Stone Lagoon And Vicinity

This area includes Stone Lagoon and the surrounding land area. Three plant communities are found on the land area. North coastal scrub, with Baccharis pilularis, Gaultheria shallon and Ceanothus thyrsiflorus the dominants, covers much of the land. A portion is covered by a Sitka spruce forest, with Picea sitchensis and red alder, Alnus oregona.

On the sand spit separating the lagoon from the ocean is a coastal strand with Franseria chamissonis, Lathyrus littoralis, Fragaria chiloensis and Poa douglasii. Vegetation in the lagoon includes Potentilla anserina, Ruppia maritima and Potamogeton pectinatus.

The lagoon is an important link in the Pacific Flyway and during the migratory season a number of waterfowl are present (see Big Lagoon). During the winter months three species of grebe, the eared, Podiceps nigricollis, Western, Aechmophorus occidentalis, and pied-billed, Podilymbus podiceps, are present, as are the common loon, Gavia immer, and the red-throated loon, Gavia stellata.

In the lagoon a number of fish are found, including various anadromous species and Pacific herring, Clupea harengus pallasii, sculpin, Cottus sp., starry flounder, Platichthys stellatus, topsmelt, Atherinops affinis, and three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Zooplankton is abundant.

The lagoon is periodically opened to the ocean during the winter, with a resulting drastic change in the salinity of the water, causing this freshwater-fed lagoon to become brackish, almost saline.

With the exception of the sand spit, the area is surrounded by pre-Cretaceous marine metasedimentaries which are well exposed on the shoreline.

Integrity: Stone Lagoon is the least disturbed of the three lagoons in this area, though portions of the surrounding area have been logged and there is a park to the southwest.

Use: Research, educational, observational, present.

September 1977