Sagehen Creek Field Station

Established in 1951, the station serves as research and teaching facility where students, researchers, and educators can explore and study the unique mountain ecosystems located in central Sierra Nevada. The station is embedded within the expansive 9,000-acre Sagehen Experimental Forest, just north of Truckee, California. This unique forest is managed through a cooperative partnership between the University of California, the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station, and the Tahoe National Forest. The partnership aims to preserve this critical landscape for scientific research, education, and resource management. The surrounding habitat includes extensive stands of yellow pine, mixed conifer, and red fir forests, as well as brush fields, scattered mountain meadows, and fens.

Sagehen serves as the hub of a broader network of research areas known as the Central Sierra Field Research Stations, which includes several research areas vital to understanding the Sierra Nevada’s environmental dynamics: Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, Onion Creek Experimental Watershed, Chickering American River Reserve, and North Fork Association Lands. Research at Sagehen includes long-term studies on mountain chickadees, Lahontan cutthroat trout, bird population monitoring, alpine meadow ecology, and forest regeneration. Supported by decades of hydrology and climate data, it also contributes to applied conservation efforts like wildlife crossings and ecosystem management.