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>Map >Satellite This area, which includes the federally administered park and the state administered parks (including Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park not listed above), extends for some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north and south and contains some 64 kilometers (40 miles) of coastline.
The dominant cover is a redwood forest, with approximately half being virgin. Additionally, there are extensive areas of second-growth redwood. Sitka spruce, Picea sitchensis, predominates along the shoreline, with the redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, dominant on the uplands and alluvial valley floors. Further inland the redwoods are confined to the valley floors and are eventually replaced in the drier eastern portions of the parks by a mixed conifer forest, with Douglas fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii, the main cover.
A number of other communities are present including coastal strand, coastal scrub, freshwater marshes, chaparral, Oregon white oak, Quercus garryana, forests, Jeffrey pine, Pinus Jeffreyi, forests (on serpentine soils), riparian and grasslands. The dominant tree in the riparian association is red alder, Alnus rubra.
The grasslands, particularly in the Bald Hills and Gan's prairies, support extensive stands of native grasses, among them Carex obnupta, Danthonia californica and Festuca idahoensis.
Several rare or uncommon plants occur in the parks, including Dichelostemma ida-maia X Dichelostemma multiflorum, Erigeron cervinus, Lathyrus delnorticus, Lilium bolanderi, Monotropa uniflora, Piperia elegans, Pityopus californicus and Pleuropogon refractus.
Animal life is abundant. Among the species present are Roosevelt elk, Cervus canadensis, shrew-mole, Naurotrichus gibbsi, mountain beaver, Aplodontia rufa, marten, Martas americana, fisher, Martas pannanti, and the tailed frog, Ascaphus truei. Marbled murrelets, Brachyramphus marmoratus, nest in redwoods in the parks.
The Klamath and Smith Rivers, as well as a number of streams and creaks, flow through the area.
See also Stout Grove and Little Lost Man Creek.
Redwood National Park has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Integrity: Portions of the parks have been logged, in some areas as recently as the 1970's, as well as grazed. There are a number of buildings, roads, trails, etc. Some forest rehabilitation projects are underway.
Use: Present.
June 1982
Inventory of California Natural Areas
Revision © 2008 Steven Louis Hartman
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