Barrick Gold of North America Inc. has announced its $1-million gift to the University of California Natural Reserve System's Donald and Sylvia McLaughlin Natural Reserve. The gift establishes the Barrick-McLaughlin Legacy Fund, which will support operations and maintenance at the 6,940-acre reserve located in Napa, Lake, and Yolo counties.

Susan Harrison, director of the UC Davis-administered sites within the Natural Reserve System, was thrilled with the news. "This endowment is unique because it funds ongoing maintenance," she said. "That frees the reserve's co-directors, Cathy Koehler and Paul Aigner, to focus more on writing grant proposals for expanded facilities and educational programs, and less on day-to-day chores, like utilities issues and patrolling for trespassers. Until now, they've been too busy with low-level things to plan for the future as much as they could."

Barrick Gold Corp. is the parent company of Homestake Mining Co., which mined the land from the mid-1980s through 2001. During that time, Homestake extracted more than 3 million ounces of gold from the property. In 1993, the mining firm signed a contract with the University of California to create a 300-acre reserve. Since then, the remaining 6,600-plus acres have been gradually added to the reserve.

This partnership is unique for the company, according to Be-Be Adams, manager of community and government relations for Barrick Gold of North America Inc. (which manages operations in the North American region of the international Barrick Gold Corp.). "When we acquired Homestake [in 2001], we acquired their obligations," Adams said. "We went out and took a look at the reserve and decided it was a great opportunity to work with an organization [that] a mining company wouldn't normally work with. And we wanted to make sure that partnership was successful."

The McLaughlin Natural Reserve is one of the few sites in California with protected serpentine habitats. About one-third of the land is covered by harsh serpentine soils that host specially adapted plants and associated insects. Located on the boundary of the Putah and Cache Creek watersheds about two hours' drive northwest of UC Davis, surrounded largely by publicly accessible state and federal land, the reserve also features woodland and grassland habitats and hot springs. Native species range from dozens of varieties of butterflies to black bears, mountain lions and peregrine falcons.