The California Coast Ranges Biosphere Reserve (established 1983) was a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

Biosphere reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

located along the

California Coast Ranges The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte County, California, Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Trans ...

of northern California and the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

area until June 2017. This biosphere reserve includes a highly diverse complex of evergreen sclerophyllous woodland, coastal,

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

and marine

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

Purpose

The city of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

is a focal point for coastal industry and trade. Tourism, some agriculture and fisheries, transportation, manufacturing, military installations, and research and educational institutions are also important to the regional economy. The primary aim of the biosphere reserve is to develop a commitment to

ecosystem management Ecosystem management is an approach to natural resource management that aims to ensure the long-term sustainability and persistence of an ecosystem's function and services while meeting socioeconomic, political, and cultural needs. Although indi ...

among the various management agencies. Given the intense human pressure of the area, the conservation of

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

is very challenging. Of particular concern is to raise environmental awareness among the diverse urban communities.

Sites

The California Coast Ranges reserve encompasses a number of protected sites under management by various state and federal agencies: *

Jackson Demonstration State Forest Jackson Demonstration State Forest is a public forest in Mendocino County, California managed by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It is the largest demonstration forest operated by the State of California. The forest ...

(

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, colloquially known as CAL FIRE, is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various area ...

) * Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve (

University of California Natural Reserve System The University of California Natural Reserve System (UCNRS) is a system of protected areas throughout California. The reserves support UC's mission of teaching, research, and public service. Unlike national and state parks, they are not availab ...

) * Heath & Marjorie Angelo Coast Range Preserve (

) * North California Coast Range Preserve Research Natural Area (

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

) *

Redwood Experimental Forest The Redwood Experimental Forest (also Yurok Redwood Experimental Forest, formerly Yurok Experimental Forest) (established 1940) is an experimental forest in Del Norte County, California. The forest is near the mouth of the Klamath River in the Cali ...

(

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...

) *

Redwood National Park The Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP) are a complex of one List of national parks of the United States, United States national park and three List of California state parks, California state parks located along the coast of northern Cali ...

(

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

) * Redwood State Parks, Del Norte Coast,

Jedediah Smith Jedediah Strong Smith (January 6, 1799 – May 27, 1831) was an American clerk, transcontinental pioneer, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartography, cartographer, mountain man and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the Western Unit ...

, and Prairie Creek (

California Department of Parks and Recreation California State Parks is the state park system for the U.S. state of California. The system is administered by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, a department under the California Natural Resources Agency. The California State ...

) * Western Slopes of

Cone Peak Cone Peak is the second highest mountain in the Santa Lucia Range in the Ventana Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest. It rises nearly a vertical mile only from the coast as the crow flies. This is one of the steepest gradients from o ...

(

)

Protected habitats

The constituent components of the California Coast Ranges reserve contain a wide variety of

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s. The combined

Redwood National and State Parks The Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP) are a complex of one United States national park and three California state parks located along the coast of northern California. The combined RNSP contain Redwood National Park, Del Norte Coast Red ...

protect 45% of the world's remaining coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

s. Angelo Reserve features mixed forests (including mixed evergreen, California bay,

tanoak ''Notholithocarpus densiflorus'', commonly known as the tanoak or tanbark-oak, is a broadleaf tree in the family Fagaceae, and the type species of the genus ''Notholithocarpus''. It is a hardwood tree that is native to the far western United Sta ...

, madrone, upland

redwood Sequoioideae, commonly referred to as redwoods, is a subfamily of Pinophyta, coniferous trees within the family (biology), family Cupressaceae, that range in the Northern Hemisphere, northern hemisphere. It includes the List of superlative tree ...

, upland

Douglas-fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is the tallest tree in the Pinaceae family. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Or ...

Pacific yew ''Taxus brevifolia'', the Pacific yew or western yew, is a species of tree in the yew family Taxaceae native to the Pacific Northwest of North America. It is a small evergreen conifer, thriving in moisture and otherwise tending to take the form o ...

, and

knobcone pine The knobcone pine, ''Pinus attenuata'' (also called ''Pinus tuberculata''), is a tree that grows in mild climates on poor soils. It ranges from the mountains of southern Oregon to Baja California with the greatest concentration in northern Calif ...

);

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

s (including Oregon oak, black oak,

interior live oak ''Quercus wislizeni'', known by the common name interior live oak, is an evergreen oak, highly variable and often shrubby, found in western North America. Description It is a large shrub or tree growing to tall, although where it is common in ...

, and mixed north-slope cismontane); mixed

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

(including

chamise ''Adenostoma fasciculatum'', commonly known as chamise or greasewood, is a flowering plant native to California and Baja California. This shrub is one of the most widespread plants of the California chaparral ecoregion. Chamise produces a specia ...

, montane manzanita, whitethorn, tobacco brush, buck brush, interior live oak, and north-slope chaparral); bald hills prairie;

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

; freshwater seep; coastal winter

steelhead trout Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout (''O. m. gairdneri'', also called redband steelhead). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacif ...

stream; and coastal

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

stream. Habitats at Big Creek include coastal strand; coastal bluff scrub;

coastal scrub Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is ...

; ceanothus shrub; sage scrub; rocky scrubland; chamise chaparral; coast range and streambank woodland; stream-mouth woodland;

sycamore Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the Ancient Greek () meaning . Species of otherwise unrelated trees known as sycamore: * ''Acer pseudoplatanus'', a ...

-draw woodland;

coast live oak ''Quercus agrifolia'', the California live oak, or coast live oak, is an evergreen live oak native to the California Floristic Province. Live oaks are so-called because they keep living leaves on the tree all year, adding young leaves and sheddi ...

forest; mixed hardwood-coast live oak forest; mixed hardwood-canyon live oak forest;

Ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine, is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is t ...

-Hoover's manzanita woodland; Ponderosa pine-mixed hardwood-coast live oak forest; Ponderosa pine-mixed hardwood-canyon live oak forest; Ponderosa pine-coast live oak forest;

coulter pine Coulter pine (''Pinus coulteri''), or big-cone pine, is a conifer in the genus ''Pinus'' of the family Pinaceae. Coulter pine is an evergreen conifer that lives up to 100 years. Horton, Jerome S. 1949. Trees and shrubs for erosion control of sou ...

forest; Santa Lucia-fir woodland; redwood streamside forest; redwood-mixed hardwood forest; pure redwood forest; and aquatic (both freshwater and marine) habitats.

Sources

References

{{coord, 38.7900, N, 122.9000, W, source:wikidata, display=title Former biosphere reserves of the United States Protected areas established in 1983 Protected areas of California