Field Stations Program (FSP) at SDSU manages the use of three field stations, the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, Sky Oaks Field Station, and Fortuna Mountain Research Reserve. Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve (TRNERR) is an auxiliary field station with a history of collaboration with SDSU faculty. FSP helps facilitate research activities at TRNERR. Field Stations Program is a part of College of Sciences at San Diego State University. Our mission is to serve students and faculty at SDSU by supporting teaching, research and education at our four field stations. We help collect, share and understand environmental data from our four field stations and the surrounding ecosystems. We manage the stations for the long-term preservation of native fauna and flora.

The purpose of the SDSU Field Station Programs is to support the collecting, sharing, and understanding of environmental data in southern California by students and faculty at SDSU and other cooperating institutions. In keeping with this goal, the field stations are managed for the long-term preservation of the native fauna and flora.

The San Diego State University Field Stations include four sites in the San Diego area. The 5000-acre Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve (SMER) lies in Riverside and San Diego Counties near Temecula and consists of lands owned by the California State University System and the San Diego State University Foundation, parcels leased from the U. S. Bureau of Land Management and land owned by California Fish and Game and cooperatively managed with SDSU. The Sky Oaks Field Station (SOFS) (1600 acres) in the Chihuahua Valley consists of land made available by the Sky Oaks Trust, a private philanthropic organization of the Adams family of San Diego, and lands leased from the U. S. Bureau of Land Management. Fortuna Mountain Research Reserve (FMRR) is a 500 acre area within the boundaries of old Camp Elliot now surrounded by the 5769 acre Mission Trails Regional Park. It is dedicated to educational and research programs that are complimentary to the park and the management of the endangered species it contains. In 1997 the Management Authority of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) (2513 acres) identified the Tijuana River NERR as an auxiliary Field Station of SDSU.