University Preservation: UC Davis

The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) was established in 1905 as the University Farm affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley. The site has a rich history, beginning as a Patwin Native American settlement and developing as a large Mexican land grant after 1845. The initial development of the campus included several working farms and ranches. Since UC Davis has been such an important site of agricultural education and experimentation throughout its history, these agricultural and landscape elements are closely tied to the significance of the school. With grant funds, the University will develop a landscape heritage plan, researching the history and evolution of it.

Background
In 1905, Governor George Pardee signed into law an act to establish a university farm school for the University of California (at the time, Berkeley was the sole campus of the University). It would be more than a year before that commission selected a tiny town, then known as Davisville, as the site. What was to become the third UC Campus opened its doors to 40 degree students (all male) from UC Berkeley in January 1909 as the "University Farm." (The farm had begun accepting non-degree farmers' short courses in October 1908; there were initially around 115 such attendees.) The establishment of the Farm was largely the result of the vision and perseverance of Peter J. Shields, secretary of the State Agricultural Society, and the Peter J. Shields Library at UC Davis was named in his honor. Shields began to champion the cause of a University Farm to teach agriculture in a more applied fashion after hearing about California students who chose to go to out-of-state universities due to the lack of such programs in the University of California at that time. He later stated, "There was a College of Agriculture at Berkeley in connection with the University of California, but it was purely academic."

It was largely confined to the study of botany and chemistry; it had no farm and little prestige; it was apt to be thought of as a snap curriculum, attracting students who wanted to go to college but wanted to avoid its more difficult work. After two failed bills, a law authorizing the creation of a University Farm was passed on March 18, 1905, and Yolo County, home to some of California's prime farmland, was chosen as the site. The Farm accepted its first female students in 1914 from Berkeley. Renamed in 1922 the Northern Branch of the College of Agriculture, it continued growing at a breakneck pace: in 1916 the Farm's 314 students occupied the original 778 acres (3.15 km2) campus, but by 1951 it had already expanded to a size of 3,000 acres (12 km2). In 1959, the campus was declared by the Regents of the University of California as the seventh general campus in the University of California system.

Issue
This task was undertaken after a thorough review of the historic context of the area and a comprehensive analysis, including evaluation of signiﬁcance of the landscape character areas on the UC Davis campus. The goal during the evaluation of signiﬁcance was to provide UC Davis with information regarding the relevance of its cultural landscape resources that can be used by campus planners to prioritize treatment and management decisions for the campus landscape in the future, as well as to identify the areas of research requiring future study. Using the National Register of Historic Places criteria, landscape characteristics and associated character deﬁning features were identiﬁed.

Treatment recommendations for the UC Davis campus focused on the Quad and the urban forest of historic trees, which are a signiﬁcant character-deﬁ ning feature of the Quad and the campus as a whole. The study suggests speciﬁc treatment recommendations for the Quad and includes an evaluation of historic trees. Management issues and treatment philosophy were outlined to guide the recommendations based on anticipated future and current site opportunities and constraints. This section of the plan provides a conceptual rehabilitation plan for the Quad. A Heritage Tree Preservation Plan of the Quad District Study Area was undertaken as part of this element of the project. The survey includes detailed information regarding the health and structure of historic trees in the Quad and is incorporated as an appendix to the report.

Methods


The project scope of the Historic Tree Preservation Plan included:
 * Interviews with Grounds Division representatives regarding management history;
 * Evaluation of species, size, health, relative risk of, and recommended tree work for designated historical trees;
 * Root examination;
 * Soil proﬁ le descriptions;
 * Soil moisture monitoring;
 * Soil compaction assessment;
 * Soil chemical analysis;
 * Review of water quality analysis;
 * Consultation with Soil and Irrigation Specialists, Plant Pathologist, and UC Davis Arboretum Superintendant;
 * Literature review.