Harvey Mudd College hopes to partition its 11.45 acres of land adjacent to the Bernard Field Station into four sections, two of which it intends to sell to Claremont Graduate University.

Each institution would end up with approximately 4.5 developable acres, and one acre they would set aside for preservation. The two institutions agreed to preserve this land in a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding they signed last October to avoid becoming embroiled in a bidding war.

HMC’s 11.45 acres of land, known as the “North Property,” is not officially part of the Bernard Field Station, but is adjacent to it and includes pristine coastal sage scrub habitat and several vernal pools. HMC bought the land last year, intending to build an “environmentally-sensitive” parking lot that would give the college enough parking spaces to meet Claremont city parking standards for a proposed renovation of Thomas-Garrett Hall.

Neither institution is officially planning to build as of now, though Students for the Bernard Field Station (SBFS) member Ben Keller HM ’10 said the partitioning has brought the BFS “one step closer” to development.

A meeting held by the city of Claremont’s Planning Commission on Feb. 23 marked one of the last steps in the formalization of the partitioning. CGU will now have about a month to buy the land, according to last year’s agreement.

About 20 people attended the commission’s meeting including two observers from the Claremont University Consortium, several biologists, four members of SBFS, and David Dower, who represented Harvey Mudd College.

Dower said neither HMC nor CGU have plans to develop the land, but this did not stop several of those present from criticizing the partitioning.

Pomona College biology professor Nancy Hamlett said the long, skinny one-acre plots HMC and CGU plan to preserve as “open-space buffers” will not effectively reduce the impact of development, because they maximize the “edge effect”——the negative ecological effect caused by juxtaposing contrasting environments.

Claremont resident Michael Keenan also expressed his misgivings, citing the importance of ecological quality.

“Harvey Mudd College does have the right to its private property, but this should be tempered by a consideration of the public good,” he said. “Plant and animal life at the Bernard Field Station are full of lessons and surprises we haven’t even begun to tap into. Developing any part of it would be a step lacking any vision or foresight about the future.”

After the public hearing portion of the Planning Commission meeting, the commissioners voted unanimously to adopt the resolution.

Members of SBFS and Joint Science Professor Susan Schenk were disappointed, but said there was little they could do.

“It seems like they’re trying to minimize the amount of disruption that can take place before they try to do anything truly disruptive to the field station,” Schenk said.

Harvey Mudd has set aside its original plan to build a parking lot on the North Property, said HMC Dean of Faculty Robert Cave. Instead, the college will pursue an unofficial offer from the city of Claremont to reduce the amount of required parking by 20 percent if they stop allowing freshmen to bring cars onto campus.

“This is a very attractive option,” Cave said. “People like having cars, but from an ecological standpoint, increasing the number of cars is probably not a great thing. And it’s obvious that parking lots are one thing that Southern California doesn’t need more of ...The issue really generated a good conversation with the city and the colleges about parking...If they allow the 20 percent reduction it will be a huge win for how we think about parking and car densities in this community.”

Both CGU and Harvey Mudd will be able to develop their 4.5-acre parcels if the deal goes through.

The BFS is home to the Pacific Kangaroo Rat, several species of wood rats, coyotes, the endangered Riverside Fairy Shrimp and Nevin’s Barberry shrub, the coast horkelia, and even a female bobcat who recently gave birth. A new species of lichen, Lecanora munzii, was discovered in 2009 on the Harvey Mudd property; the lichen produces an unusual chemical called gyrophoric acid that is being investigated for its ability to fight bacteria, promote wound healing, and treat Type II diabetes.

The BFS is also used extensively for research, teaching, and community tours.

“The BFS is enormously valuable for classes and research into ecology, evolutionary biology, and behavior,” Pomona biology professor Frances Hanzawa said. “As a teaching resource we can’t replace it—the station is within walking distance, it features a diverse set of habitats and a wide range of organisms. It’s a wonderful living lab…It scares me to think of this resource being whittled away.”

Amy Briggs PO ’10 agreed, and said she probably spends more time at the field station than anyone but Stephen Dreher, its caretaker.

“I think it’s a really important resource, and not just because it’s a convenient place to do research for my thesis,” she said. “It’s really nice to have an example of what it looked like around here before urban sprawl hit...We have to stop expanding sometime. The Claremont Colleges can’t just keep growing forever...If we have to stop sometime, why not now, while we still have such a unique and beautiful resource?”

The heart of the issue, Keller said, is a conflict between ecology-focused thinking and development-focused thinking. He said he felt the field station could be used much more responsibly as a teaching facility for students.

“Ecologically, it doesn’t make sense to think about the BFS as all these little fragments,” he said. “You have to think about the whole thing. What we need is a transparent discussion including student and faculty to discuss how to use the whole thing instead of just divvying it up in these backroom deals.”