The bulk of Quail Ridge, a 3,000-acre peninsula at nearby Lake Berryessa prized for its abundance of native oak trees, chaparral and grasses, soon will become part of the University of California's Natural Reserve System. The newest addition to the Reserve System will be managed by UC Davis, and used for teaching and research. The site, to be called the Quail Ridge Ecological Reserve, consists of properties held by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the California Department of Fish and Game, the Quail Ridge Wilderness Conservancy and the University of California. The UC Board of Regents approved an agreement in May to manage peninsula land owned by the BLM at Lake Berryessa. UC Davis Chancellor Theodore L. Hullar and the other parties to the agreement are scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 22, at the Sterling Hotel in Sacramento, that authorizes transferring the management of the properties to UC Davis. The memorandum of understanding provides for similar agreements to be executed for the parcels owned by the other agencies involved, all of whom already have expressed interest in having their properties included in the Reserve System. Deborah Elliott-Fisk, a UC Davis geography professor and director of the Reserve System, said, "Quail Ridge is a unique environment in the Northern California Coastal Range, where native grasslands and unusual oak woodlands exist in a relatively undisturbed state. It has the best stand of native coastal grasses I've seen in California." UC Davis and the Quail Ridge Wilderness Conservancy are seeking support to acquire additional private properties that are or would be a part of the reserve. The Natural Reserve System, including the new Quail Ridge Ecological Reserve, consists of 31 sites covering approximately 133,000 acres across California. These reserves have been established to protect natural areas that often contain rare and endangered habitats and species. The system also has great diversity, encompassing desert, forest, tundra, valley and coast. It is administered by the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The addition of the Quail Ridge Ecological Reserve to the Natural Reserve System culminates an effort to preserve the peninsula begun more than three years ago by Yolo County farmer Frank Maurer, founder and head of the Quail Ridge Wilderness Conservancy. After buying a parcel of land at Lake Berryessa, Maurer began taking steps to protect it from developers and land speculators. He founded the conservancy and obtained a loan from the Napa Valley Land Trust to secure easements on the peninsula and options to buy its parcels. John Menke, a UC Davis professor of agronomy and range science, and Michael Barbour, a UC Davis professor of botany, vouched for the site's practically pristine habitat. Among the wildlife contained there are six different species of oaks and purple needle grass, California's state grass and one of three native grasses that once covered 25 million acres throughout the state. These grasses today cover only 60,000 acres. Quail Ridge becomes the fifth property in the Natural Reserve System managed by UC Davis. The others are the Bodega Marine Reserve, land surrounding the university's Bodega Marine Laboratory; the Jepson Prairie Reserve near Dixon; the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve in Napa County; and the Eagle Lake Field Station in Lassen County, jointly managed with California State University, Chico.