This award supports a planning effort to be conducted by faculty of Orange Coast College (OCC) with the aim of further developing Rabbit Island, a near-pristine 35-acre island located at the north end of Georgia Straits, into a field research facility. Planning activities to be supported by the award include hosting of two conferences involving personnel from relevant research stations across the country, participation by OCC staff in the annual meeting of the Organization for Biological Field Stations, and visits by OCC staff to existing research stations on the west coast of the continental US. Rabbit Island lies in an archipelago of 30 islands lying between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland. Development on Rabbit Island has been restricted to a very small area of land at the edge of the island, with the heavily forested remainder and multiple rocky intertidal areas ideally suited for terrestrial and marine biology field studies. The archipelago is also perfect for island biogeography studies, as it has islands ranging in size from small rocks to stretches of land more than 30-miles long. Development of a station on the island will place OCC in the unique position of being able to involve its science majors in long-term research projects, giving these students an experience few community college students receive. Since donation of the island to OCC four years ago, multiple science courses have already taken advantage of Rabbit Island's unique resources, and many more are expected to use it in the future. Further development of the island as a field station is intended to open use to students and researchers from, in particular, community colleges in California and local Canadian colleges.
