquin Marsh and other natural land areas on UC Irvine property.  They are utilizing this survey data for management planning and to facilitate research to test possible treatment methods with plant pathologist Akif Eskalen.


Holes made by the invasive shot hole borer beetle and staining from exudate used as a defensive mechanism by a sycamore tree.