North Coast - Overview

Encompassing approximately 14 million acres, the North Coast-Klamath Region extends along the Pacific coast from the California-Oregon border in the north to the San Francisco Bay watershed in the south. The region's eastern, inland boundary is formed by the Cascade ranges along the northern portion of the region and by the transition to the Sacramento Valley along the southern portion.

The region is characterized by large expanses of rugged, forested mountains that range in elevation from 3,000 feet to 8,000 feet, including the Klamath, Siskiyou, Marble, Trinity, and North Coast Range mountains. The climate varies considerably across the region, with high precipitation levels in many coastal areas and dry conditions and rain shadow effects in some inland valleys. Overall, the region has a fairly wet climate and receives more rainfall than any other part of the state, feeding more than 10 sizeable river systems.

Along the coast, sandy beaches host snowy plover, willet, and sanderling, while rocky shoreline habitats support black oystercatcher, ruddy turnstone, and surfbird. Coastal wetland communities, including estuaries, lagoons, marshes, and open-water bays, are also important for shorebirds and provide nursery habitats for anadromous, oceanic, and near-shore fish. Among the region's notable coastal wetlands are the estuary at the mouth of the Smith River, Lake Talawa and Lake Earl, Humboldt Bay, the mouth of the Eel River, and Bodega and Tomales bays (Page and Shuford 2000).

Terrestrial communities along the coast include grasslands, coastal shrub, pine forests, mixed evergreen forests, and redwood forests. Unique, geographically limited habitats include sphagnum bogs and pygmy scrub forests. The region's coastal redwoods are among the largest, tallest, and oldest trees in the world, often exceeding 200 feet in height, 15 feet in diameter, and 2,000 years in age. Redwood groves are patchily distributed across the coastal fog belt that extends up to 40 miles inland and where winter rains and summer fog provide a persistent moist environment. Some inhabitants of coastal redwood forests include black bear, Roosevelt elk, MacGillivray's warbler, olive-sided flycatcher, marbled murrelet, Pacific giant salamander, rough-skinned newt, and the banana slug.

The region's inland Klamath-Siskiyou mountain ranges are recognized for their biological diversity; they have been designated as an area of global botanical significance by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), as one of 200 global conservation priority sites by the World Wildlife Fund, and as a proposed United Nations' biosphere reserve (Ricketts et al. 1999). These mountains harbor some of the most floristically diverse temperate coniferous forests in the world, attributable in part to the region's variable climate, geography, and soil types, which create a variety of ecological communities. Unique, localized conditions have given rise to endemic species that have evolved to specialize in these areas, including nearly 100 plant species that are restricted to serpentine soils. Additionally, portions of the region remained unglaciated during the last ice ages and have served as centers of distribution for numerous species that sought refuge there. Finally, these mountains represent the intersection of coastal ecosystems with the inland Klamath Basin region. As a result, the inland mountains and river systems support a rich flora and fauna that include species from both regions. The Klamath river system, for instance, harbors both coastal fish, like salmonids and Coastrange sculpin, and fish whose ranges extend from the inland Klamath Basin, such as the tui chub. Ecological communities of the inland mountain ranges include moist inland forests dominated by Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, and sugar pine mixed with a variety of other conifers and hardwoods; drier oak forests and savannas; serpentine soil-associated plant communities; shrublands, including such species as mountain heather-bilberry, mountain whitethorn, and manzanita; high-elevation subalpine forests dominated by white- and red fir, western white pine, and mountain hemlock; and less-widespread cranberry and pitcher plant fens and alpine grasslands on high peaks. More than 3,000 plant species are known from these mountains, and the area supports some 30 temperate conifer tree species, more than any other ecosystem in the world. Wildlife inhabitants include such sensitive species as the northern spotted owl, northern goshawk, Humboldt marten, and Pacific fisher, as well as common species like mule deer, black bear, and red-tailed hawk. The region's major inland waterways are part of the Klamath River system, which includes the Klamath, Scott, Shasta, Salmon, and Trinity rivers. In the upper portions of their watersheds, these rivers are centered in alluvial valleys that historically supported freshwater marshes and grasslands but have now been converted to agriculture. Below these alluvial valleys, the Klamath-system rivers are generally confined between steep mountain slopes over most of their lengths and support fairly narrow riparian habitats. River systems draining the region's Coast Ranges include the Eel, Russian, Mattole, Navarro, Smith, Mad, and Gualala rivers. Because the Coast Range is composed of soft, easily eroded soils, these rivers have carved more extensive riparian habitats and also carry high sediment loads. Most of the North Coast-Klamath Region's large rivers widen as they approach their ocean outlets, forming alluvial floodplains and deltas. These floodplains once supported extensive black cottonwood, willow, and red alder forests but have now been largely converted to agricultural uses.

The region is known for these extensive river systems and the anadromous fish populations they support. The majority of California's river segments with state or federal Wild and Scenic river designations occur in the North Coast-Klamath Region, including portions of the Klamath, Trinity, Smith, Scott, Salmon, Van Duzen, and Eel. Anadromous fish species include coho and chinook salmon, steelhead, coast cutthroat trout, green sturgeon, and Pacific lamprey. The region has seen sharp declines in its fish populations, with an 80 percent decline in salmon and steelhead between the 1950s and 1990s (California State Lands Commission 1993). These declines have resulted from degradation of river systems by forestry and other land uses; decreased instream flows resulting from water diversions and agricultural water use; overharvesting of fish (from the mid-1800s until the late 1970s, when substantial restrictions on ocean harvest were enacted by the Pacific Marine Fisheries Council); and natural and human-influenced variation in oceanic conditions, such as plankton densities and temperatures. Nonetheless, the remaining fish populations still represent the most important anadromous fish runs in the state. The region's rivers support one-third of the state's chinook, most of the state's coho salmon and steelhead, and all of the coast cutthroat trout (California State Lands Commission 1993). Other native freshwater fish, like the Lost River sucker and shortnose sucker, have also experienced substantial population declines due to alterations of the region's freshwater river systems (CDGF 2005).