15. Guidelines for annual reports

Scope of this section

This section describes the purpose of annual reports from each reserve, categories of information to be collected, date by which reports are due, and how reports are submitted. This section also provides guidance about who should be responsible for submitting annual report information. This discussion applies to report data for use by the UC Nature Systemwide Office, but does not address the scope, design, or emphasis of reserve annual reports that may be produced for other purposes such as informing campus administrators or the general public about reserve activities. Also excluded from this discussion are reports prepared by UC Nature advisory committees at the Universitywide or campus level for the President or chancellors, respectively.

Purpose of annual reports

Annual reports provide quantifiable measures of current demand for use of UC Nature reserves, demonstrating their importance to the University’s mission. Trends in reserve use help UC and UC Nature plan and justify programs, acquisitions, staffing, improvements, and funding requests. The affiliations, course titles, research projects, and publications of reserve users illustrate the areas of study each reserve supports. This information is obtained and stored in UC Nature’s online Reserve Application Management System (RAMS). RAMS also serves as the central storage location for annual use data from NRS reserves, and is the portal for annual report submission to the Systemwide Office. All data used in the annual report come from approved reservations within that fiscal year.

Content of annual report

Part 1: Reserve use data

Records the number of users and the duration of their reserve use in three categories that reflect the three-pronged mission of UC Nature—university-level research, university-level teaching, and public service.

Part 2: Reserve users’ affiliations

Indicates the breadth of institutions benefiting from UC Nature reserve use.

Part 3: Use by instructional groups

A list of college-level classes that have used the reserve.

Part 4: Current research

Represents ongoing research activities.

Part 5: Publications

Provides a record of publications issued in the concluded calendar year resulting from work supported by a reserve. This information should be maintained and included in the annual report, as well as submitted to the online UC Nature Bibliographic Database currently maintained on Zotero. (See also Chapter 9: Program: Teaching and research.)

Part 6: Narrative

Provides an opportunity to report on any items of interest or concern that may not be adequately addressed in other parts of the report. Suggested topics include:

• highlights and stories that can be featured in UC Nature and campus promotions and reports (e.g., significant scientific discoveries, notable press coverage, visits by University officials or other significant stakeholders, major events, etc.);
• any events or activities that may have impacted or will likely impact reserve use (e.g., major changes to facilities, programs, or staffing; grant awards or philanthropic support, collaborations or agreements with other reserves or partner agencies); and/or
• any major events, changes, or impacts that would be important to document for historical purposes (e.g., fires, floods, major weather anomalies, population die-offs, significant habitat alterations, etc.).

Part 7: UC Nature campus committee roster

Provides a record of members on the reserve’s Management Advisory Committee, Campus UC Nature Advisory Committee, or any other organizational support group or body affiliated with the reserve (See Chapter 5: Administrative structure of UC Nature).

Date for submission

Annual reports covering activity on the reserves from July 1 through June 30 should be provided to the UC Nature Systemwide Office by September 30 of that year, at which time staff will begin utilizing data submitted in the annual reports. Data not marked as approved by the manager by September 30 may be omitted from any reports, data visualizations, or other publications.

Submitting reports

Annual reports should be prepared and submitted using RAMS by the reserve manager or director.

Responsibility for report preparation

Generally, preparation of the report is the responsibility of the reserve manager under the direction of their supervisor or UC Nature faculty director. It is recommended that responsibility for report preparation be included in the job description used to recruit the reserve manager. If other staff provide major assistance in report preparation, their job descriptions should also reflect this duty.

Definitions

One of the purposes of the annual reports is to document reserve use across UC Nature. As data are combined and used to support all reserves, it is important that all staff record data in an equivalent manner, one that facilitates cross-reserve comparisons and systemwide summaries. The following definitions provide guidance on how reserve use should be recorded.

Definitions of reserve use

Tracking reserve use

Reserve use will be tracked in two ways: users and user days.

1. Users—The number of unique individuals who visited a reserve.
2. User days—The number of unique individuals who visited a reserve.

Type of reserve use

Type of reserve use falls under one of three general categories: Research, university-level class, and public service

1. Research—For the purpose of carrying out field or laboratory-based research in any discipline.
2. University-level class—For the purposes of university- or college-level class instruction.
3. Public service—All other uses including, but not limited to, public use, community events, fundraising, volunteer use, Tribal use, conferences, symposia, academic meetings, lab retreats of research groups, administrative meetings, monitoring for species status and adaptive management, K–12 classes, other classes, docents, agency use, and non-research NGO use.

Definitions of user and user day

User

A person physically setting foot on a reserve or reserve-managed area in order to utilize the resources provided by a reserve.

User days

The number of days an individual user spends on a reserve. For a group of users using a reserve, the user days for that group are the duration of their visit multiplied by the number of people in the group. This applies to a user spending any portion of a day (1 minute to 24 hours) at a reserve, and includes the following:

1. Day use
2. Overnight use
   1. One overnight stay counts as two user days for each user.
   2. Overnight use includes utilizing accommodations even without actual use of hte habitat or lab facilities at a reserve
3. Multiple project use
   1. RAMS data is linked to individual users. For this reason, when a user works on different projects on the same day, their time should be counted as one user day, not multiple user days. This avoids the problem of having one person’s 24-hour period at a reserve recorded as more than one day. To have all projects show up in the annual report, each project’s reservation must fall within that year’s timeframe.

Activities that qualify as users and user days

1. Research activity
2. Instructional, classroom or teaching activity
3. Public outreach activities with a broad range of user types including, but not limited to:
   1. Reserve event attendees
   2. Community groups or members
   3. Local representatives
   4. Elected officials
   5. University administrators
   6. Donors and donor prospects
   7. Volunteers
   8. Docents
   9. Agency representatives.
4. Site visitation by users or potential users to scope for future visits
5. UC Nature staff time is counted under user days if UC Nature staff are carrying out work on behalf of a research project, class, or stewardship activity which is beyond the definition of their role as a UC Nature staff member (i.e., as a researcher or instructor, if neither research nor instruction are part of their job duties).

Activities that do NOT qualify as users and user days

1. The length of time that experimental equipment (including digital instrumentation) or materials are deployed
2. Construction crews/contractors
3. Delivery people/deliveries
4. Friends/family of UC Nature staff on social visits
5. Groundskeeping/maintenance and facilities upkeep (by UC Nature staff or contracted services)
6. Caterers
7. Inspections
8. Residential staff (non-work time)

How to calculate user days

For a single user, this is the number of days that this person spent on the reserve; for groups of users, this is the number of days that the group is on the reserve multiplied by the number of users in the group.

Single user reservation examples

Reservation from May 1–4:
1 user x 4 days = 4 user days

Reservation from May 1–15. User is at the reserve for 2 days at the beginning, 3 days at the end:
1 user x 5 days = 5 user days

Group reservation examples

Reservation from May 1–4, group of 10:
10 users x 4 days = 40 user days

Reservation from May 1–15, group is at the reserve for 2 days at the beginning, 3 days at the end:
10 users x 5 days = 50 user days