Mendocino College’s coastal classrooms up for sale

By Justine Frederiksen

udjjf@ukiahdj.com @justfrederiksen on Twitter

For more than 30 years, Mendocino College biology professor Alan West has been taking students to a very special classroom on the rugged Mendocino Coast.

Tucked away behind a locked gate just north of the City of Point Arena, the college's Point Arena Field Station includes rooms for lectures, lab work and even a kitchen and sleeping quarters for visiting students. What really makes the classroom special, however, are the tidepools just a short walk down the bluffs from the buildings.

"These are pristine study areas," West said of the approximately 15-acre property, explaining that the former U.S. Coast Guard station was transferred to the college in the 1980s, and the very limited foot traffic has reverted the area to its natural state, allowing many plant and animal species that can't live elsewhere to thrive.

"Students from U.C. Berkeley were just here, and they found 100 species of algae," he said. "It is a remarkable place."

Four times a semester, West takes his marine biology students on field trips to the station, picking times when the tides are low and more of the tidepools can be reached and explored.

"I love teaching the classes here, and watching the students immerse themselves in nature," he said. "The first biology class I took was in a lab, with all of the species preserved. It makes a huge difference when you can come here and study them."

And when the tides are really good, West said the students might remain for a few days, staying at the old but comfortable buildings.

"When they live together and cook together, their learning increases," said West, explaining that not only do the students learn more about biology and the coast, they learn more about each other and become more accepting of each other's differences. "And that's what should happen in higher education."

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Mendocino College's coastal classrooms up for sale