West Side Field Station Airport

The closure was likely due to operational and economic reasons. The airfield was built to support the University of California's agricultural research station. As research methods evolved, and with the high cost of maintaining and operating aircraft for specialized, infrequent use, the airfield likely became obsolete and was no longer considered a necessary asset for the station's mission. The land was more valuable for conversion into additional agricultural research plots.

The site of the former airport has been fully re-integrated into the UC West Side Research and Extension Center. Satellite imagery shows the faint outline of the former dirt runway, but it is overgrown and bisected by farm tracks and irrigation infrastructure. The land is actively used for agricultural research, with numerous experimental plots covering the area where the airfield once stood. There are no remaining aviation facilities like hangars or markings.

West Side Field Station Airport was a private airfield established to support the University of California West Side Research and Extension Center (WSREC). Its primary function was to facilitate agricultural aviation operations. This included crop dusting for pest and nutrient management experiments, aerial photography and surveying of research plots, and potentially light transport for personnel and equipment. The airfield consisted of a single 2,500-foot unpaved north/south runway. Its existence highlights a period when aviation was a more integral tool for large-scale agricultural research and management in California's Central Valley.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the West Side Field Station Airport. The original purpose for the airfield has been superseded by modern technology, such as GPS-guided ground equipment and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for crop monitoring and spraying. The land has been repurposed for its primary mission of agricultural research, making a reversion to an active airfield highly improbable.