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Map Satellite This natural reserve has two parts: Valentine Camp and the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Lab (formerly run by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife).
Valentine Camp (55 ha., 136 a.) has varied topography supporting biological diversity surprising for such a small area. Ranging in elevation from 2,440 to 2,590 meters (8,000-8,500 ft.), the terrain includes level areas, ridges, cliffs, wet and dry slopes, boggy meadows, springs and freshets. Mammoth Creek flows through the property. Valentine Camp is situated in the climatic ecotone between the sagebrush desert of the Great Basin and the coniferous forests of the Sierra Nevada. Therefore, relatively minor differences in topography or soil produce strongly differentiated plant communities. Five major plant communities are well represented, as are many minor variations.
The sagebrush scrub community occupies the dry summit and slopes of a rounded moraine and is scattered through open portions of the forest. It is dominated by plants typical of the Great Basin country to the east, Great Basin sagebrush, Artemisia tridentata, bitterbrush, Purshia tridentata, and rabbit brush, Chrysothamnus nauseosus.
The montane chaparral community occupies steep, dry, south-facing slopes, and dry openings in the forest. Arctostaphylos patula, Ceanothus velutinus, Ceanothus cordulatus and Prunus emarginata are the dominant species. This community is uncommon on the east side of the Sierra.
The largest area of Valentine Camp is covered by a montane-subalpine forest consisting of Jeffrey pine, Pinus jeffreyi, on dry sites, a mixture of red fir, Abies, white fir, Abies concolor, Western white pine, Pinus monticola, and lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta ssp. murrayana, on intermediate sites, lodgepole pine and quaking aspen, Populus tremuloides, on moist sites, and a few scattered mountain hemlocks, Tsuga mertensiana, on a steep north-facing slope.
A varied and colorful assemblage of herbaceous perennials occurs in the wet montane meadows. Corn lily, Veratrum californicum, Indian paint brush, Castilleja miniata, cow parsnip, Heracleum lanatum, lupine, Lupinus polyphyllus, rein orchids, Habenaria spp., and leopard lilies, Lilium spp., abound.
A streambank association of alder, Alnus tenuifolia, willow, Salix spp., quaking aspen and lodgepole pine forms a fifth community.
The parent rock is basalt. It is overlain in places by several meters of pumice. One of the ridges, a terminal moraine, is a mixture of various rock types.
The aquatic laboratory is on a 21 ha. (52 a.) site, 14 km. (9 mi.) southeast of Valentine, at an elevation of 2,165 m. (7,100 ft.). It serves as the administrative center. Convict Creek traverses the site. The riparian vegetation is mainly quaking aspen and willow. There is a typical Great Basin sagebrush community on the adjacent alluvial flats.
Integrity: A part of the University of California's Natural Land and Water Reserves System, Valentine Camp was logged a century ago but many large trees were left standing. The only development is limited housing space; the aquatic lab has overnight and research facilities.
Use: Research, educational.
May 1975
Inventory of California Natural Areas
Revision © 2009 Steven Louis Hartman
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