Northwest California: A Natural History

Northwest California

Northwest California A Natural History

John O. Sawyer

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley

Los Angeles

London

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2006 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sawyer, John O., 1939– Northwest California : a natural history / John O. Sawyer. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-520-23286-0 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Natural history—California, Northern I. Title. QH105.C2S29 2006 508.794—dc22

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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z/39.48-1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper).∞

To my wife, Jane

contents

preface / prologue /

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The Klamath: Land of Mountains and Canyons The North Coast: Land of Towering Trees

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High and Low: Looking for Patterns in Vegetation Beyond the Ancient Meeting Ground Regimes of Fire Agents of Change

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The Status of Northwest California Today Northwest California’s Biological Future selected readings / index of plant names general index / 229 Plates follow page 128.

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p r e fac e

My interest in the mountains of northwest California began even before I arrived at Humboldt State College in 1966. I had read many articles that told of the magnificent redwoods, but it was two papers by Robert Whittaker, “Vegetational History of the Pacific Coast States” and the “Central Significance of the Klamath Region and Vegetation of the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon and California,” that really piqued my interest. The next summer, Dale A. Thornburgh introduced me to the Klamath Mountains and its rare conifers. It has been a treat to get to know these mountain ranges and their vegetation patterns. As a plant ecologist, my interests expanded well beyond conifers, but the question that I invariably ask is “Why does this area look that way?” Answers have come over the years, as I became acquainted with the land and its inhabitants. This book is my answer to why the region looks the way it does. Much of northwest California is far from where most people live. Even from Arcata, it seems as if “everthing” is at least three hours away, but making an extra effort is well worth the trip. To assist the reader to gain a better familiarity with these lands, I have highlighted many specific places in the book, especially in the national and state parks and wilderness areas. They are well worth visiting, as are the many other areas that I discuss. Maps issued by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management provide additional detail. Agency lands are open for you to enjoy, but heed the “No Trespassing” signs posted on private lands, especially in the ranch lands on the North Coast. These parcels may hide marijuana gardens; stay on the roads, and respect owner rights. Northwest California contains a great deal of open land to satisfy your wanderlust. Natural history books typically supply short descriptions of the common plants and animals found in the region, but I am breaking from that tradition. The descriptions would differ little from those in a Natural History of ix

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California and the revised edition of Sierra Nevada Natural History. I have listed these and other useful books in the References and Selected Readings section. Plant names follow A Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Northwestern California that James P. Smith and I have been working on for nearly 40 years. The last edition is available at the Humboldt State University Herbarium Web site http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Eherb/. The list includes many recent nomenclatural and taxonomic changes from the current botanical literature, so my scientific names may differ from those in The Jepson Manual. Photographs in the book are mine. Thanks to Sherrie Navarro for the dust jacket photograph. I am especially grateful to R. Jane Cole and James P. Smith for their invaluable help with the drafts of the manuscript and their continuing support throughout the project. I have always appreciated my time with Dale A. Thornburgh and James P. Smith in the field. They have helped me, in their own, very different ways, in better understanding northwest California. I mention my many graduate students who worked on projects in northwest California. They opened my eyes in many ways over the years. They tested our ideas, sometimes with surprising results. It has been a pleasure to work with so many talented people over the years. The advice of friends and colleagues has greatly improved the book: John Bair (Trinity River restoration), Ronald A. Fritzsche (fish), Erik S. Jules (ecological history), Todd Keeler-Wolf, Timothy E. Lawlor (mammals), John Longshore (geology), Sharyn B. Marks (amphibians and reptiles), Paul F. Springer (birds), John D. Stuart (fire ecology), Dale A. Thornburgh (forest issues), and the staff of the University of California Press, especially Doris Kretschmer for helping launch the undertaking, Scott Norton for suggesting major improvements, and C. R. Crumly for seeing it to completion.

Prologue The Green Prison

Jedediah Strong Smith was one of the famous mountain men who traveled the west in search of beaver in the decades before the California gold rush. In 1826, he reached the Mexican province that was to become California, and two years later, he traveled through northwest California on his second expedition. While in the Sacramento Valley, he and his party of 20 men and 300 horses and mules turned west off the Great Indian Trail near Red Bluff and headed for an inviting gap in the mountains. He reasoned that the mountains to the west held the river that would take them to Trinidad Bay. From there he planned to follow the coast north to the Columbia River. Trinidad Bay was a prominent feature on maps of Smith’s day, based on the landings of Bruno Heceta and Juan Francisco Bodega y Cadra in 1775. Jedediah Smith knew that trappers of the Hudson’s Bay Company were finding beaver and other furbearers in Oregon in the early 1800s. Would northwest California be next? Indeed, trappers entered the upper Klamath River watershed in 1826. The next year François Peyette led a small band of trappers downstream to the Yurok village of wecpes (Weitchpec), which will play an important role in the coming gold rush years. After leaving the Great Indian Trail, the Smith party left the deep grasslands of the Sacramento Valley and entered the eastern foothills of northwest California. They encountered woodlands and chaparral similar to that of the Sierra Nevada and to those they had encountered on leaving the Presidio of Monterey at the beginning of their trip (Map 1). (Today you can experience this part of the trip by driving State Route 36 west from Red Bluff to Platina.) The land they entered in the spring of 1828 was well populated. They used the trails of the Wintu, Tsnungwe, Hupa, Chilula, Yurok, and Tolowa peoples during the 72-day sojourn in the vastness of northwest California. xi

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Map 1. The route of the Jedediah Smith party though northwest California in 1828 showing the Klamath Mountains and the North Coast in northwest California.

The party passed though summer settlements, villages of distinctive plank houses, meadows containing useful plants, and saw men fishing for spring Chinook. The ease of travel changed dramatically on April 17, 1828, when the men crossed the divide, near present-day Wildwood, between the Sacramento River and a river that Smith assumed ran to the sea at Trinidad Bay (Pierson B. Reading would name it the Trinity River in 1848). They were now in the Klamath Mountains, which Harrison Rogers described as a “maze of woods, ridges, gullies, cliffs, and ravines” in his journal. The party continued down a tributary of what Smith called “Indian Scalp River,” to Hayfork Valley, the land of the Nor-El-Muk Wintu. From

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here, they followed Hayfork Creek north and west to the South Fork of the Trinity River at the village of xayiin-pom (Hyampom). Here extensive forests of stately pine and fir mixed with small patches of chaparral and grass, very different from the open oak woodlands east of the mountains. At Hyampom, the river turned north and proceeded quickly through a set of deep canyons of the Tsnungwe people, until the south fork met the main fork of the Trinity River near present-day Salyer. This area is roadless even today. Like the travelers of old, hikers today must use the South Fork Trail to climb steep slopes to ridges, only to drop into new drainages whose streams flow precipitously into the canyon below (Pl. 1). When the Smith party reached the main stem of the Trinity River, they looked down at the river almost 1,000 feet below. Fortunately, trails existed high on the shoulder above the canyons, allowing them to access Hoopa Valley, land of the Hupa. After turning west up Supply Creek, and going northwest toward the ridgeline, they entered a new world: the hills of the North Coast. At the summit of the coastal mountains, dense forests gave way to open woodlands of oaks and extensive prairies in the lands of the Chilula. The tall, rich grass offered abundant forage for the stock after the sparseness of the Trinity River lands. Slopes were gentler and the summits more rounded than were those on the first leg of the journey. Going north, they reached the Klamath River at the village of kime’L (Kanick or Kenick on today’s maps), home to the Yurok. Our travelers missed the important meeting of the Trinity River with the larger Klamath River at Weitchpec. At kime’L they were well north of Trinidad Bay but tantalizingly close to the ocean. Unfortunately, the land was impassable, so they headed southwest on ridges until they reached Gans Prairie. Imagine their joy when they got their first look at the Pacific Ocean. However, it was short-lived. Upon leaving Gans Prairie, the travelers experienced the world of the redwood forest. It would take an entire month to reach the coastal grasslands of the Tolowa only 40 miles to the north. While some redwood stands were open, others presented the Smith party with the greatest obstacles that they had met on their way to Oregon. Here the soils were deep and rich, and they supported massive trees—ones that, when they fall, take other trees with them, leaving jackstraws of massive logs over older piles of rot-resistant logs. Often the forest floor was such a tangled mass that the men could not see the ground. They scrambled over the logs, but the horses had to be led around them. The soft rock was eroded into an impermeable maze of smaller ridges, gullies, and ravines that were even harder to traverse than those of the Trinity River. Again, foiled in their attempt to reach the ocean, they retreated northeast to the Klamath River, crossing it at the Yurok village of pe¢kwan (Pecwan). Continuing north and west, they finally reached the coastline at

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the villages of o¢men and o¢men hipu¢r at False Klamath Cove, only to have to scramble over more rough country covered with forests of massive trees before attaining the grassy terrace of the Tolowa around present-day Crescent City. At last, the Smith party had an easier coastal route as they made their way to Oregon. What interests me the most are observations made by Smith and his companions concerning the landscapes in the early 1800s, a time before the gold miners and others arrived. They suggest two very different worlds: the craggy lands of what we call the Klamath Mountains and the rolling hills of the North Coast. Could two landscapes be more different? While much of the answer lies in the geology and other environmental factors, the ecological history of the landscapes plays an equally important role. The early 1800s represent a divide between the old ways of the native peoples and those of the new settlers. Understanding the diverse influences that have affected the land since that settlement will also assist our interpreting the current landscapes of northwest California. NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA

Early geologists described the natural areas of North America as physiographic provinces. Charles Hunt in Physiography of the United States defined a province as “a distinctive structural framework giving rise to distinctive land forms expressing their structure and, for the most part, distinctive climates, vegetation, soils, water, and other resources.” C. Hart Merriam at the end of the 19th century used similar thinking in creating his famous life zone classification that many naturalists learned early in their study of nature. Robert Bailey updated this approach in his Ecosystem Geography. The sections of his Northern California Mountains Province—the Klamath Mountains, Northern California Coast Ranges, Cascades, and Sierra Nevada— are comparable to those of other geographers and geologists. I will follow in the footsteps of Bailey in using the Cascades and Central Valley Provinces as the eastern boundary of northwest California, but I break from convention by using the watershed boundaries of Stony Creek and Eel River as my southern limit. It is not geologically distinct or topographically dramatic, but instead it is ecologically and culturally important. Snow Mountain is the last of the high peaks of the North Coast Ranges, and the southern border represents the divide between the north-trending Eel River and the south-trending Russian River. It also separates the timberlands to the north from the towns and vineyards to the south. The Pacific Ocean and the California-Oregon border form the western and northern boundaries, respectively. Northwest California is an extremely complex part of the state, even by California standards. Its mountain ranges are spectacular, as are its plenti-

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Map 2. Watersheds of northwest California.

ful rivers that twist and turn on their way to the Pacific Ocean or to the plains of Central Valley. Climates are foggy and maritime on the coast, sunny and continental inland. The region is one of the least populated parts of the state, and much of its natural heritage is still intact. People interested in its natural history must wade through a huge quantity of names, descriptions, maps, charts, and graphs before getting a feel for the place. It is worth the effort, for names are rich in heritage, mountain ranges are abundant in biota, rivers are filled with riches, and the land is amazing in detail. The names of the major towns and highways are easy

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to learn, as they are few: Crescent City, Eureka, Weaverville, Interstate 5, US 199 and State Route 299.

The Klamath Mountains Geologists recognize mountain ranges in northwest California and southwest Oregon, with their ancient Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks, as the Klamath Mountains. They contrast strongly with the neighboring younger, volcanic rocks of the Cascades (Map 2). The eastern boundary starts east of Interstate 5 and continues north from Redding to the volcanic rocks just south of Mount Shasta City. Farther north, the town of Yreka sits on the region’s eastern boundary; still farther north the line slides slightly to the east as the highway approaches Oregon. The North Yolla Bolly Mountains define the southern boundary, and the western boundary follows roughly the crest of South Fork Mountain and the westernmost ridges of the Siskiyou Mountains to the California-Oregon border. The Klamath Mountains encompass much of Shasta County, all of Trinity County, the western part of Siskiyou County, eastern Humboldt County, and much of Del Norte County. The North Coast The many rock types of the Franciscan and Great Valley formations distinguish the North Coast. The eastern boundary abuts the western ridges of the Siskiyou Mountains north of the Klamath River and South Fork Mountain to the south. South Fork Mountain at its southernmost point merges into the North Yolla Bolly Mountains. Here, the eastern boundary shifts to the base of the North Coast Ranges. The watershed divides of the Stony and Cache creeks and of the Eel and Russian rivers form a southern boundary, and I include the creeks west of the Eel River and south of the Mattole River watersheds north of Cape Vizcaino. The coastline to Oregon forms the western boundary. The northern boundary is also the California-Oregon border. The North Coast includes the coastline of Del Norte County; much of Humboldt and Mendocino counties west of the crest of the North Coast Ranges and Yolla Bolly Mountains; and Shasta, Tehama, Glenn, and Colusa counties to the east. While most of northwest California is sparsely populated, we might call Eureka and Crescent City the “metropolitan” areas on the coast. The larger Redding metropolitan area is just south and east of the boundary, with its western and northern suburbs spilling into both subregions of northwest California.

The Klamath Land of Mountains and Canyons

The Klamath Mountains are the home of one of the most exceptional temperate coniferous forest regions in the world. The area’s rich plant and animal life draws naturalists from all over the world. Outdoor enthusiasts enjoy its rugged mountains, its many lakes, its wildernesses, and its wild rivers. Geologists come here to refine the theory of plate tectonics. Yet, the Klamath Mountains are one of the least-known parts of the state. The region’s complex pattern of mountains and rivers creates a bewildering set of landscapes. Its mountains have a geological history similar to those of the ancient Appalachians in the East. Rocks laid in the distant past tell stories of ancient seas, of landmasses from throughout the world that have been added to North America, and of lofty mountain ranges that have worn down only to rise again. Pleistocene ice and now today’s events mold the area’s rivers and mountains. No wonder the area is confusing. The history of the Klamath Mountains begins 450 million years ago with rocks found today in the Trinity Mountains, the highest range in the region. Rock outcrops surrounding Mount Eddy (9,025 ft.) are the oldest and among the largest on the North American continent. These deep-sea basement rocks and associated sedimentary and volcanic rocks occupy the Sacramento and Klamath river watersheds, two of the three master rivers that flow through the Klamath Mountains. EARLY TIMES IN THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS

The Klamath Mountains are internationally famous in geological circles. Here geologists began testing the new theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s, which suggests that hot molten rocks well up from the interior of the Earth at midocean spreading centers, where they form rigid tectonic 1

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plates of oceanic crust and upper mantle. As these rocks cool and crystallize, they form a characteristic sequence of rock types (peridotite, gabbro, sheeted dikes, and submarine basalt) on which sediments collect over time. This rock series makes up an ophiolite suite (or just ophiolite). It becomes part of the rigid plate that moves slowly from the spreading center and interacts with other plates. When two plates converge, one may descend below the other in a process called subduction (Fig. 1). It is a zone of great geological activity, as the lighter continental plate slips over the heavier oceanic plate. A deep ocean trench marks the point where they converge. Here a part of the ocean’s crust and its upper mantle may separate and become attached (accreted) to the continental plate, as the rest of the oceanic plate descends back into the mantle. The scraped rock assemblage makes up an accreted terrane or terrane (note the spelling). This process results in mountain building through associated earthquake activity, along with buckling, faulting, and folding of rocks at the plate boundary. Today’s earthquakes tell us that the process is still active along the coast of northwest California. Geologists studying the Klamath Mountains a century ago recognized four belts whose rock units had similar makeup. The belts are younger from east to west, and major faults separate them. Today’s geologists interpret the pattern as a set of plates and sutures. They also noticed that the belts were associated with granitic plutons (bodies of crystallized magma) younger than the surrounding rocks. We now know that the belts and fault systems represent a sequence of plate convergence and subduction events, called accretionary episodes, which added pieces of land to the western edge of North America during periods of mountain building. Plate tectonic theory also explains the associated granitic plutons. Granitic rocks—diorite, quartzdiorite, and granodiorite—commonly form the core of many of the world’s mountains. As a plate descends, the rocks are heated, and parts become molten magma. Some magma reaches the surface, creating a chain of active volcanoes. Some magma forced (intruded) into the overlying rocks and fractures forms dikes, plutons, and batholiths. Dikes are magma that solidified in fractures. Plutons are pools of molten rock that never made it through an overburden rock and crystallize in place as the mountain building continues. A batholith is a group of plutons of differing age and chemical makeup. Plutons exist throughout the Klamath Mountains (Table 1). Most of the sedimentary and volcanic rock types seen today in the Klamath Mountains are altered (metamorphosed). Past mountain-building processes heated the area’s rocks to high temperatures, put them under intense pressures, compressed them, subjected them to other stresses, and changed them when they met hot fluids. These processes altered the original rock texture and mineral content. Typically, rock minerals rearrange

Figure 1. Plate tectonic setting for the West Coast. A—A' indicates the location of the profile of the Gorda Plate being subducted under the North American Plate between Eureka and Mount Shasta. From California Geology (45: 40).

table 1. Plutons listed by mountain ranges and by lithic belts. Trinity Mountains eastern klamath belt Bonanza King gabbro Castle Crags Mule Mountain Porcupine Lake gabbro Shasta Bally western paleozoic and triassic belt Wildwood Scott Mountains eastern klamath belt Craggy Peak China Mountain gabbro Trinity Alps eastern klamath belt Granite Peak Sugar Pine Lake central metamorphic belt Canyon Creek Monument Peak western paleozoic and triassic belt Ironside Mountain Salmon Mountains central metamorphic belt Caribou Mountain China Creek Deadman Peak Russian Peak Salmon Mountains western paleozoic and triassic belt English Peak Orleans Mountain Youngs Peak

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table 1. (continued) Marble Mountains central metamorphic belt Shelley Lake western paleozoic and triassic belt Heather Lake Slinkard Ridge Wooley Creek Siskiyou Mountains western paleozoic and triassic belt Ashland Bear Mountain Grayback Pony Peak Slinkard Summit Valley Thompson Ridge Vesa Bluffs western klamath belt Buckskin Peak South Fork Mountain western klamath belt Ammon Ridge Glenn Creek source: Most plutons contain granitic rocks, especially granodiorite. Outcrops of gabbro occur in the Eastern Klamath Belt. A detailed map is available at http://geopubs.wr .usgs.gov/open-file/of02-490/.

into parallel planes, causing the rock to shatter into flat pieces. The resulting slates (metamorphosed mudstones) and schists (metamorphosed sandstones) make up metasedimentary rocks (or just metasediments). Similarly altered volcanic rock types are metavolcanic rocks (or metavolcanics). For example, greenstone represents basalt altered under low temperature and pressure. There are other altered igneous rocks (Table 2). Crystallization of magma rich in magnesium iron silicates forms peridotite, the basement rock of every terrane. Serpentine, California’s official state rock, is a

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table 2. Identification of igneous rock types. Coarse-grained rocks

Granite

Diorite

Gabbro

Peridotite

Fine-grained rocks

Rhyolite

Andesite

Basalt

Dunite

Mineral content

<———————————————————————— SiO2 CaO, FeO, MgO —————————————— —————->

Rock type

Salic (felsic)

Intermediate

Mafic

Ultramafic

Rock color

Lightcolored

Medium-gray Medium-green

Dark gray Black

Green to black

note: Extrusive rocks form fine-grained rocks, since magma cools rapidly at the Earth’s surface. They are associated with volcanic activity. Intrusive rocks form at considerable depth. They are coarsely grained, with large crystals interlocked in a mosaic pattern (adapted from Plummer, McGeary, and Carlson 1999).

metamorphosed peridotite. Serpentine has a special place in the natural history of northwest California. WATERSHEDS OF THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS

The headwaters of the Sacramento River commence on the slopes of Mount Eddy and at Cliff Lake in the Trinity Mountains, and as a set of springs on the lower slopes of Mount Shasta in the adjacent Cascades. Water flows from these sources into Siskiyou Lake and then down the canyon of the Sacramento River to Lake Shasta before entering the Sacramento Valley and finally San Francisco Bay. The headwaters of the Pit River, a major tributary of the Sacramento River, start far away on the shores of Goose Lake and in the Warner Mountains east of the Cascades. Water from these sources flows though the Pit River canyon that has cut through the lava flows of the Cascades, creating a water gap before entering Lake Shasta. The upper Sacramento lies east of the Klamath Mountains. The middle Sacramento includes the lands of streams that start or flow through the region. Those of the lower Sacramento are downstream from Lake Shasta. The Klamath River also has a long and circuitous route to the Pacific Ocean from its headwaters on the eastern slopes of the Cascades of southern Oregon. The stream flows from Upper Klamath Lake west through a water gap in Cascade lavas, entering the Klamath Mountains just west of Interstate 5 (I 5). The lands east and upstream from the highway make up the upper Klamath. The lands west and downstream are those of the middle Klamath, including those of the Scott, Salmon, and Trinity rivers. From the highway the stream travels west to Happy Camp, where it turns south until it reaches Weitchpec, where it flows through another water gap in the

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Siskiyou Mountains, takes a hard turn to the north, and enters the North Coast region. These western lands are those of the lower Klamath. The lands of the Smith River are quite separate from those of either the Klamath or the Sacramento. The headwaters start high on the western and eastern slopes of the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon and California. The stream’s two major forks meet near the Klamath–North Coast boundary. The land of the last 17 miles to the mouth of the Smith River makes up the ecologically different lower Smith River watershed (Map 2). LANDS OF THE MIDDLE SACRAMENTO RIVER

Mount Shasta looms on the horizon when travelers drive north on I 5 toward Redding. The higher ridgeline to the west are the peaks of the Trinity Mountains, the divide between the Sacramento and Trinity rivers. To the southwest are the Yolla Bolly Mountains of the North Coast; to the east are the Cascade volcanoes of Lassen Peak and Burney Mountain. To the north are a set of “hills” that you scarcely notice; these are the lands of the middle Sacramento country (Map 3). Shasta Lake, more than any other feature, distinguishes this country. Shasta Dam, the hub of the Central Valley Project with its elaborate complex of dams and reservoirs, creates the 29,500-acre Lake Shasta with a shoreline of 365 miles at maximum storage—the largest reservoir in the state. The Sacramento River is only one of its various arms. The McCloud River arm, receiving water from the southern slopes of Mount Shasta, also flows into McCloud Lake, where an aqueduct system transfers about a third of its water to Indian Canyon Reservoir and then to the Pit River arm. Only two major highways, I 5 and State Route (SR) 299, traverse this 1.35-million acre watershed. The Southern Pacific Railroad and I 5 form an important corridor of interstate commerce, connecting the cities of California with those of Oregon and Washington. Most of the 171,000 people of Shasta County live near the interstate. Almost all reside in Redding (pop. 85,000), the hub of commerce in the northernmost part of the state. The only other towns in this country—Dunsmuir, Lakehead, and Shasta Lake City—are situated along the I 5 freeway. State Route 299 is the major eastwest highway connecting Redding with the coastal towns of Arcata and Eureka. The country’s rounded ridges and mountaintops are deeply forested. Steep slopes, half of them exceeding 15 percent, support well-lit woodlands and chaparral. Mining activities devastated much of the original forest cover. Pierson B. Reading discovered gold in 1848 on the banks of Readings Bar on the Trinity River, and prospectors discovered gold the next year in Sacramento’s Clear Creek near the community of French Gulch. The Deadwood–French Gulch mining district became one of the richest in the

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Map 3. Features of the middle Sacramento River country. The Klamath Region bulges east, and Mount Shasta to the north looks down on Redding at the crossroads of Interstate 5 and State Route 299.

state, but gold was not the only metal found in the Klamath Mountains. Copper mining became important in the late 1800s. They extracted cadmium, lead, limestone, sulfur, and zinc as well gold. Mine symbols dot maps of the Redding area, and with mines came smelters. Decades of emitting poisonous fumes from the region’s smelters denuded the local mountain slopes. By the early 1900s, erosion was extreme. Today the waters behind Shasta Dam cover many of these bare slopes. Chaparral blankets the slopes above lake level due to active restoration activities after World War II. A substantial scar of the Iron Mountain Mine comes into view west of Lake Shasta. This mine is a notorious toxic waste site. Its water (which has a pH of –1, the lowest reported in the world) flows into Lake Shasta. Lower-elevation streams surge through rugged, rocky canyons above Lake Shasta. Mountain slopes far away from the mining districts remain much as they were in the early 1800s. In the northerly parts of the Trinity Mountains, called the Eddies, we find mountain meadows and 30 subalpine lakes. Mount Eddy, the highest peak in northwest California, and

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Castle Crags (4,440 ft.), a granitic batholith of the Mesozoic Age, loom above the forested slopes. Shasta Bolly (6,209 ft.) and Bully Choop (6,970 ft.), near Whiskeytown Lake (named for the 1849 mining town of Whiskey Creek Diggings), stand well above the crest line in the southernmost extension of the Trinity Mountains. To the north, Grizzly Peak (6,250 ft.) stands well above the other, much lower peaks in the McCloud River, Pit River, and Squaw Creek watersheds. Lower mountain summits in the east are restricted to forested elevations, where logging has left its scars on many of the lower slopes. The middle Sacramento country experiences hot summers and rainy winters (Fig. 2). These lands do not lie in the rain shadow of the mountains to the west, since many winter storms move up the Sacramento Valley. Areas at higher elevations receive ample precipitation (60–100 in. annually), but the canyon lands receive only half that of the mountain slopes. Winter temperatures at lower elevations are mostly above freezing, and summer temperatures are very high. Only the highest peaks hold snow into the summer. Biological diversity comes in many forms. Lower-elevation conditions are sufficiently hot that it is best for visitors in the summer to spend their time at “The Lake.” Trips to see the low-elevation limestone areas are preferable in the spring or fall; summer is best focused on higher elevations. The lands are mainly those of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, and roads are mostly unpaved. Many privately owned sections exist in the watershed. Watch for signs along the roadsides that indicate ownership. Limestone areas offer something for everyone: high plant diversity, rare animals, interesting fossils, and caves (Pl. 2). Limestone exists in two different belts, each with its own character. McCloud limestone of the Permian Age is replete with corals, brachiopods, and other marine fossils. Hosselkus limestone of the Triassic Age has rich fossil assemblages of ammonites, brachiopods, corals, and ichthyosaurs. These animals lived in warm, shallow seas west of the continent. Outcrops of McCloud limestone are extensive along the McCloud arm of Lake Shasta. Here, Shasta Caverns offers a tour of lighted caves after a boat ride across the lake from I 5. Visitors arrive at the more natural Sawmel Cave after another boat ride. Signs along the trail interpret a Wintu legend concerning a woman slipping and falling into the cave. Arrange to pick up the key from Forest Service personnel before your trip. Impressive Dekkas Rock, an important religious site to the Wintu, is across the lake from the campground that shares its name. By traveling to the town of McCloud and then south past Lake Britton to Ah-di-na Campground, you can visit The Nature Conservancy’s McCloud River Preserve, the original source of rainbow trout eggs used to introduce rainbow trout to the rest of the world. The preserve allows catch-andrelease fishing. The McCloud River was a seasonal home for the Wintu to

Figure 2. Diagrams of annual temperature and precipitation patterns in the Klamath Mountains. Data from the Western Climate Region of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.

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fish and gather acorns and pine nuts. A hike west from the campground will offer a taste of the Girard Ridge roadless area. A road trip on Forest Service (FS) Road 38N23 to Girard Outlook offers great views of Castle Crags and Mount Shasta; it is possible to spend the night in the outlook. The outrageous shrub diversity described along Low Pass Creek in the vegetation chapter exists in Devil’s Rock–Hosselkus Limestone Research Natural Area between the Squaw and Pit arms of Lake Shasta. Hosselkus limestone is famous for many things beyond its Triassic fossils. The most notable living plant is the Shasta snow-wreath, discovered in 1992. It is a member of a genus Neviusia that botanists previously considered restricted to the hills of Alabama. The limestone is also home to the Shasta salamander and Pleistocene Age fossils in cave deposits. Use Fenders Ferry Road (FS 27) to access the area, and stop at Potem Falls on the way. The Castle Crags point out the state park and several nearby areas of biological interest. Visitors know of its excellent rock for climbing and its aweinspiring views of Mount Shasta. Plant species growing in rock crevices exist nowhere else. The park abuts Castle Crag Wilderness with popular Castle Lake, an area that offers serpentine substrates with their own biological oddities. The serpentine substrates of the nearby Trinity Mountains also offer many high-elevation gems. South Fork Sacramento Road (FS 26) and Castle Creek Road (FS 27) supply quick access. In 1979, Todd Keeler-Wolf discovered an area around Cliff Lake with 11 conifer species, now designated as Cedar Basin Research Natural Area. Toad Lake, known for its rich serpentine flora, is accessible by the Pacific Crest Trail. LANDS OF THE MIDDLE KLAMATH RIVER

Interstate 5 north of Mount Shasta first skirts the Greenhorn Mountains, the eastern boundary of the Klamath Mountains, as it cuts though the Shasta Valley, follows the Shasta River to the Klamath River, and then crosses the Siskiyou Mountains into Oregon (Map 4). The Klamath River west of I 5 picks up the waters from three of its major tributaries. The Scott River meets it at Hamburg downstream from the freeway. The Salmon River enters at the mining town of Somes Bar after the big bend south at Happy Camp, originally called Murderers Bar. The Trinity River, the largest of the three, and the Klamath River converge at Weitchpec. The lands of these three watersheds are described separately, but first let’s consider the immediate lands in the 1.3-million-acre area of the middle Klamath country (Pl. 3). While traveling west, the river moves through some 260 million years of geology. Cherts, conglomerates, limestones, sandstones, shales, schists, and serpentine substrates seen along the river represent parts of many different

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Map 4. Features of middle Klamath River country. State Route 95 follows the Klamath River from Interstate 5 to Weitchpec and its convergence with the Trinity River.

terranes added to the western edge of North America over millions of years. Mesozoic Age intrusions of granitic rock add further to the lack of geologic order. The rocks get younger to the west, with Galice metasediments of Jurassic Age forming the western boundary of the Klamath Mountains. Not only did the terranes dock with the continent, but also in the process, they created the massive ancestral Klamath Mountains during Jurassic and Cretaceous times. Volcanoes, associated lava flows, and deep sediments covered plutonic intrusions of granites. Erosion removed hundreds of feet of material from these mountains over the next 100 million years, only for the area to experience another period of mountain building. Today’s Klamath Mountains are the result of an even more recent uplift.

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Each period of mountain building initiated a cycle of erosion. At first, streams had high gradients creating steep-sided canyons and V-shaped valleys with thin soils. As time passed, stream gradients lessened, slopes became gentler, and soils deepened. Erosion continued until the land had very low relief and was covered with thick, well-weathered soils; geologists call this stage a peneplain. If the area has a new period of mountain building, the cycle would begin again. Reaching peneplain stage depends on place and history. Usually areas do not reach the final stage; instead, long periods of erosion create subdued topography. Today the middle Klamath River gradually passes downward through scenes alternating between gorges, forested slopes (75 percent exceeding 15 percent slope), and small river terraces. Former mining towns such as Gottville, Seiad Valley, Happy Camp, Somes Bar, and Orleans occupy the larger terraces. Ridges and peaks crowd the river, including the even more precipitous walls at China Point and at the mouth of Bluff Creek, made famous by the sighting of Bigfoot in 1958, the local version of the Abominable Snowman, Sasquatch, or Yeti. We now know that Bigfoot was the hoax of Ray Wallace, the then-editor of a Eureka newspaper, the Times-Standard. Several mountain ranges tower above the river. The Siskiyou Mountains to the north include prominent Mount Ashland (7,500 ft.) in the northeast corner, Little Grayback (6,160 ft.) west of Happy Camp, and Berrill Peak (4,350 ft.) near Weitchpec. South of the Klamath River are the Scott Bar Mountains to the east of the Scott River’s confluence with the Klamath and the Marble Mountains to the west. The peaks of the Marble Mountains are highest to the east at Boulder Peak (8,300 ft.), gradually lowering to Marble Mountain (6,780 ft.), the namesake of the range. The mountain is conspicuous not for its height but for its white marble that contrasts strongly with the surrounding dark fir forests. Evidence of glaciation is extensive at higher elevations, and some 100 subalpine lakes dot the range. The climate is one of sunny summers and rainy winters (Fig. 2). High elevations of the Siskiyou and Marble mountains receive abundant precipitation (45–125 in.) annually, and they maintain deep snowpacks well into the summer. Low-elevation canyons receive only about a third the annual precipitation of the mountain slopes. At lower elevations, winter temperatures are mostly above freezing, with fleeting snow. Summers are hot. The landscape shows the effects of mining in the 1800s and of the more recent clear-cutting in the late 1900s supervised by the personnel of Klamath and Six Rivers national forests. Today travelers see a mosaic of young tree plantations mixed with the original forest. Several large, recent fires have occurred throughout this watershed. Biological areas of interest exist near the wilderness areas. Grayback Road (FS 48), from Happy Camp to O’Brien, cuts through the Siskiyou

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Mountains between Siskiyou Wilderness to the west and Red Buttes Wilderness to the east. Marble Mountain Wilderness lies south of the river. Following SR 96 west along the scenic Klamath River from I 5 is the fastest way to arrive. National forest roads are numerous and unpaved. South of the Klamath River and Seiad Valley, FS 46N64 climbs to Lake Mountain Botanical Area, the northern extent of foxtail pine. Also noteworthy are the other peaks of the Marble Mountains to the south near Black Marble Castle (7,445 ft.) and the associated native limestone caves, best left to serious spelunkers. I celebrate the area’s awe-inspiring meadowlands in the vegetation chapter. It requires somewhat less work to see the delights of the western part of Marble Mountain Wilderness. The Wooley Creek batholith, with its erosive granitic soils, has dense fir forests with diverse, understory layers highlighted in Haypress Meadows and Bridge Creek research natural areas. Within Siskiyou Wilderness, the Forest Service formally recognizes special areas around Preston Peak (7,310 ft.) for their rich forests, meadows, and glacial features. Nearby are botanical geological and research natural areas with exquisite stands of Port Orford–cedar, rhododendron, and herbrich meadows. I would add Devil’s Punch Bowl and Youngs Valley to a list of enticing biological areas. Elk Hole Geological Area has the southernmost stand of Alaska yellow-cedar. Rock Creek Butte Research Natural Area, with its diverse forests with Brewer spruce, is accessed by the infamous GO Road (FS 115N01). During the 1980s, a dispute arose over the Forest Service building the 55-mile GO Road that would have connected Gasquet on the Smith River and Orleans on the Klamath River. The last miles of road would have crossed lands sacred to the Karuk, Tolowa, and Yurok as the road passed through the Siskiyou Mountains. The Forest Service saw building of the road as significant for the development of timber harvesting, recreation, maintenance, and fire control, but it interfered with the religious practices of native peoples. Years of controversy, including US Supreme Court decisions, international law, passing of the California Wilderness Act in 1984, and the creation of Smith River National Recreation Area in 1990, ended the debate. Today the last six miles are included in Siskiyou Wilderness, and religious practices are preserved. Interesting areas near Red Buttes Wilderness offer another look at the Siskiyou Mountains via Cook and Green Pass (see above), and the road to Seiad Valley-Cook and Green Pass Road (FS 48N20). House Creek Botanical Area presents a lovely riparian setting before hunting down the rare Baker cypress. The nearby Cook and Green Pass and White Mountain botanical areas, on the mountain crest, are famous for their flowery meadows and rock outcrops. A hike from the pass offers even richer high-elevation experiences.

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LANDS OF THE SCOTT RIVER

A visit to Scott Valley, the largest in the region, seems like a taste of the Great Basin with its foothill ranchlands of juniper and sagebrush (Map 5). Scott Valley is a fast hop from Yreka and I 5 by way of SR 3 or GrazelleCallahan Road (Siskiyou Co. 2H01) through the modestly tall Greenhorn Mountains clothed in open stands of Jeffrey pine and oak (Pl. 4). A quick look at a map confirms that we are in the rain shadow of several mountain ranges between here and the Pacific Ocean. Indeed, climatic records tell us that this country has the most continental weather in the Klamath Mountains and the driest (overall 18–85 in. annually). While the eastern slopes of the Scott, Salmon, and Marble mountains receive abundant precipitation, Scott Bar Mountains, Scott Valley, and the surrounding foothills receive noticeably less. Winter temperatures are often below freezing with long-lasting snow; summer temperatures are moderate (Fig. 2). The northerly flowing Scott River in this 521,000-acre watershed begins in the Scott Mountains. Its east fork originates on the slopes of China Mountain (8,540 ft.), just north of Mount Eddy. Its south fork starts at South Fork Lakes near the convergence of the Scott and Salmon mountains and Trinity Alps. This ridge crest is the divide between the Scott and Trinity rivers. State Route 3 enters over Scott Mountain (6,830 ft.) via the route of the old California-Oregon stage. Travelers used this route to reach Oregon before the railroad was completed up the Sacramento River. The northern slopes are dotted with subalpine lakes and open forests. As with the adjacent Trinity Mountains, they contain serpentine substrates of the Trinity ophiolite. Mountainsides are moderately steep, with about half exceeding a 15 percent slope. China Peak, Kangaroo Lake, Scott Mountain, and Rock Creek botanical areas were established to protect the California pitcher plant and other high-elevation serpentine plants. Subalpine woodlands clothe the crest. These north-facing drainages present many glacial features, including a rock glacier on the north side of Cory Peak (7,700 ft.). The Salmon and Marble mountains form the western boundary of Scott Valley country. In contrast to the Scott Mountains, the Salmons are mainly granites of the Russian Peak batholith, and beautiful subalpine lakes are concentrated near Russian Peak (8,190 ft.) in the Russian Wilderness, which contains Duck Lakes Botanical Area and the adjacent Sugar Creek Research Natural Area. Wander the trails and old roads of the Duck Lake Creek and Horse Range Creek drainages to enjoy the rich concentration of 17 conifers described in the vegetation chapter. Only two roads connect the Scott Valley with the Salmon River lands to the west. Sawyers Bar Road (Co. Rd. 1C01) separates the Salmons and Marbles, although the ranges are continuously high. Marble Mountain Wilderness to the north contains montane and subalpine lakes, and meadows set

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Map 5. Features of the Scott River country. The north-tending Scott River leaves the Scott Valley and drops down to the Klamath River. State Route 3 enters from the south at Scott Mountain and leaves over the Greenhorns on the way to Yreka.

off the dense fir forests. The lands around Boulder Peak (8,300 ft.) are another area of serpentine substrates. The Scott Bar Mountains form the northeastern boundary of the watershed. They are a confusing mixture of Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks of many kinds, including serpentine substrates. Peaks, such as Deadwood Baldy Peak (6,045 ft.) and Indian Peak Baldy (5,695 ft.), are sufficiently low that these mountains show little effect of glaciation. The still-lower Greenhorn Moun-

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tains, with more bewildering Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks, represent the eastern boundary of the Scott Valley country. Duzel Rock (6,040 ft.), a noticeable capstone of limestone, is prominent on the eastern ridgeline. The community of Fort Jones, once a stop of the California-Oregon stage, was called Wheelock, Scottsburg, and Ottitewa before settling on today’s name. A local military fort operated from 1852 to 1857. Nearby Etna (originally Etna Mills) began as a gold mining town, but people also found gold in growing grain for the miners’ bread. Callahan, another stage stop and mining town, resides at the south end of the valley. CallahanCecilville Road (Co. Rd. 1C02) to the south also allows access to the Salmon River country. Agriculture greatly reshaped the valley bottom, and today the area is committed to alfalfa. Mountainsides are mostly part of the Klamath National Forest. Scattered parcels managed by the Bureau of Land Management exist among many old, privately owned mining claims in the Scott Bar and Greenhorn mountains. Miners discovered gold on the eastern flanks of these mountains in 1851. Dredging of the Scott River continued into the 1960s, giving it the dubious honor of being the last to be dredged in the state. The river ends at the convergence with the middle Klamath after surging through a scenic canyon north of the valley proper. Scott River Road (Co. Rd. 7C01) will take you through this canyon. LANDS OF THE SALMON RIVER

The Salmon River country, the heart of the Klamath Mountains, is the most rugged and isolated of the region’s watersheds (Map 6). Some 85 percent of the mountain slopes exceed a 15 percent slope in this 310,000-acre watershed. Getting there to enjoy its beauty takes some doing. Only three Siskiyou County roads traverse the country by closely following its canyons. North Fork Road (Co. Rd. 1C01) connects Etna in the Scott Valley with Sawyers Bar, and South Fork Road (Co. Rd. 1C02) to the south connects Callahan with Cecilville. Both streams flow through steep-walled canyons, especially on the South Fork (Pl. 5). Below their convergence, kayakers run the whitewater as cars creep along the one-lane road (Co. Rd. 2B01). Chiseled out of the canyon walls well above the rapids, this road connects the hamlet of Forks of Salmon with SR 96. The ancient bedrock in the country is similar to that of the middle Klamath River, but much of its geology is the result of events of the last two million years. Conditions during the Pleistocene and the Holocene were sufficiently cold that mountain valleys were filled with glaciers that alternated with warmer periods when the valleys were free of ice. The last glacial cycle ended about 150 years ago (Table 3).

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Map 6. Features of the Salmon River country. The Salmon River watershed in the Klamath Mountains lacks a state highway. State Route 96 passes to the west at the convergence of the Salmon and Klamath rivers at Somes Bar. The large subbasin in the north is Wooley Creek.

Today hikers climb grand staircases on their way to the glacier-created landscapes of tarns and moraine-created lakes in Marble, Russian, and Trinity Alps wildernesses. Bedrock with polish and scratches and individual boulders left on glaciated surfaces suggest that the ice left only recently, but the southern slopes of many peaks show no evidence of ice. Peaks rise as much as 8,000 feet above the convergence of the Salmon River with the Klamath River. To the south, Salmon Peak (6,955 ft.) begins a ridge that includes Mary Blaine Mountain (6,750 ft.), Cesar Peak (8,920 ft.),

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table 3. Traditional sequence of glacials and interglacials in North America. Glacials Holocene Little Ice Age Neoglacial Late Pleistocene Younger Dryas Wisconsinan Glacial Sangamonian Interglacial Middle Pleistocene Illinoian Glacial Pre-Illinoian Glacials Early Pleistocene Yarmouth Interglacial Kansan Glacial Aftonian Interglacial Nebraskan Glacial

Years Ago 0–10,000 150–600 3,000–2,500 10,000–130,000 12,800–11,600 12,800–80,000 130,000–750,000

5 6

750,000–1,650,000

note: Pre-Illinoian glacial stages occur in both the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Wisconsin = Wisconsinan, Illinoian = Illinoisan in some literature (from Ehlers 1996).

and Caribou Peak (8,170 ft.). Russian Peak to the east and English Peak (7,320 ft.) and Medicine Peak (8,835 ft.) to the west finish the crest around the drainage. The North Fork begins as lakes near English Peak, and the South Fork in the Caribou Lake Basin, with its famous lakes. Wooley Creek, President Herbert Hoover’s favorite steelhead stream, starts in the northeast part of the well inside Marble Mountain Wilderness at Man Eaten Lake. The watershed’s climate is one of sunny summers and rainy winters (35–85 in. annually). High elevations receive abundant precipitation and maintain deep snowpacks well into the summer. Low-elevation canyons receive less annual precipitation than the canyons of the middle Klamath River. At lower elevations, winter temperatures are mostly above freezing, with fleeting snow. Summers are hot. Impacts on the land are similar to those of the middle Klamath River, but the terrain is steeper. The effects of gold mining are especially evident in the Summerville Mining District near Cecilville. Recent fires have changed the country. Fires burned about half of the Salmon River country since the early 1900s and 30 percent since 1975. The 1977 Hog fire burned 50,000 acres, and the 1987 fires burned 90,900 acres in four separate areas.

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The Trinity River is the largest drainage in the Klamath Mountains (Map 7). It covers almost two million acres, about a third of the entire Klamath River system. Weaverville, the largest town in the region (pop. 3,554), sits in the center of the watershed. Trinity Lake, another massive reservoir of the Central Valley Project, and the smaller Lewiston Lake dominate the country and its economy. The Lewiston Power Plant diverts water from the Trinity River country through the Trinity Mountains to Clear Creek, where it fills Whiskeytown Lake, only to be transported to the Sacramento River. Trinity

KLAMATH MOUNTAINS DURING THE GREAT ICE AGE

The Quaternary spans the last two million years, including the Pleistocene—the Great Ice Age—and the Holocene—the Anthropogene, the “Age of Man.” The climates during this period were generally colder than were those of the Tertiary. In the mountains of northwest California, this was the time of a series of cold periods with associated glacial advances called glaciations, glacial stages, or glacials. These glacials alternated with warmer periods of glacial retreat called interglacials, during which the land was more or less free of permanent ice. The last glacial ended about 150 years ago. The Pleistocene Until recently, geologists considered that the Pleistocene in North America involved 4 glacial cycles. Today they distinguish 11 or more before the Illinoian glacial, but they are not important in our discussion. A warm Sangamonian interglacial in the late Pleistocene began about 130,000 years ago and lasted about 55,000 years. The last glacial, the Wisconsin (Wisconsinan), began about 80,000 years ago and lasted until the Holocene. Glacial ice collected during the Wisconsin in the higher elevations, especially in the Marble Mountains, Trinity Alps, and Trinity Mountains. This ice moved down drainages abrading and quarrying rock, leaving behind the erosional features that distinguish these ranges today. Unlike the Sierra Nevada with its ice caps, glaciers in our mountains formed in the valley bottoms, mainly in north-tending drainages. The ridges and south-tending drainages had less ice or were ice-free. At times, however, ice spilled over ridges and coalesced with adjacent glaciers. Parts of ridges went unglaciated, and they protruded out of the ice as formations called nunataks. The Wisconsin glacial involved a series of ice-free times (interstadials), as well as ones of ice advance (stadials). The last major ice advance, the Late Wisconsin, occurred about 22,000 years ago. Since then, the climate has warmed in spurts with several reversals, during which the ice advanced and then retreated. During the interstadials, clay, silt, sand, gravel, and boulders (collectively called till), eroded from higher elevations, accumulated in mounds and ridges (moraines), as the ice melted. Boulder shape and surface characteristics in the till, and the extent of

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Alps Wilderness is the largest and the most visited in the region, but we still know the area as gold rush country. La Grange Mine, near Weaverville, was the largest hydraulic mine in the world. The California Historical Landmark No. 778 marks the mine site along SR 299. The western slopes of Oregon Mountain are still raw from 90 years of mining that ended in 1941. Today the mine’s tailings are a new source of wealth as rock aggregate is now used in construction and road building. Even though gold existed in all parts of the region, the Trinity River country was, in many ways, the focus of the area’s gold rush. Lindsay Applegate

soil development between the boulders, allow geologists to date the different morainal deposits. Newer glacial advances in the Klamath Mountains ended at higher elevations than did the older ones, so typically younger ice flowed over older till. Holocene Geologists delimit the Holocene by the time of rapid change from glacial conditions to warm ones in northern Europe that occurred some 10,000 years ago. In North America, including northwest California, the warming began earlier in the Pleistocene. It was stepwise set in character, with reversals to cold, arid conditions. The last cold period was the Younger Dryas, 12,800 to 11,600 years ago. Significant temperature increases followed, melting the last of the Pleistocene ice. Temperatures in the early Holocene continued to rise, peaking from 7,000 to 5,000 years ago, a time variously called the Altithermal, Hypsithermal, or Xerothermic, when summer temperatures in our mountains were hot and onshore winds brought dense summer fogs to the coast. Moreover, these fogs were more extensive than they are today. Temperatures moderated after the Hypsithermal. About 4,000 years ago, climates were less seasonal, temperatures cooled, the coast became less foggy, and ice again collected in our mountains. From 3,000 to 2,500 years ago, conditions were sufficiently cold to warrant the name Neoglacial. From 1,300 to 800 years ago, conditions were again warm and arid; this period is the Medieval Warm Period. In California, it was a time of drought; Europe enjoyed a marvelous climate. About 600 years ago, the climate again cooled, and northwest California entered the Little Ice Age. This glacial lasted until about 150 years ago. The small ice fields on the north slopes of the Salmon Mountains near Thompson Peak date from this time. Since 1850, the climate warmed until the 1940s, only to cool until the 1970s. Now the trend is upward. I have enjoyed checking out the “glacierets” in the Trinity Alps over the last 40 years. Today these permanent ice sheets exist behind well-defined moraines with very angular boulders, telling of their youth. During the drought of the late 1980s, these sheets were all but lost, only to expand to meet the moraines in 1996. Today the glacierets are again smaller.

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Map 7. Features of the Trinity River country. Trinity River country contains the four state routes. State Route 36 to the south passes south of Hayfork at the start of State Route 3, which extends north over South Mountain to Scott Valley. The north-tending State Route 96 starts at Willow Creek.

found it in 1849 at the head of Scott River, a year after Reading discovered gold on the banks of the Trinity River. Other strikes followed in 1850 on the Salmon River and in the eastern foothills of the Greenhorn Mountains near Yreka. Gold mining continues today. When driving along SR 299 between Junction City and Big Bar, look for the small, floating suction dredges that retrieve gold from deep gravels of the riverbed. There are continuing arguments over a proposed open-pit gold mine along Canyon Creek. State Route 3 north of Weaverville takes you to the gold diggings along Coffee Creek and the upper Trinity. Much of the effect from decades of mining activity is now covered by new forests and not evident when traveling through the country. A visit to historic Weaverville and the Joss House—The Temple of the Forest Beneath the Clouds, the oldest continuously used Chinese temple in

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California—will remind you better of the mining past. Most highways are twisty and follow the river canyons. State Routes 3, 299, and 96 encircle the spectacular Trinity Alps. State Route 3 continues north over the Scott Mountains to Scott Valley. State Route 96 follows the downstream reaches of the Trinity from Willow Creek to its convergence with the Klamath River at Weitchpec. Rafting many parts on the Trinity River is an increasingly popular way to savor the area. State Route 36 is the slowest of the region’s state highways. Locals drive it freely, but flatlanders (i.e., city slickers) find it narrow, even frightening. It traverses the lands of the Trinity’s south fork. The Scott and Trinity mountains meet just north of Mount Eddy, the headwaters of the Trinity River; the Trinity Alps occur to the west. The eastern ranges, referred to as “the Red Alps,” are part of the Trinity ophiolite (Pl. 6). Deadfall Basin Botanical Area and Mount Eddy, Preachers Meadow, and Stuart Fork research natural areas recognize the ecological interest of these serpentine-rich mountain ranges with their rare plants, rich woodlands, and chaparral. The central Trinity Alps contain several large granitic outcrops offering the hiker a “Sierra Nevada” experience, only at lower elevations (Pl. 7). Canyon Creek and Stuart Fork are among the most popular parts of the wilderness for backpacking. A day hike to Boulder Lake or Bear Lake can give you a taste of “the White Alps.” The lower terrain of the New River area takes the hiker into still another aspect of the wilderness, “the Green Alps,” the least-known part of the wilderness. Fir forests in North Trinity Mountain Research Natural Area occupy granitic soils in the westernmost part of the wilderness. Down at lower elevations, you can arrange tours of several Hupa village sites, dance grounds, and the remains of Fort Gaston at the Hoopa Tribal Museum in Hoopa. The Vista Point on SR 96 provides views of several restored traditional Hupa houses. Mountainsides in the Alps are comparable to other watersheds in the region, with two-thirds exceeding a 15 percent slope. They contain the most widespread montane and subalpine terrain in northwest California. Thompson Peak (9,000 ft.) is the tallest peak in the Alps. From here streams radiate like the spokes of a crude wheel. The mountain divides between the streams support myriad peaks. Fifty-five lakes are scattered at the headwaters of the major streams. The Trinity River has four forks and three other major streams. Coffee Creek, Swift Creek, and Stuart Fork enter Trinity Lake on the west. Canyon Creek and the North Fork enter after the river has made a sweeping bend west. The deep gorge beside Ironside Mountain (5,250 ft.) gets water from the New River and the South Fork. The New River has many tributaries, including the South Fork of the East Fork of New River. After the South Fork enters, the canyon widens to support the elevated terraces and streamside sandbars at Willow Creek and Hoopa Valley before

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the river enters another gorge, eventually meeting the Klamath River at Weitchpec. The country of the Trinity River enjoys sunny summers and snowy winters. Its central ranges receive the highest precipitation (60–85 in. annually). The low-elevation canyons, where winter temperatures are mostly above freezing, snow is fleeting, and the summers are hot, receive about 80 percent of the precipitation of the higher terrain. Winter snow accumulates in the mountains and lasts well into summer. The Trinity Mountains on the east, the North Yolla Bolly Mountains on the south, and South Fork Mountain on the west surround the South Fork country. The South Fork starts on northern slopes of North Yolla Bolly (7,865 ft.), flowing west and north, and picks up water from Hayfork Creek at Hyampom Valley. From there it continues north through still another gorge at Hell’s Half-acre Creek before meeting the main stem near Salyer. Members of the Jedediah Smith party called this rugged terrain a “green prison” in 1828. It appears that Smith still may have picked the best way through these mountains. Mountainsides are generally gentler, with only half of them exceeding a 15 percent slope. This land is a mélange of rock types, including gabbro, chert, granitics, limestone, and sandstones called the Rattlesnake Terrane. Outcrops of serpentine substrates are scattered throughout the mélange. Western Azalea Botanical Area gives only a taste of the floristic richness of the area. This area has some 30 sensitive plants with intriguing names such as Dubakella Mountain buckwheat. Car trips off SR 36 on Shasta-Trinity National Forest roads to Dubakella Mountain (5,635 ft.) and Tedoc Mountain (5,250 ft.) give the plant lover a more complete look. We find Horse Mountain Botanical Area and Rough Ridge and Smokey Creek research natural areas on South Fork Mountain along the western boundary of the region. The mountain’s ridgeline extends from North Yolla Bolly Mountains in the south to Weitchpec. LANDS OF THE UPPER SMITH RIVER

The upper Smith River and the Smith River Recreation Area are all but the same entity (Map 8). Created in 1990 “to protect the area’s special scenic value, natural diversity, cultural and historical attributes, wilderness, wildlife, fisheries, and clean waters,” the area involves the largest nondammed river system in the nation. The Smith River’s waters return to their famous green soon after the winter storms. This is the quickestclearing stream of the state’s coastal rivers. Fishing on the Smith River is world-class. It provides habitat for Chinook and coho salmon as well as steelhead, rainbow, and cutthroat trout. The bedrock-carved streams flow through steep canyons that are perfect for whitewater rafting and kayaking.

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Map 8. Features of the upper Smith River country. The smaller North Fork includes much of the land of the Josephine ophiolite in California.

Congress designated more than 300 miles as wild and scenic. The Smith River is in many ways the crown jewel of the National Wild and Scenic River System. The winters are among the rainiest in the state (65–125 in. annually). Winter temperatures at lower elevations are mostly above freezing, and snow is fleeting; winter snow accumulates in the mountains and lasts well into summer. Summer temperatures are moderate. As with the rest of the middle Klamath country, the mountainsides are steep: just over half have a more than 15 percent slope in this relatively small 362,000-acre watershed. Many slopes are unstable because of road building and forest harvesting; landscape scars from natural slides are common. Personnel of the Six Rivers National Forest supervised extensive clear-cutting during the 1970s and 1980s, but much of the rich biological heritage is still intact, even after the huge Biscuit Fire in 2002 that was the size of Rhode Island.

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The Smith River’s north fork is a country of sparse vegetation, serpentine barrens, and extensive soggy fens (Pl. 8). This is the land of the Josephine ophiolite, which boasts the highest number of endemic vascular plants (70) of any outcrop of serpentine substrates on the continent. Serpentine barrens occupy gentle ridges where sheet erosion removes fine particles and where only scattered plants exist in the lag gravel. The federally listed McDonald’s rock cress and other rare plants grow in patches of fescue and scattered, dwarf Jeffrey pine trees. The fens of this area are famous for the insectivorous California pitcher plant (Darlingtonia californica). This species is almost completely restricted to areas with flowing water and serpentine substrates. The base of its leaf forms a vase to pool water, and the top of the leaf forms a “cobra head” replete with a “window” that lures unsuspecting insects inside. Once there, slippery walls and downward-pointing hairs force the insect to the waiting water. The rotting insects contain nitrogenous compounds (chemicals otherwise deficient in this habitat) that the plant uses. Growing with this remarkable plant is a diverse set of wet-adapted species, many associated with bog and fen conditions in Canada, including the insectivorous butterwort and sundew. Indeed, these areas are often called “Darlingtonia bogs,” but according to biologists who study bogs and fens in Europe and Canada, bogs are areas where rainwater collects as the result of a buildup of decaying plants, such as Sphagnum; they are nutrient deficient and acidic. In contrast, fens receive water from streams as well as from rainfall, and they contain fewer nutrients and are less acidic. We should consider these boggy areas as fens, but it is hard to break the habit of talking about them as Darlingtonia bogs. These delights can be enjoyed along US 199 at several spots near the community of Gasquet. Myrtle Creek Botanical Area and the Darlingtonia Trail offer a visit to a fen with California pitcher plants. The botanically famous Stoney Creek Trail is an excellent introduction to the serpentine plants of the Josephine ophiolite. Nearby Craig’s Creek Research Natural Area shows off woodlands of knobcone pine and western white pine. North Fork Smith River Botanical Area, including L. E. Horton Research Natural Area, is closed to vehicles other than on Weimer Road (Del Norte Co. Rd. 305). Low Divide is the site of Altaville, the center of copper mining between 1863 and 1865 that sported several saloons, hotels, a butcher shop, a blacksmith shop, general stores, mining offices, and housing. None of these buildings survive, and today the area shows little evidence of its mining period. Broad, flat ridges, such as Gasquet Mountain (2,425 ft.) and High Plateau (3,500 ft.), stand above rugged canyons. These mountains are peneplain surfaces from earlier periods of mountain building. They are areas of low relief and have very deep soils, with little faulting or tilting of

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the old landmass. Mining companies seriously considered strip-mining the deep soils for chrome, cobalt, chromium, and nickel on Gasquet Mountain in the 1980s. Plans involved processing the soil in a coal-burning smelter with water from newly created reservoirs. The mines would destroy the mountaintops and dam, and contaminate the streams. Acid rain created by the local smelters would fall on the Siskiyou Mountains and other mountains to the east. Debate raged throughout the 1980s and ended with creation of Smith River National Recreation Area in 1990. Today the emphasis is on taking delight in the wild rivers and wild mountains. The high mountains offer still another look at rich conifer forests, montane meadows, and subalpine lakes in Siskiyou Wilderness. Bear Basin Butte Botanical Area just west of the Siskiyou crest is famous for having 16 conifer species. We find other enriched mixtures at lower elevations at nearby Broken Rib Mountain Botanical Area and at Rock Creek Butte Research Natural Area east of the Siskiyou crest. The views from Bear Basin Butte offer grand views of Preston Peak and the ocean. Look for the isolated piece of redwood forest along French Hill Road (FS 411) on the way to see the nearby lodgepole pine stands at Upper Coon Mountain. Glaciers occurred at the higher elevations of the Siskiyou Mountains, but much of the terrain remained free of ice.

The North Coast Land of Towering Trees

The North Coast offers another aspect of the most exceptional temperate coniferous forest region in the world. Naturalists know primarily of its majestic redwood forests, with the tallest trees in the world, and its incomparable coastline, but the region offers much more with its rich biota and scenery. As with the rest of northwest California, the North Coast is one of the least-known parts of the state. The North Coast’s patterns are as bewildering as those of the Klamath Mountains. Today’s landscapes are mainly the result of mountain building that began in the late Pleistocene. South of the Mendocino Triple Junction, the American and Pacific plates continue to slide past each other. This process compresses the lands east of the San Andreas Fault; geologists describe the resulting topography as structurally controlled. Streams drain canyons and narrow valleys that follow faults bounded by ridges that tend northwesterly. As the Klamath River enters the North Coast, it also turns northwest. Starting in the North Yolla Bolly Mountains, the Eel River’s middle fork flows south, only to turn north on its long course to the ocean. Compression has left only one large inland valley, Round Valley, in this geologically squeezed region. Climates add another layer of complexity to the area (Fig. 3). Lands east of the North Coast Ranges experience a classic rain shadow effect. Climates west of the mountains not only differ from those on the east side but also involve a decidedly maritime climate on the immediate coast and a more continental climate on the interior. The rain shadow on the east side causes the foothills to receive onefourth the precipitation of the montane elevations and 5 percent of that on the rainiest parts on the west side. Rains begin in late October and con28

Figure 3. Diagrams of annual temperature and precipitation patterns in the North Coast. Data from the Western Climate Region of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.

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tinue until April. Snow is rare at low elevations. Summers are hot and sunny, with occasional late-summer thunderstorms. On the west side, annual precipitation in several areas approaches the state’s maximum. The interior climate has high daily and annual temperature extremes compared with the coast, and precipitation increases with elevation. The northwest-tending topography both hinders and helps the inland movement of maritime air masses. Streams, such as the Eel River, channel maritime air and fog inland. On the other hand, King Peak and associated ridges near the coastline block the air masses, causing them to lift, which creates areas with very high rainfall. The interior climatic pattern is similar to that of the eastern Klamath Mountains. Rains start in late October and continue until May. Snow occurs during the rainy season, but it is uncommon at lower elevations. January is typically the rainiest month. The snow starts at higher elevations in late October and continues until April. Winter storms are commonplace. Snow lingers in the mountains into late spring on the south-facing slopes and into the early summer on the north-facing slopes. Summers are warm and sunny, with rare late-summer thunderstorms. Autumn is clear and bright until the rains begin. The coastal pattern is one of moderate temperatures yearlong. May is sunny and windy before the summer fogs begin in June. Until September, many days begin with high clouds that burn off by noon or later in the afternoon; not seeing the sun for days is common. September is often the sunniest and warmest month of the year. Winter rains frequently begin in late October and continue until May. The mountain ranges of the North Coast are a southerly extension of South Fork Mountain, the western boundary of the Klamath Mountains. The North Yolla Bolly Mountains merge in the north with the South Yolla Bolly Mountains and, in turn, blend into the North Coast Ranges, which make up a continuous crest line south to Snow Mountain. Lands west of the mountain crest are mainly those of the Eel River. The smaller Bear and Mattole rivers drain the lands near Cape Mendocino, California’s westernmost landmass. The Mad River and several creeks to the south drain the hills and terraces surrounding Humboldt Bay. The topographically separate Redwood Creek and lower Klamath River drain directly into the ocean north of Humboldt Bay, as does the decidedly isolated lower Smith River near the California-Oregon border. LANDS OF THE EAST SIDE

Appreciate the dramatic western skyline of the North Coast Ranges when traveling up the Sacramento Valley to Redding. Snow Mountain’s white

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peak (7,035 ft.) in the winter announces the beginning of a high mountain crest that merges in the north with the Yolla Bolly Mountains west of Red Bluff (Map 9). Waters of several major streams—Stony, Elder, Thomes, and Cottonwood creeks—tumble down steep slopes (40 percent exceed a 15 percent slope) through deeply incised canyons. The streams then travel through a set of interior valleys between the mountain crest and hogbacks to the east before reaching the lower Sacramento River. Mountainsides are rugged and well forested; subalpine woodlands exist on Mount Linn (8,090 ft.), the highest point in the North Coast. The ridgeline lowers a bit to the north until it reaches the peaks of the North Yolla Bolly Mountains in the Klamath Mountains. Mount Linn, situated on a ridge between Cottonwood and Elder creeks, is east of the crest. Cottonwood Creek flows down from the Yolla Bolly Mountains; Elder, Thomes, and Grindstone creeks drain the central North Coast Ranges, and Stony Creek begins on the southeast side of Snow Mountain. The climate and biota in the foothills have much in common with those of the Central Valley, the Sierra Nevada, and even southern California. Grasslands dotted with large oaks are fenced and lined with “No Trespassing” signs. Chaparral spreads over steep slopes; roadrunners scurry off. This country receives only 18 inches of rain annually, but higher elevations in this one-million-acre area are well watered. These mountains are part of Shasta-Trinity and Mendocino national forests, with sizable tracts of private land in the Elder Creek watershed. Roads are almost all dirt and dusty in the summer. Even SR 162, which connects Willows with US 101, is unpaved through the mountains. The low elevations are home to large ranches, hunting clubs, and parcels administered by the Bureau of Land Management. People have mainly forgotten these lands. They include the distant, western borderlands of Colusa, Glenn, Shasta, and Tehama counties, far from the county seats in the Sacramento Valley. The hamlets of Paskenta and Elk Creek are the only population centers of note. East Park and Stony Gorge reservoirs offer warm-water recreation. Motorcyclists hit foothill trails on the scattered parcels of federal land open to the public. Wilderness enthusiasts take the long, slow roads 35 miles east of Corning and I 5 east to hike the Ides Cove Loop Trail around Mount Lynn for a taste of Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel River Wilderness. Botanists focus on the serpentine treasures at low elevations on the Coast Range ophiolite, another expression of serpentine substrates in northwest California. A good example exists at Frenzel Creek Research Natural Area, a short drive west of the hamlet of Stonyford. Here McNab and Sargent cypress mingle with chaparral and barrens with scattered plants of Snow Mountain buckwheat, Kruckeberg’s jewel flower, and 10 more serpentine rarities.

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Map 9. Features of the east-side watersheds. The eastern face of the Yolla Bolly Mountains and Coast Ranges are topped by State Route 36 in the north and incomplete State Route 162 west of Willows. An unpaved Forest Service road connects the two portions of State Route 162.

Geologists have much to study. Their descriptions of the North Coast Ranges focus mostly on the two sets of basement rocks, called the Great Valley sequence and Franciscan complex, laid down 65 to 200 million years ago in the Mesozoic Age. These basement rocks occur on opposite sides of the Coast Range Fault, the southern extension of the South Fork Mountain

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Fault. Rocks of the Franciscan complex are west of the fault and extend to the Pacific Ocean. The younger rocks of the Great Valley sequence to the east are beds of mudstones, sandstones, and conglomerates. As sediments from the ancestral Klamath Mountains and Sierra Nevada accumulated from Late Jurassic and Cretaceous times on the outer edge of the developing continental shelf, they became unstable, and the watery mass rushed to ocean depths. Deep-sea fans of sediments in submarine canyons associated with large rivers developed in this way. Sediments on the ocean floor sorted with the finest particles settling last, forming characteristic series of less resistant shale and more resistant sandstones. Today these beds are faulted, folded, and upturned, and they generally trend northwest and incline to the east. Look for the characteristic fossilized clams of the genus Buchia in these beds. The highest and most massive parts of the North Coast, the South Yolla Bolly Mountains, are the most eroded and have the oldest rocks. Lands above 5,500 feet in the North Coast Ranges represent uplifted peneplain surfaces from earlier periods of mountain building. Glaciation was more extensive in the Yolla Bolly Mountains, but glaciers existed locally in their highest valleys and northerly slopes. Devils Basin Research Natural Area is near Paskenta, with excellent black oak forests, and Doll Basin Research Natural Area is near the crest under Buck Rock (6,550 ft.) and has attractive montane forests. A memorable trip to the Beegum Campground shows off an excellent chaparral near Platina, near where Jedediah Smith entered the Klamath Mountains. A trip to Anthony Peak (6,955 ft.) and its lookout will introduce you to one of the many peaks of the North Coast Ranges that supply you with other views. People visit Hull Peak (6,875 ft.) for its plants and good hang gliding. The roads to the trailheads in Snow Mountain and Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel wilderness areas are long and slow, but worth the trip. Popular hikes go up Soldier Ridge and to Hayes Delight on the Eel River. The trails from the Summit Springs trailhead to the peaks of Snow Mountain Wilderness offer dense forests, meadows, open ridges, and views. Deer hunters enjoy these wilderness areas after the heat of summer has cooled. Ecologists find a drive on SR 162 disconcerting. We see the walls of Grindstone Canyon to the north in chaparral, but what are those strange openings on the broad ridges? Grasslands do not belong in that setting (Pl. 9). A stop at the Grindstone Vista Point solves the problem. We learn that the people had created these openings in the chaparral half a century ago by clearing off the “brush” in type conversion projects. They chained, raked, burned the chaparral, and then planted the grasses. The resulting openings offered fire access, increased habitat for deer and quail, and created seasonal pasture for livestock. Today these areas contain Harding grass

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and other nonnative plants, including star-thistle. Chamise and wedgeleaf ceanothus are slowly reclaiming their own. LANDS OF THE EEL RIVER

Travelers going north of Ukiah on US 101 ascend a steep, unstable section of highway that crests at Ridgeway Summit (1,845 ft.) before continuing on to Willits (Map 10). This crest represents the Russian River–Eel River divide, the southern boundary of the North Coast. Gone are the rows of grapevines; instead, miles of forests and prairies meet the traveler (Pl. 10). These are the lands of the Eel River. They continue almost to Eureka, passing through Laytonville, Garberville, Rio Dell, and, finally, Fortuna. North of Fortuna, an uplifted terrace called Table Bluff separates the Eel River watershed from that of Humboldt Bay. These low hills form a hardly noticeable northern boundary. The crest of the Yolla Bolly Mountains and North

KLAMATH MOUNTAINS IN MORE RECENT TIMES

The Trinity Alps and Trinity Mountains are the eroded roots of ancient mountains that first rose to great heights in the Mesozoic. Today’s mountains at subalpine elevations contain extensive areas of basement rocks of peridotite and granite. In the Cretaceous, the region was a low landscape, and some areas were covered with marine sediments. Lands above sea level formed a series of offshore islands. Mountains again began to rise as the era ended, only to be eroded to a set of subdued hills in the early Paleogene. At this time, the Klamath and Sacramento rivers were broad, slow-moving streams. At the end of the Paleogene, the land began to rise once again to form still another mountain range. Times were warm, even subtropical in character, with little seasonal variation in temperature. The warmest times came at the end of the Eocene, just before an important drop in temperature during the Oligocene. Now the climates deteriorated in a complicated, stepwise way until the Early Miocene. The new climatic norm for the Neogene was a cooler, temperate one, with more seasonal variation in temperature and precipitation. Temperatures dropped steadily in the Pliocene, harbingering the great ice ages of the Pleistocene. In the late Neogene and into the early parts of the Pleistocene, the mountains were again generally low, and the western lands were near sea level. Still another cycle of mountain building began creating today’s topography. The remaining noneroded remnants of that subdued landscape were uplifted to their present heights as down-cutting rivers shaped new canyons. These eroded remnants of the earlier mountains offered the riches of the gold rush. Miners worked the gold-bearing stream deposits of the Cretaceous (Hornbrook Formation) and Oligocene (Weaverville Formation). The Hornbrook deposits account for the gold rush in the Greenhorn and Scott Bar mountains. The Weaverville deposits

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Coast Ranges forms the eastern boundary. The western boundary is a set of ridges separating the Eel River watershed from those of the Mattole and Bear rivers and the Pacific Ocean. The watershed is extensive, some 2.35 million acres. Exploring the Eel River country takes some doing. The towns of Willits, Garberville, and Fortuna occur along US 101 and Covelo on the paved portion of SR 162. The much smaller town of Bridgeville, made famous on eBay, straddles SR 36. Other roads are few and far apart considering the size of the drainage; most are unpaved. The Eel River has five sources. The main stem starts just north of Snow Mountain and flows northwest to its convergence with the Middle Fork, which starts in the Yolla Bolly Mountains. The combined stream continues down the main canyon of the Eel, picking up the North Fork and then the South Fork, whose headwaters dwell in the hills to the west of Laytonville at Cahto Peak (4,200 ft.), the rainiest part of the watershed. The western hills receive

near Weaverville, Hayfork, and Hyampom are associated with lake and stream sediments of a west-flowing river that no longer exists. This last mountain-building period and resulting erosion have rejuvenated the region’s streams. River terraces are 400 feet above Trinity River near Willow Creek. These raised terraces added to the area’s source of gold-bearing gravel, but most miners labored in the placer deposits associated with the modern stream gravels. Winter continues to shape the lands of the Klamath Mountains. The winter traveler becomes aware of not only the weather but also road conditions. Winter storms bring high water and, in some years, floods. Lands at higher elevations fill with deep snowpacks. Then there are the landslides. Mass wasting, the moving of soil and rock (debris) under the pull of gravity, is very much a part of life in the mountains. Geologists recognize flows, where debris moves as a fluid; slides, where it moves in mass; and falls, where it falls freely. Strong relief, especially with steep slopes, a thick overburden, bedrock with down-trending planes of weakness, and severe weather conditions encourage mass wasting. It also can be triggered by earthquakes and the undercutting of the slopes by rivers and road building. Rock fall is predictable throughout the region, occurring especially after the first autumn rains. Slides are common, especially on the Bigfoot Highway as it travels along the lower Trinity and Klamath rivers where the canyon walls involve highly sheared rock. Slides can be more than a nuisance by closing highways for hours or days. Some slides stop the flow of mighty rivers, even if for only a short time. The 985-feet-deep China Slide, along the Trinity River Highway just east of Burnt Ranch, choked the canyon in February 1890. The temporary lake was more than seven miles long. A century later, highway bypasses miss the unstable slopes east of Salyer on SR 299 and on the canyon of the Eel River’s south fork on US 101.

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Map 10. Features of Eel River country. Only State Routes 36 and 162 offer ways to get to higher lands of the Eel. Most county and Forest Service roads are unpaved.

55 to 115 inches annually; the eastern hills, 35 to 85 inches. Downstream, the Van Duzen River joins the Eel before it enters the ocean. The headwaters of the North Fork and Van Duzen River start in the highlands associated with a western extension of South Fork Mountain called the Lassics. Lands surrounding the Eel River are spacious, with only 45 percent of the slopes exceeding 15 percent. Round Valley and the smaller Little, Eden, and Hettenpon valleys break up the intricate maze of ridges, summits, rocks, and low mountains that characterize the watershed. The rounded ridges

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have moderately steep sides, and the canyons are narrow. The elongated ridges extend northwesterly, with their highest summits in the southeast. The watershed is more prone to landslides than any other area in the state. Experienced winter travelers ask, “Will we make it by the Confusion Hill slide?” The Eel River landscape is, to a great extent, the result of rock types of the Franciscan complex—dense mudstone called argillite, chert, metamorphosed basalt called greenstone, and a dark gray, fine-grained sandstone called graywacke. The beds of mudstone and graywacke, 0.5 to 10 feet thick, are the result of turbidity currents. The same process created the rocks of the Central Valley sequence. As sediments thicken, some become buried and subjected to high pressures at low temperatures, creating a distinctive metamorphic rock type called blueschist. Areas of blueschist are local in the regional matrix of mudstones and graywackes. Blueschist is notoriously unstable when soaked by winter rains, especially after we build roads through it. Large expanses of the Eel River and other North Coast watersheds have sheared and crushed fine-grained mudstones and shales that contain outcrops of resistant rocks of many different sizes, some of them quite large. The jumble is a product of two plates grinding and mixing rocks, creating a mélange (mixture) of continental slope and deep-ocean deposits, and pieces of continental crust and mantle, likened to ice cream containing various kinds of nuts. The weathered surface layers of highly sheared and crushed shales and mudstones (the “ice cream”) creep downslope with the help of gravity, especially when saturated with material from winter storms. Daily freeze-and-thaw cycles encourage creep when the material is wet. A more dramatic form of movement (earthflows) involves a flowing mass of debris that pulls away from the stationary upper slope, leaving a scarp. Creep and earthflows create hummocky terrain, from which the rock outcrops (the “nuts”) of blueschist, chert, greenstone, limestone, and serpentine fragments of the Coast Range ophiolite protrude from the mudstones and shales. The age and origin of the outcrop rocks found in the mélange are problematic, but some are much older than Jurassic, and they were transported great distances on the Pacific Plate. In geological parlance, they are “exotic rocks.” Common along SR 39 and US 101, these outcrops often receive distinctive names, such as Camel Rock. Geologists recognize three belts of Franciscan rocks, each with its own set of terranes separated by faults. The eastern belt is oldest and consists mainly of blueschist, graywacke, and schist. The central belt contains several kinds of mélange. The coastal belt, involving four different terranes, contains mainly beds of graywacke and shale. It also has the youngest rocks, including ones laid down as late as the Paleogene (the earlier part of the Tertiary including the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene). Still-younger rocks exist near the coast.

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The grandest watershed on the North Coast offers more than just geology. There are six venues here to give you a complete redwood experience. The largest, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, introduces visitors to the world of redwood forests. The first stop should be Rockefeller Forest and the alluvial terraces along Bull Creek. Here, more than elsewhere, the lofty trees create the feeling of a great cathedral. These properly world-famous giants contrast with the shorter trees on the slopes of nearby Grasshopper Peak (3,200 ft.). More intimate groves at Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, along the Van Duzen River, and at Admiral William Standley State Recreation Area, Richardson Grove State Park, and Smithe Redwoods State Reserve offer other facets of redwood landscape to enjoy. Private lands outside the parks are extensive. Large cattle ranches, small isolated parcels, and nonindustrial timberlands make up the interior. Ownership along the coast changes to the industrial timberlands of the Mendocino Redwood Company and Pacific Lumber Company. Terraces of the lower Eel River are committed to agriculture, especially dairying and ranching. Observe the common “No Trespassing” signs. Many of these interior parcels hide marijuana gardens. The owners intensively protect these properties; stay on the roads, and respect owner rights. Fortunately, unsigned portions of the watershed exist in a number of federally owned roadless areas. Several special management areas in Six Rivers National Forest occur in the North Fork portion of the watershed. Lassics Botanical Area is a montane island of 5,800-foot peaks and serpentine substrates in a “sea” of Franciscan sediments. Thomas Nelson’s studies draw botanists to visit the area for its 17 rare plants, including 3 found nowhere else. Soldier Research Natural Area, near Hettenshaw Valley, has excellent Oregon white oak woodlands. The small, privately landlocked North Fork Wilderness and the western portion of the sizable Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel Wilderness are nearby. Sanhedrin Mountain and Yuki proposed wilderness areas, involving both Mendocino National Forest and Bureau of Land Management lands, are south and northwest of Lake Pillsbury. Red Mountain, a patch of serpentine substrates near the community of Legget, is another hot spot of serpentine plants. It is managed jointly by the Bureau of Land Management, California Fish and Game, and private landowners. The federally listed McDonald rock cress, which also inhabits serpentine substrates in the upper Smith River country, grows here. Outstanding old-growth forest exists along the South Fork at the Heath and Marjorie Angelo Coast Range Reserve. Established in 1959, it was the first project by The Nature Conservancy in the state, and it became part of the University of California Natural Reserve System in 1994. The Bureau of Land Management’s contiguous Elder Creek Watershed Area of Critical Environmental Concern added acreage to the protected area. The reserve lands are open for public use.

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Map 11. Features of Mattole–Bear river country. County roads, mostly paved, lead to Petrolia or Shelter Cove.

LANDS OF THE MATTOLE AND BEAR RIVERS

The country of the Mattole and Bear rivers includes the Lost Coast, the longest completely undeveloped shoreline in California (Map 11). The Lost Coast stretches for 90 miles from the mouth of the Mattole River in King Range Recreation Area to the southernmost part of Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. North of the Mattole River, the coastline has but a single county road, Mattole Road, that winds through ranches from Ferndale to Petrolia and on to Honeydew. Views shift back and forth among cattle grazing on the grassy hillsides, rocky headlands, sea stacks, and isolated beaches (Pl. 11). This road involves the famous Tour of the Unknown

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Coast, a very scenic century (a 100-mile bicycle ride) held annually in May. These lands are just east of the Mendocino Triple Junction. The lands of the Mattole and Bear rivers form a small (320,000-acre) but distinctive watershed west of the Eel River’s south fork. Bear Ridge (2,615 ft.) to the north, Gilham Butte (2,780 ft.), related knobs to the east, and Point Delgada to the south function as the watershed’s eastern boundary. Usal Creek and other smaller streams south of Point Delgada drain the headlands as far south as Cape Vizcaino. We might call Petrolia and Shelter Cove the towns of the area. Bear River begins on Bear Ridge and flows directly west to the ocean. Mattole River begins near Gilham Butte and on northern slopes of King Peak (4,090 ft.). Streams south of the peak drain westerly, directly into the

MENDOCINO TRIPLE JUNCTION

The northern coast of California and its adjacent offshore lands experience more earthquakes each year than any other part of the state. People on the North Coast have lived through 60 damaging earthquakes in the last 150 years, which translates into one every 2.5 years. Geologists refer to the lands off Cape Mendocino where the North American, Pacific, and Gorda plates meet as the Mendocino Triple Junction (Figure 1). This geological feature formed 30 million years ago, far south in Baja California, when an ocean-spreading center in the Pacific plate collided with the continent’s edge. Since then, the San Andreas Fault has replaced this previous subduction zone boundary. As the San Andreas Fault grew, this point shifted to the northwest as the Pacific plate (to the west) passed the North American plate (to the east). During earthquakes the plates moved, grinding and abrading their edges, which created zones of intensely shattered rock. Rocks west of the San Andreas Fault are similar to those of the Sierra Nevada, but they originated near the latitude of Central America. Today these rocks exist as far north as Point Arena. From there to the Mendocino Triple Junction, where the San Andreas Fault ends, the rocks on both sides of the fault are Franciscan rock types. Understanding the geology of the North Coast also involves the effects of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. North of the Mendocino Triple Junction, the Gorda plate plunges under the North American plate into this subduction zone. The associated magmatic arc of Cascade volcanoes extends from Mount Lassen in northern California to Mount Meager in southern British Columbia. Many volcanoes have had active periods from the late Neogene and Quaternary. Mount Lassen erupted several times from 1914 to 1921. The eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980 was only the last of many events changing the landscape of the Pacific Northwest. The effect of these volcanoes was less dramatic on the lands of northwest California than on the lands to the east. Lava covered some easternmost rocks of the Eastern Trinity Terrane, but most of the ash went to the east with the prevailing westerlies. Earthquake activity associated with both the Cascadia Subduction Zone

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ocean. King Peak crowns the highest seaside mountain range in the continental United States. The ocean views from the peak are spectacular, but also look east toward the Yolla Bolly Mountains. The Mattole Valley area is the exception to the otherwise hilly country, where landslide scars are a common sight. This watershed is one of the most geologically active spots in North America. Rates of uplift in the King Range are among the highest on the continent, in an area underlain primarily with highly erodible rocks of the Franciscan’s coastal belt. The watershed contains privately owned rangelands, privately owned timberlands, and lands of the Bureau of Land Management, most of which are included in King Range National Recreation Area. The forested lands, especially those in the King Range, receive some of the highest rainfall

and the San Andreas Fault is important in changing the appearance of northwest California. Northwest California and the adjacent offshore area is the most active seismic area in the whole state. The instrument-based records of earthquakes on the North Coast extend back only to the early 1900s, but written accounts tell of 60 damaging earthquakes as far back as 1853. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake strongly damaged Ferndale, which is more than 200 miles to the north. The 1992 Petrolia earthquake uplifted a 12-mile stretch of coastline near Cape Mendocino over three feet. The stranded intertidal organisms now existed in a new terrestrial world. Geologists express earthquake severity in terms of both the observed effects of ground shaking (intensity) and the energy released (magnitude). The familiar Richter scale is logarithmic: each whole number represents a tenfold magnitude increase. Most people do not feel earthquakes of magnitude 2.0 or less, but seismographs record them. Seismologists consider 5.0 earthquakes as moderate, 6.0 as large, 7.0 as major, and 8.0 or more as great or megaearthquakes. They estimated the San Francisco earthquake at 8.3; the Petrolia, 7.1. Geologists estimate that megaearthquakes occur about every 300 to 500 years along the coastline of northwest California. Their effect has been dramatic. Some parts of the coast were quickly uplifted, while other parts subsided, burying coastal marshes, even forests. Drowned spruce trees found today on northwest California beaches tell of a 1700 earthquake, as do the tsunami history of Japan and the oral traditions of the coastal native peoples. Land has lifted at the rate of 10 feet per 1,000 years. Marine terraces are now well above sea level in the Crescent City and Humboldt Bay areas. Upland redwood forests in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park grow in sediments laid down by Pleistocene rivers. Earthquakes beneath the sea floor also created fast-moving waves in the open ocean. As the waves enter shallow water, they may create a tsunami, with wave crests several meters high. A tsunami originating from the Great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964 severely damaged Crescent City. The Petrolia earthquake produced a local, nondestructive tsunami along the coast of the North Coast.

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the north coast

(115 in. annually) on the North Coast. The rangelands receive significantly less (37 in. annually). As throughout the North Coast, high fog in the summer is common on the coast; the interior is sunny. The ranches, nonindustrial timberlands, and those of Pacific Lumber are off-limits to the public. Heed the “No Trespassing” signs! Instead, visit King Range Recreation Area and Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. Picnic on the beach, or take on the challenging 24-mile walk on the sands below King Peak from the mouth of the Mattole River to Shelter Cove, and share the land with Roosevelt elk and bald eagles. California Fish and Game’s Headwaters Forest Ecological Reserve, near the town of Whitethorn, offers a walk through ancient redwoods. This is not the internationally famous Headwaters that made newspaper headlines in the 1990s. That area is closer to Humboldt Bay, but the same issues face local residents, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), and other organizations that continue to fight to protect the remaining original forests from logging. LANDS OF HUMBOLDT BAY AND THE MAD RIVER

Most people in northwest California reside in a short, 30-mile stretch of coastline surrounding Humboldt Bay (Map 12). These lands are a hodgepodge of civic, residential, industrial, and natural areas. Eureka is the port city at the bay’s entrance; Arcata is home to Humboldt State University; McKinleyville is the new suburbia; Trinidad tops the scenic cliffs surrounding Trinidad Bay. The industrial timberlands of the Pacific Lumber and Simpson Timber companies occur east of the towns (Pl. 12). Large cattle ranches lie east of the timberlands that separate the coastal towns from the Six Rivers National Forest on the easternmost fringe of the watershed. Look east when driving from Eureka to Arcata to see the prairies that crown the hills beyond the redwood belt. Table Bluff (160 ft.) and the low hills that separate the Elk River from the Van Duzen River and the lower Eel River delineate the southern boundary of this almost 700,000-acre watershed. The ridge of South Fork Mountain to the east from the Kelsey Peaks (5,280 and 5,255 ft.) in the south to Pilot Ridge (4,185 ft.) and Board Camp Mountain (5,450 ft.) in the north creates an eastern boundary. A set of low hills and ridges to the northwest separates Mad River from the Redwood Creek in this watershed. The headwaters of the Mad River begin on the western slopes of South Fork Mountain near the Kelsey Peaks. The stream flows to the northwest, picking up water from Pilot and Maple creeks before emptying directly into the ocean, not into Humboldt Bay. The ridge called Fickle Hill (1,100 ft.) separates these eastern hills and valleys from Humboldt Bay. Jacoby and Freshwater creeks and the Elk River flow directly into Humboldt Bay.

the north coast

43

Map 12. Features of Humboldt Bay and Mad River country. Humboldt Bay is the hub of the North Coast. State Route 299 starts its easterly route just north of Arcata; US 101 continues north to Oregon.

The watershed’s low mountains have rounded ridges with moderately steep sides and narrow canyons. Only 40 percent of the slopes exceed 15 percent. Young redwood forests cover the hills of industrial timberlands. The interior portion of the watershed is a mosaic of forest, woodland, and prairies much like those of the Eel River country. The hills receive 95 inches of precipitation annually; and Eureka, a mere 37 inches. People in the coastal towns enjoy the fog in the summer or, if not, head inland five miles to the community of Blue Lake to get some sun. The land gets consistently older inland from the coast. The hills east of Humboldt Bay contain Tertiary-age rocks. Marine terraces, such as Table Bluff, near the immediate coast are of Quaternary age. Recently deposited alluvium and sand deposits exist at the mouth of the Eel River and around Humboldt Bay.

44

the north coast

Elsewhere, older Franciscan rocks, like those at Trinidad Bay, meet the immediate coastline as rugged headlands and cliffs, which geologists call a leading edge coast. The strong topography of the land extends below sea level, promoting large waves that crash landward. Land retreats in areas that have easily eroded rocks. Rocks resisting the work of the waves create dramatic headlands, cliffs, coves, points, and capes that jut farther into the ocean. Out to sea, many remnants of the old coastline exist as sea stacks. Intimate beaches, such as the one at College Cove, have developed along the headlands. Beaches are steep and the surf is intense, collecting not only sand but also pebbles and even small boulders. Agate Beach, just north of Patrick’s Point, is famous for its agates. From Clam Beach south to Table Bluff, the continental shelf is well out to sea, and the beaches are gentle and extensive. The longest stretch of sand on the North Coast extends 45 miles, almost unbroken, from Trinidad Head to Cape Mendocino. The humid climate and extensive watersheds with their mighty rivers and highly erosive rocks from the uplands bring large sediment loads to the ocean. Although some sediment is quickly lost to deep maritime canyons, much of it finds itself on the continental shelf. The pounding surf transports some sediment landward onto the beach, where it can stay or return to the ocean waters. These wave-deposited sediments build up the beach, and they form a berm at the high-water line. Since the waves hit the coast at an angle, they transport some sediment along the surf zone by longshore currents. The wind transports some sediment from the berm and beach landward, forming dramatic dune systems around Humboldt Bay. Beaches experience a seasonal cycle of sand erosion and deposition. In the winter, the high-energy waves erode the beach and berm, and they transport sediments to an underwater sandbar parallel to the beach. During the summer, the low-energy waves transport sediments landward, building up the beach and berm. The wind moves sand into the uplands, and extensive sheets of sand form a complex topography of dunes, ridges, and depressions stabilized by hearty plants. The most dramatic example in the state is along the North Spit of Humboldt Bay at the Lanphere Unit of Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the best-protected dune system on the California coast. You can visit the area on docent-led walks on Saturdays. Longshore transport and the seasonal pattern of erosion and deposition produce other striking results on the North Coast. In the past, the mouths of the Mad River and Humboldt Bay would close annually during the summer, only to break open the next winter. Sweeney Dam and later Ruth Dam have changed the river’s natural cycle; the river now flows year-round. Today jetties have stabilized the once always-changing mouth of Humboldt

the north coast

45

Bay, but infamous sandbars continue to form just west of the mouth in the summer. Equally dramatic events occur in the winter. Storms may be strong enough to remove sand and expose ancient tree stumps in the beaches. The four lagoons between Patrick’s Point and Redwood Creek represent flooded stream valleys separated from the ocean by a sand bar, sometimes breached by winter storms. These valleys were deeper in the Pleistocene when sea level was 500 feet below its present point. The fine sediments at the mouth of Eel River and around Humboldt Bay support estuaries of tidal flats and salt marshes. Humboldt Bay is one of the largest estuaries on the coast of California and a bird lover’s paradise. It is a shallow, well-mixed, tidally driven estuary. No large rivers enter the bay, but many smaller tributaries contribute freshwater. These estuaries represent some of the most naturally limited habitats in northwest California. Many agencies administer the lands around Humboldt Bay that support a diverse set of natural areas. Patrick’s Point State Park and Trinidad State Park, with their dramatic headlands and sea stacks, are the most popular parks. Clam Beach County Park contains the most visited beach. Other coastal habitats offer everything from a quiet walk to off-road vehicle (ORV) play: at the Bureau of Land Management’s Samoa Dunes Recreation Area, including the Samoa Spit Off-Highway Vehicle Area; at the California Department of Fish and Game’s Big Lagoon, Eel River, Mad River Slough, Eureka Slough, Fay Slough, and Elk River wildlife areas and Big Lagoon Natural Preserves; at the California Department of Recreation’s Azalea State Reserve, Harry A. Merlo State Recreation Area, Humboldt Lagoons State Park, and Little River State Park; at the city of Arcata’s Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary; at the city of Eureka’s Elk River and Palco marshes; at Humboldt County’s Big Lagoon, Luffenholz, and Mad River county parks; at the Manila Community Services District’s Manila Dunes Recreation Area; at Redwood National Park’s Freshwater Lagoon; and at the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, once a landfill, is now an integrated wetland and wastewater treatment facility. It is one of a host of great places to view waterfowl in the area. A reconstructed Yurok village at Patrick’s Point State Park includes family houses, a dance pit, a sweat house, and a canoe. Let’s not forget the redwoods. The Bureau of Land Management’s Headwaters Forest Preserve, made famous by Julia Butterfly’s long vigil in the canopy of a redwood tree she called Luna, exists in the Elk River drainage southwest of Eureka. Trails in Arcata Redwood Park give the visitor a chance to experience 100-year-old redwood forests. Stands of this age are even rarer than old-growth ones (about 500 years old) seen in the national and state parks. Mad River Buttes potential wilderness in Six

46

the north coast

Rivers National Forest gives a glimpse of forests and woodlands east of the redwood belt. History buffs have much to enjoy in the Humboldt Bay country. Fort Humboldt State Historic Park is the site of a military post established in 1853, commanded for four months by General Ulysses S. Grant. The park features a collection of historic logging equipment, including a Dolbeertype steam engine. Many people visit Arcata, Ferndale, and Eureka to view the numerous Victorian homes. The showplace is the Carson Mansion, reportedly the most photographed private home in the nation—a threestory, 18-room home built in the 1880s. Bret Harte roomed as a young reporter at 927 J Street in Arcata when he wrote editorials decrying the disreputable massacre of the Wyiott in 1860. Legend has it that the locals soon drove Harte from the town, only for him to begin his literary years in San Francisco by writing “The Luck of Roaring Camp” and other stories of the rowdy life in California’s gold mining towns. LANDS OF REDWOOD CREEK AND THE LOWER KLAMATH RIVER

Only a few public roads allow visitors to get to know this 170,000-acre area (Map 13). Lands along the coast include Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Redwood National Park, and the Yurok Reservation. Inland we find private rangelands and industrial timberlands of the Simpson Timber Company on the northernmost extent of the Franciscan mélange and the Bald Hills country. Lands of the Six Rivers National Forest occur on the eastern boundary. The river-sized Redwood Creek begins on the northern slopes of Board Camp Mountain (5,045 ft.), just west of South Fork Mountain. The stream flows to the northwest until it reaches the ocean near Orick. A broad ridge culminating in Schoolhouse Peak (3,400 ft.) separates Redwood Creek from the lower Klamath River, which enters the North Coast region west of Weitchpec through a water gap between the Siskiyou Mountains and South Fork Mountain. The river flows to the northwest, picking up waters of Blue Creek and other streams that tumble into a broad canyon before reaching the ocean at the Yurok town of Requa. Wiregrass Ridge (3,350 ft.) is the most prominent of the several ridges separating the Mad River and Redwood Creek drainages. Lord Ellis Summit (2,255 ft.), more noticeable to travelers on SR 299, is the first high point when traveling inland. Next comes nearby Barry Summit (2,790 ft.), on the eastern boundary of the Redwood Creek watershed, which is also the North Coast–Klamath Mountains boundary. Highlands (1,000 ft.) near the coast between the False Klamath Cove and Crescent City mark the northern boundary (Pl. 13).

the north coast

47

Map 13. Features of Redwood Creek and lower Klamath River country. Industrial timberlands and ranch lands make most lands inaccessible.

Rounded ridges have moderately steep sides, and narrow canyons are the norm. Only 40 percent of the slopes exceed 15 percent. Landslides exist throughout the area. Natural lakes are mainly slump ponds created by landslides. When the mountains meet the sea, the headlands and cliffs are spectacular. Small cove beaches exist at False Klamath Cove, the old mouth of the Klamath River, and at the current mouth of the Klamath River and Redwood Creek. Gold Bluffs in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park offers an extensive beach. Expect to see gray whales in the winter and Roosevelt elk all year long. Miners created vertical walls of Fern Canyon after they found gold there in 1850.

48

the north coast

The headlands near the mouth of the Klamath River and the inland slopes of the Siskiyou Mountains receive as much as 125 inches of precipitation annually, but the low hills south of Orick get only 38 inches. Interior mountains have a more modest 65 to 95 inches annually. Dense fog characterizes coastal summers, whereas summers in the interior are sunny. Many old-growth redwood forests await the visitor at Redwood National Park and the associated state park. The Newton Drury Scenic Highway through Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park takes you to many trailheads, such as the trail to Fern Canyon, to experience redwoods up close. The Coastal Drive features dramatic seascapes from atop the cliffs south of the Klamath River. Bald Hills Road leads you to Lady Bird Johnson Grove, which President Richard Nixon dedicated in 1976 to the former first lady in recognition of her devotion to conserving the country’s natural beauty. Farther east, park personnel have restored several oak groves and prairies to the condition when the Chilula managed them. An expanding Roosevelt elk herd indicates their dramatic success. The Tall Trees Grove, once thought to contain the tallest tree in the world, is a short shuttle ride or an eight-mile hike away. Inland, Horse Mountain Botanic Area is an example of the serpentine substrates of the Rattlesnake Terrane. Ruth Research Natural Area, south of SR 36, is a mixture of low-elevation forests and oak woodlands. Siskiyou Mountain Wilderness is accessible only from the Klamath River or Smith River side. LANDS OF THE LOWER SMITH RIVER

The lower Smith River is the most isolated watershed on the North Coast (Map 14). Here the coastline is gentle as dramatic headlands to the south give way to an extensive, nearly level coastal plain that includes the floodplain of the Smith River. Low mountains, such as High Divide (2,265 ft.), rise up to meet the Klamath Mountains in the east. Federal and state parklands comprise a high percentage of this small 90,000-acre area. The state’s northernmost parks share the coastal plain with agriculture (noteworthy for growing Easter lilies), urbanization associated with Crescent City, and wetlands managed by California Fish and Game. Surrounding mountainsides contain young plantation trees of the Simpson Timber Company or old growth in Redwood National Park and the associated state parks. The last 17 miles of the Smith River flow through this area, picking up water from Mill Creek and others that drain steep mountainsides (60 percent of the slopes exceed 15 percent). Lands on the coast receive about half the annual precipitation (60 in.) of the uplands (125 in.). These mountains vie with the Siskiyous and King Range for being the rainiest in the state. Dense fog and cool temperatures mark the coastal summers.

the north coast

49

Map 14. Features of the lower Smith River country. US 199 offers an inland route to Interstate 5; US 101 continues north into Oregon.

Naturalists easily find areas of interest via US 101, US 199, and the few county roads. Wetlands in the coastal plain are rich with wildlife; most are accessible via Lake Earl State Park, Tolowa Dunes State Park, and the associated undeveloped Lake Earl Wildlife Area. These lakes, separated by a peninsula, represent the largest coastal lagoon in the state. They form where the velocity of freshwater flow from surrounding streams to the ocean is too low to overcome the accumulation of sand from nearshore currents, allowing a sand spit to build. Water accumulates behind the barrier until it overtops or liquefies the sand or until winter storms erode it. Trapped water then escapes to the ocean. While the lagoon is open to the ocean, saltwater flows in and out with the tides, creating saltwater or brackish conditions. Eventually, the nearshore currents deposit sufficient sand to re-form the barrier and to close the lagoon. Lake Earl sits on a coastal plain only 10 feet above sea level in a matrix of wetlands, farmlands, sand dunes, prairies, and forests. Land use is equally a matrix of conservation and residential, agricultural, and industrial uses.

50

the north coast

Pelican State Beach near the Oregon boundary and Point George County Park northwest of Crescent City offer beach access. The new county park allows for walks through coastal prairies, some of the most extensive in the state, with enjoyable views of Castle Rock and smaller sea stacks. On clear days, you can see the Point George Reef Lighthouse that is six miles out to sea. The scenic Battery Point Lighthouse continues to announce the Crescent City Harbor. South of Crescent City, US 101 runs through the unmarked Crescent City Marsh Wildlife Area separating freshwater marshes from Crescent Beach. Forests in Redwood National Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, described by Thomas Mahony in his thesis, are some of the most majestic in the state. Most impressive are those along the Boy Scouts Trail, off Howland Road (Pl. 14). The most stimulating are those along the Damnation Trail with its 1,000foot descent to the sea. The Save-the-Redwoods League acquired the 25,000-acre Mill Creek watershed in 2002. Although most of the original forest had been logged, this action secured more habitat for 22 endangered and threatened species, including the marbled murrelets, and it protected the most significant run of endangered coho salmon in the Smith River watershed. The property links Redwood National Park and state parks along the coast with Smith River National Recreation Area. The League transferred the lands to the California Department of Parks and Recreation, and it initiated a restoration program that will “encourage old growth characteristics.”

High and Low Looking for Patterns in Vegetation

THE BROAD PATTERN

We might best understand the region’s diverse forests by first considering only the major types that occur commonly in northwest California. These forests have closed canopies and occur on well-developed soils, and the dominant tree species have high colonizing abilities, long life, and wide ecological tolerances to environmental conditions. For example, Douglasfir is common throughout northwest California; redwood grows near the coast; mountain hemlock exists at the highest elevations. Trees with low colonizing abilities, short lives, or narrower ecological tolerances add little to the broad pattern, but they do greatly enhance the region’s species diversity. For example, Jeffrey pine grows on localized areas with specialized environmental conditions. Knobcone pine dominates areas for a short time, and long-lived species may replace it. The rare Pacific silver fir grows in only three locations in the region (see Tables 4 and 5). Thinking about the region’s 100 tree species in this way reduces the number of characteristic species to a mere 7. Four of them distinguish the broad pattern at low elevations. Redwood forests on the coast give way to more inland forests of Douglas-fir and tanoak. This forest type changes to one of Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine in the easternmost portions of the region. Low-elevation forests shift to ones of white fir and Shasta fir at montane elevations, and then to mountain hemlock at subalpine elevations (Figs. 4 and 5). Broad patterns in the Klamath Mountains are similar to those in the Sierra Nevada, but there are differences. Foothill woodlands and chaparral in the Sacramento River drainage and on the southern foothills of the Trinity Mountains are similar to those in the Sierra Nevada. Unlike the Sierra Nevada, the low-elevation belt contains valleys and canyons where 51

table 4. Common and notable trees and shrubs that make up the vegetation in the Klamath Mountains. Species common or notable conifers Alaska yellow-cedar (Cupressus nootkatensis) Brewer spruce (Picea breweriana) California juniper ( Juniperus californica) California nutmeg (Torreya californica) Common juniper ( Juniperus communis var. montana) Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) Foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana var. balfouriana) Ghost pine (Pinus sabiniana) Incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) Knobcone pine (Pinus attenuata) Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta ssp. murrayana) McNab cypress (Cupressus macnabiana) Mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) Noble fir (Abies procera) Pacific silver fir (Abies amabilis) Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia) Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) Port Orford–cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) Running juniper ( Juniperus communis var. jackii)* Siskiyou cypress (Cupressus bakeri ssp. matthewsii) Shasta fir (Abies x shastensis) Subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) Sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana)

LowBES

MonBES

b

SubB

MonBWS



e



e, g

c

e

d

f, g

LowBWS

f

 

a

b



b c





a

 

f

c  

d c, d

f, g e e, g

f  f

b

d

e



b

d  

e e, g



a 

 b b





d

e, g e

 

d

e, g

f  



b c b

d 

  e, g

f

table 4. (continued) Species Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) Western juniper ( Juniperus occidentalis var. occidentalis) Western white pine (Pinus monticola) Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) White fir (Abies concolor) common upland hardwoods Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) Black oak (Quercus kelloggii) Blue oak (Quercus douglasii) California bay (Umbellularia californica) California buckeye (Aesculus californica) Canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis) Chinquapin (Chrysolepis chrysophylla) Interior live oak (Quercus wislizeni) Madrone (Arbutus menziesii) Mountain dogwood (Cornus nuttallii) Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana var. garryana) Tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus var. densiflorus) common wetland trees Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) Black cottonwood (Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa) Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) Narrowleaf willow (Salix exigua) Oregon ash (Fraxinus latifolia) Red alder (Alnus rubra) Water birch (Betula occidentalis) White alder (Alnus rhombifolia)

LowBES

MonBES

SubB

MonBWS

d c d

e, g

LowBWS

 b b

a a 

 

f

e, g

 

  f

a a



e



e

f

 a a

f 





f  f

a















  a  a

  (continued)

table 4. (continued) Species

LowBES

common and notable upland shrubs Big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) a Birchleaf mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus)† a Bitter cherry (Prunus emarginata)‡ Brewer oak (Quercus garryana var. breweri)‡ a Bush tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus var. echinoides)*‡  Bush chinquapin (Chrysolepis sempervirens)‡ California bay (Umbellularia californica)* California blackberry (Rubus ursinus)  California hazel (Corylus cornuta ssp. californica) a Cascara (Frangula purshiana) Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum)†  Coffeeberry (Frangula californica ssp. occidentalis)*  Common manzanita (Arctostaphylos manzanita)†  Deer brush (Ceanothus integerrimus)  Del Norte manzanita (Arctostaphylos x cinerea)* Desert mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius)‡  Dwarf silk tassel (Garrya buxifolia)* Evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) Fremont silk tassel (Garrya fremontii)† a Gasquet manzanita (Arctostaphylos hispidula)* Greenleaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula)‡ Hollyleaf redberry (Rhamnus ilicifolia) a

MonBES

SubB





MonBWS

LowBWS

 







 

 





 







 

 







 





 



  



 







table 4. (continued) Species Huckleberry oak (Quercus vacciniifolia)*‡ Himalayan berry (Rubus discolor) § Knight’s pinemat (Arctostaphylos x parvifolia)* Littleleaf huckleberry (Vaccinium scoparium) Low sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula) Mahala mat (Ceanothus prostratus)‡ Mountain maple (Acer glabrum var. torreyi) Ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor)*‡ Pacific rhododendron (Rhododendron macrophyllum)* Pinemat manzanita (Arctostaphylos nevadensis)‡ Poison-oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) Rabbit brush (Ericameria greenei) Redbud (Cercis canadensis var. orbiculata)† Red-flowered currant (Ribes sanguineum var. sanguineum) Red huckleberry (Vaccinium parviflorum)* Rubber rabbit brush (Ericameria nauseous) Sadler oak (Quercus sadleriana)‡ Salal (Gaultheria shallon) Siskiyou mat (Ceanothus pumila)* Styrox (Styrox officinalis)† Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus) Tobacco brush (Ceanothus velutinus)‡ Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia)† Wedgeleaf ceanothus (Ceanothus cuneatus)‡

LowBES

MonBES

SubB

MonBWS

LowBWS











  

 



a















 







a

 

a 



 



 



a   









 













 (continued)

table 4. (continued) Species Western serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia)*‡ Whiteleaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos viscida)† Wild mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii) Wood rose (Rosa gymnocarpa)

LowBES

MonBES

SubB

MonBWS

LowBWS



















a a

 

 

 

common and notable wetland shrubs Black-fruited dogwood (Cornus sessilis) a Black laurel (Leucothoë davisiae) Blue elderberry (Sambucus caerulea)  Bog bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) California hazel (Corylus cornuta) a Cascade heather (Phyllodoce empetriformis) Cascara (Frangula purshiana) Del Norte willow (Salix delnortensis)* Dusky willow (Salix melanopsis) Dwarf huckleberry (Vaccinium caespitosum) Hupa gooseberry (Ribes marshallii) Klamath plum (Prunus subcordata) a Labrador-tea (Ledum glandulosum)* Lemmon’s willow (Salix lemmonii) Mountain alder (Alnus incana ssp. tenuifolia) Ninebark (Physocarpus capitatus)  Pacific rhododendron (Rhododendron macrophyllum) Pink-flowering currant (Ribes nevadensis) a Red osier (Cornus sericea) 



























 

 

 

 





 



















 















looking for patterns in vegetation

57

table 4. (continued) Species Shasta snow-wreath (Neviusia cliftonii) Sierra willow (Salix eastwoodiae) Sitka alder (Alnus viridis ssp. sinuata) Spice bush (Calycanthus occidentalis) Spiraea (Spiraea douglasii) Swamp currant (Ribes lacustre) Thinleaf huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) Vine maple (Acer circinatum) Western azalea (Rhododendron occidentale)* White mountain heather (Cassiope mertensiana)

LowBES

a

a

a a

MonBES

SubB

MonBWS











 



 







LowBWS



 



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a Trees and shrubs at Hosselkus Limestone Research Natural Area in the Sacramento River watershed. b Conifers at Horse Range Creek in the Scott River watershed. c Conifers at Russian Peak in Salmon Mountains including the Horse Range Creek site. d Conifers at Cliff and Twin Lakes in the Trinity Mountains. e Conifers at Bear Basin Butte Botanical Area in the Siskiyou Mountains. f Conifers at Broken Rib Botanical Area in the Siskiyou Mountains g Conifers at Rock Creek Research Natural Area in the Siskiyou Mountains. source: The belts and sections follow the text: LowBES = low-elevation belt of the eastern section; MonBES = montane belt of the eastern section; SubB = subalpine belt; MonBWS = montane belt of the western section; LowBWS = low-elevation belt of the western section. * = shrubs on serpentine substrates in LowBWS; † = low-elevation chaparral species; ‡ = montane chaparral species; § = nonnative shrubs.

forests are extensive. Species considered “montane” in other parts of the state grow here at the lowest elevations. Montane and subalpine forests are similar to those in the Sierra Nevada, but rather than being in mostly continuous belts, they exist as isolated patches. Trees grow to the tops of the highest peaks, and herbaceous plants that grow in the alpine zone of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada occur here at subalpine elevations. Applying the Sierra Nevada model to the mountains of the North Coast requires further modification. Foothill woodlands and chaparral represent the low-elevation belt on the eastern side of the mountains, as in the Sierra Nevada, but forests are also present. Montane and subalpine forests form belts similar to those of the Klamath Mountains and Sierra Nevada, though

table 5. Common meadow plants of the montane and subalpine belts in the Klamath Mountains. Eastern Montane Meadows on limestone and metasedimentary substrates Mesic to Dry Upland Meadows Alpine knotweed (Polygonum phytolaccifolium) Angelica (Angelica tomentosa) Arrowhead butterweed (Senecio triangularis) Blue wild rye (Elymus glaucus) California ligusticum (Ligusticum californicum) Cow-parsnip (Heracleum lanatum) Davis’ knotweed (Polygonum davisiae) Great red Indian paintbrush (Castilleja miniata) Leafy aster (Symphyotrichum hendersonii) Many-stemmed sedge (Carex multicostata) Meadow barley (Hordeum brachyantherum) Mountain larkspur (Delphinium glaucum) Roemer’s fescue (Festuca roemeri) Rush-lily (Hastingsia alba)

Squirreltail (Elymus elymoides) Thin bent grass (Agrostis diegoensis) Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) on granitic substrates Dry Meadows American vetch (Vicia americana) Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) Bugle hedge-nettle (Stachys ajugoides) Columbia needle grass (Stipa nelsonii) Corn-lily (Veratrum californicum) Jessica’s stickweed (Hackelia micrantha) Mountain brome (Bromus marginatus) Phacelia (Phacelia mutabilis) Yampah (Perideridia gairdneri) Meadows in Depressions and around Lakes Beaked sedge (Carex rostrata) Cinquefoil (Potentilla flabellifolia) Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia palustris) Interior sedge (Carex interior) Rocky sedge (Carex scopulorum) Sheep-lovage (Ligusticum grayi) Showy sedge (Carex spectabilis) Sierra sailor caps (Dodecatheon jeffreyi)

Subalpine Meadows on limestone and metasedimentary substrates Dry Meadows Corn-lily (Veratrum californicum) Curly blue grass (Poa secunda) Few-flower oat grass (Danthonia unispicata) Low sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula) Mountain mint (Monardella odoratissima) Naked buckwheat (Eriogonum nudum) Roemer’s fescue (Festuca roemeri) Spilt-hair Indian paintbrush (Castilleja schizotrichia)

Sulfur-flower buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) Tall buckwheat (Eriogonum elatum) Wavyleaf Indian paintbrush (Castilleja applegatei) on granitic substrates Dry Meadows Brewer’s lupine (Lupinus breweri) Cushion buckwheat (Eriogonum ovalifolium) Pussy paws (Calyptridium monosperma) Western needle grass (Stipa occidentalis)

table 5. (continued) Subalpine Meadows (continued) cracks in glaciated rock and pockets of sand and gravel

Mertens’ rush ( Juncus mertensianus) Sierra sailor caps (Dodecatheon jeffreyi) Smooth-beaked sedge (Carrex integra) Wandering daisy (Erigeron peregrinus) Western bistort (Polygonum bistortoides)

Alpine lady fern (Athyrium distentifolium) Alpine saxifrage (Saxifraga tolmiei) Mountain heather (Cassiope mertensiana) Mountain jewel flower (Streptanthus tortuosus) Parry’s rush ( Juncus parryi) Parsley fern (Cryptogramma acrostichoides) Partridge foot (Leutkea pectinata) Pride-of-the-mountains (Penstemon newberryi var. berryi) Sierra stonecrop (Sedum obtusatum) Spreading phlox (Phlox diffusa) Western needlegrass (Stipa occidentalis)

Dry Meadows Drummond’s anemone (Anemone drummondii) Naked-stemmed hawkbeard (Crepis pleurocarpa) Narrow false oat (Trisetum spicatum) Nuttall’s sandwort (Minuartia nuttallii) Scarlet-gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) Sierran star tulip (Calochortus nudus) Siskiyou Mountain owl’s clover (Orthocarpus cuspidatus)

Around Lakes, Seeps along Streamsides, and Areas of Late Snowmelt Arrowhead butterweed (Senecio triangularis) Cascade heather (Cassiope mertensiana) Dwarf bilberry (Vaccinium cespitosum) Fringed cotton grass (Eriophorum crinigerum) Lakeshore sedge (Carex lenticularis)

Meadows in Depressions and around Lakes Alpine laurel (Kalmia microphylla) Cascade heather (Phyllodoce empetriformis) Marsh-marigold (Caltha leptosepala) Mountain hair grass (Deschampsia caespitosa) Rocky Mountain sedge (Carex scopulorum) Sierra rush (Juncus nevadensis) Siskiyou sedge (Carex gigas) Sneezeweed (Helenium bigelovii)

plants of serpentine substrates

Western Montane Meadows Dry Meadows Pine lupine (Lupinus albicaulis) Pussy paws (Calyptridium monosperma) Sulfur-flower buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellata) Western needle grass (Stipa occidentalis) Meadows in Depressions and around Lakes Beaked sedge (Carex rostrata)

Bog bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) Cascade lousewort (Pedicularis atollens) Congdon’s bulrush (Scirpus congdonii) Green false hellebore (Veratrum viride) Shooting star (Dodecatheon alpinum) Sneezeweed (Helenium bigelovii) Tiger lily (Lilium pardalinum) White marsh-marigold (Caltha leptosepala ssp. howellii) (continued)

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table 5. (continued) Serpentine Substrates at Low Elevations Serpentine Barrens Bear-grass (Xerophyllum tenax) Bolander’s hawkweed (Hieracium bolanderi) California fescue (Festuca californica) California oat grass (Danthonia californica) Howell’s horkelia (Horkelia sericata) Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) Knight’s pinemat (Arctostaphylos x parvifolia) McDonald’s rock cress (Arabis macdonaldiana) Pussy-ears (Calochortus tolmiei) Roemer’s fescue (Festuca roemeri) Running juniper ( Juniperus communis var. jackii) Siskiyou mat (Ceanothus pumilus) Siskiyou pussytoes (Antennaria suffrutescens) Darlingtonia Fens Darlingtonia (Darlingtonia californica) Bog asphodel (Narthecium californicum)

Brown-headed rush ( Juncus phaeocephalus) Butterwort (Pinguicula macroura) California coffeeberry (Frangula californica ssp. occidentalis) California lady-slipper (Cypripedium californicum) Del Norte willow (Salix delnortensis) Fringed cotton-grass (Eriophorum crinigerum) Labrador-tea (Ledum glandulosa) Port Orford–cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) Tufted pine grass (Calamagrostis keolerioides) Western azalea (Rhododendron occidentalis) Western bog violet (Viola primulifolia ssp. occidentalis) Western great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) Western white pine (Pinus monticola)

source: Meadow descriptions on limestone and metasedimentary substrates are from the eastern Marble Mountains near King’s Castle (Stillman 1980; Murray 1990). Meadow descriptions for granitic substrates are from the Salmon Mountains and Trinity Alps (Palmer 1979; Smith and Sawyer 2006). Meadow descriptions on ultramafic substrates are from the Trinity Mountains (Whipple 1981). Darlingtonia fen and serpentine barren descriptions are from my personal notes.

the highest belt is restricted to the Yolla Bolly Mountains. The low-elevation belt on the western side of the North Coast Ranges is composed of low mountains and river valleys, not foothills, and it contains forests, grasslands, and woodlands. Treating the forests of the Klamath Mountains and North Coast separately might give the impression that forests of the two regions are fundamentally different, but many similarities exist, especially between the western Klamath Mountains and the northern portion of the North Coast. In the Klamath Mountains, forest variation from east to west is sufficient to recognize a western Klamath and an eastern Klamath pattern. The low-

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Figure 4. Overall forest pattern in the Klamath Mountains. The figure represents a person facing north. The two mountain ranges are dissected by the Klamath River. The left side represents the Siskiyou Mountains that occur west and north of the river. The right side would be the Trinity Alps, Marble, Trinity, and other mountains of the region.

elevation belt on the western side of the North Coast Ranges is composed of coastal and interior portions; the coastal portion involves both a northern and a southern part. These distinctions help to organize the complex set of forest types that exist in northwest California.

The Low-Elevation Belt Redwood and tanoak of the coastal portion of the North Coast and the western Klamath are associated with maritime-influenced climates. An influx of marine air up the canyons of all the river valleys, particularly during the summer, is mainly the result of the daily heating of the interior. On the North Coast, the eastern limits of redwood and tanoak are similar in the Eel, Mad, and Redwood Creek watersheds, but in the more northerly Klamath and Smith river watersheds redwood is limited to the North Coast by the serpentine substrates of Josephine outcrop. Tanoak continues eastward to the Smith River and into the western portions of the Klamath, Salmon, and Trinity River watersheds where the forests are made up of Douglas-fir and tanoak (Pl. 15).

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Figure 5. Overall forest pattern in the North Coast. The figure represents a person facing north. The eastside slopes are steep. The more gentle western side grades into the interior portion of the western section. The interior portion narrows to the north and ends in Redwood Creek watershed. North of the Klamath River, the coastal portion abuts the Klamath Mountains directly.

The climate is more continental east of the range of redwood and tanoak in both the North Coast and Klamath Mountains. Isolated patches of tanoak also exist in the relatively wet parts of the Sacramento River watershed; otherwise, the eastern Klamath, the interior portion of the North Coast, and its east side lack tanoak at low elevations. Instead, forests contain Douglas-fir, ghost pine, and ponderosa pine.

The Montane Belt Extensive forests dominated by white fir distinguish midelevation climates throughout northwest California (Pl. 16). These forests exist at elevations above the range of tanoak in the northern part of the coastal North Coast and western Klamath. Elsewhere, white fir’s presence as the common forest tree marks the low elevation–montane boundary. The montane-subalpine boundary is associated with the common occurrence of either noble fir or Shasta fir. Three closely related firs grow at high elevations in the northern part of California. Noble fir grows north and west of the Klamath River in the Siskiyou Mountains. Shasta fir, considered a hybrid between noble and red fir (Abies magnifica), grows in the mountain ranges south and east of the Klamath River and in the North Coast Ranges. Red fir grows in the Cas-

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cades and in the Sierra Nevada. Because noble fir and Shasta fir have similar natural histories, either species defines the upper boundary of the montane belt in northwest California.

The Subalpine Belt Forests with mountain hemlock, noble fir, Shasta fir, or woodlands with high-elevation pines characterize the subalpine elevations (Pl. 17). This belt is restricted to the tops of isolated peaks and ridges in the Klamath Mountains and South Yolla Bolly Mountains in the North Coast. THE EFFECTS OF PARENT MATERIAL

Serpentine outcrops interrupt the region’s broad forest patterns (Pl. 18). Northwest California has the distinction of having the most diverse serpentine flora and vegetation in western North America. These outcrops occur over a wide range of elevations and climatic conditions, and they contribute significantly to the region’s uniqueness. From the viewpoint of geologists, serpentine substrates are a set of igneous and metamorphic rocks rich in magnesium and iron relative to silicon. They are high in heavy metals. The igneous rock types, referred to as peridotite, can be altered into serpentine by hydration. Serpentine minerals create a waxy, shiny, thin-layered rock that, under most conditions, is easily weathered. Some outcrops in the Klamath Mountains are massive; the Josephine and Trinity ophiolites are the largest in North America. Another sizable set of smaller outcrops in the southern Klamath Mountains is referred to as the Rattlesnake Terrane. Many outcrops of the North Coast Range ophiolite are small and embedded in rocks of the Franciscan complex, where serpentine is often associated with seeps and springs. Granite is a very different kind of igneous rock. Light colored, it contains minerals that are high in silicon and low in magnesium and iron relative to peridotite. Between these extremes lie granodiorite, diorite, and gabbro with increasing amounts of magnesium and iron. Geologists refer to granodiorite and diorite as granitic rock, gabbro as mafic rock, and peridotite as ultramafic rock. Granitic intrusions in northwest California are mostly diorite, and, in many cases, intrusions of diorite, peridotite, and gabbro exist side by side for easy comparison. Soils developed from granitic rocks are high in nutrients needed for plant growth. Calcium occurs in a form available for plant use. Granitic rock weathers, shatters at depth, and disintegrates into decomposed granite, or grus, as the pieces become exposed at the surface through erosion. Soils are commonly deep, with high water-holding capabilities, but surface layers dry quickly.

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SERPENTINE FACTOR

Sparse woodlands of stunted trees and barrens, even in the wettest parts, interrupt the extensive dense forests with large trees that characterize northwest California. These outcrops are a very special part of northwest California’s landscape. They contain ultramafic rocks (peridotite, serpentine, and associated rock types) that are high in (ultra-) ferromagnesian (mafic—magnesium [Mg] and iron [Fe]) minerals. Arthur Kruckeberg, in his review of serpentine vegetation in Savannas, Barrens, and Rock Outcrop Plant Communities of North America, notes that “serpentine has been used adjectivally (and even as a noun) by botanists in a broad generic sense to stand for rock, minerals, soils, flora, vegetation, habitats, and even landscapes.” Plants that grow on these rocks have fascinated botanists for centuries. Andrea Caesalpino described the serpentine barrens in northern Italy in 1583, and many botanists have worked ever since to explain what Kruckeberg calls the “serpentine factor.” Why are the plants stunted and sparse? Why are some plants never found here, and others nowhere else? The bewildering batch of terms used by both geologists and botanists clouds explanations. Beginning from the geologist’s viewpoint might be best. Peridotite, the basement rock type of the area’s terranes, is abundant in the mineral olivine (FeMgSiO3). Rocks are crystalline, dark, and coarse grained. Unlike granite, peridotite is high in magnesium and iron; low in silica; often high in nickel, cobalt, and chromium; and generally low in calcium, potassium, and sodium. The rocks are massive, dark, and resistant to weathering. When exposed to air, rock surfaces slowly become brick red as iron oxidizes. Different kinds of peridotite (dunite, harzburgite, lherzolite, webstersite) vary in mineral composition. More important, seawater or groundwater can interact with the minerals in peridotite at low pressures, creating a suite of serpentine minerals (antigorite, clinochr ysotile, lizardite, or thochr ysotile, parachr ysotile) that differ from one another in the spatial arrangement of their ions. This special process of hydration, called serpentinization, probably occurs beneath the ocean during subduction or during mountain-building periods when rocks are squeezed upward along faults. Geologists call rocks composed of serpentine minerals serpentine or serpentinite. Serpentine rocks split easily, glisten, and are waxy in appearance and soapy to the feel. Serpentine’s color varies greatly from nearly completely black or white, often variously mottled in shades of green and gray—much like a serpent. Asbestos is a fibrous form of chrysotile minerals. This suite of rocks, which I refer to elsewhere in the book as “serpentine substrates,” occurs throughout northwest California, the Central Coast, the Sierra Nevada, and worldwide. Northwest California has the largest outcrops of ultramafic rock in North America in the Josephine and Trinity ophiolites. These outcrops distinguish entire landscapes in the Klamath Mountains. Peridotite is the major rock type in these outcrops, but they also contain gabbro and variously metamorphosed rock

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types, including serpentine. The North Coast ophiolite is commonly composed of serpentine, and isolated local lenses elsewhere are associated with faults within other rock types of very different chemical makeup. Many serpentine outcrops in the North Coast Ranges are a small part of the entire landscape. Serpentine Plants A plant needs the appropriate blend of light, water, and nutrients for successful growth. A serpentine substrate of scattered stunted plants and sparse plant cover offers plenty of light for photosynthesis to create plant tissues in the presence of sufficient water and nutrients. Water, however, is often a problem, since little of it is stored in serpentine soils for plant use; soils are thin and dry quickly. Those developed from other ultramafic rock types vary greatly in soil depth and water-holding capacity, but all soils from ultramafic rock types are infertile. The macronutrients needed for growth include nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. All exist at low levels in ultramafic soils, whereas other elements, such as magnesium, iron, boron, cobalt, chromium, and nickel, are at high, even toxic levels for many plants. Calcium may not be available to plants because of the high levels of magnesium, which restricts uptake by plants. In addition, calcium content in these substrates is extremely low. High levels of nickel pose a special problem. Most plant species are not adapted to live under these adverse conditions. On the other hand, an interesting set of plants called serpentine indicators has evolved a tolerance to these conditions, and they are restricted to these soils. These plants can absorb sufficient calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium even when these minerals are at low levels. Some, such as Kneeland Prairie pennycress, exclude nickel and other heavy metals; others, called hyperaccumulators, even sequester nickel in a nontoxic form in the plants themselves. Plants adapted to “normal” soils, when grown in ultramafic substrates, especially serpentine, may fail to establish, grow slowly, or show nutrient deficiencies. These conditions do not prevent all species from growing on serpentine. Some widespread species, such as yarrow (Achillea millefolium), have ecological races adapted to these conditions. The overall appearance of plants growing in serpentine is distinctive. Woody plants have small, stiff, long-lasting, evergreen (sclerophyllous) leaves with physiological methods for holding onto nutrients as the plant sheds old leaves. Plants are short and have extensive root systems, which suggests that most of their energy goes into maintenance and slow growth. Herbs have short growing seasons. They are annuals; slow-growing perennials that create low mats; or plants that sprout, leaf out, and flower from a bulb, rootstock, or a root crown near the soil surface. In other words, the appearance of the vegetation reveals the presence of serpentine substrates.

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In addition to granitic and serpentine substrates, there are many other igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock types in northwest California. Ecologists consider soils derived from these rocks as “normal” in terms of their fertility and water-holding capabilities. They support similar forest types. Metamorphosed sedimentary and volcanic rocks and limestone are common in the Klamath Mountains. Except for limestone, these rocks share the character of having a mixed mineralogy and a lack of heavy metals. They support similar forests. Even limestone weathers into soils that support similar forests. Graywacke, mudstone, and sandstone rocks and their metamorphic equivalents on the North Coast also have the mixed mineralogy character. With these points in mind, we reduce the important vegetation substrate comparisons to two, vegetation on and off serpentine substrates. Outcrops with gabbro rock have vegetation patterns that are similar to those on serpentine substrates.

THE MANY VEGETATION TYPES OF NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA

Discussions of the vegetation of northwest California typically begin by describing the redwood forests, but let’s follow the orientation of this book and start with the vegetation patterns in the eastern sections. These patterns are most like those in the rest of the state and least like those in the temperate rainforests along the lower Smith River, which are most similar to those of coastal Oregon and Washington. This discussion sandwiches the subalpine belt between the eastern and western sections and their elevation belts, as if you were traveling west from Redding through the mountains to Arcata. Likewise, on the North Coast, the montane belt separates the east side and west side sections. Assume that you are traveling west from Willows in the Sacramento Valley over the mountains to Garberville, and then north to Crescent City. In discussing each belt, I will lay out the section’s location and overall pattern, and only treat individual watersheds that have a special character.

Low Elevations in the Eastern Klamath Low-elevation vegetation occurs below 3,500 feet on the foothills and in the canyons of Sacramento River and upriver from Hamburg on the Klamath River and Scott River, Sawyers Bar and Cecilville on the Salmon River, and Burnt Ranch and Hyampom on the Trinity River. Stands of Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine make up the most extensive forest type, and individual coniferous trees grow in the chaparral or as small forest stands on the more sheltered slopes as low as 1,000 feet. Stands of knobcone pine or ghost pine are common and extensive, often mixing

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with chaparral containing chamise, deer brush, or several species of manzanita. Hardwood stands alternate with mixed stands of conifers and oaks. Jennifer Chambers and I found that the most sheltered slopes support mainly Douglas-fir. Cottonwoods, white alder, and willows line the streams. Valley oak reaches its northern limit. Shallow serpentine soils support open stands of Jeffrey pine or ponderosa pine and swaths of wedgeleaf ceanothus. Forests inhabiting the deeper serpentine soils are comparable to the surrounding forests off serpentine substrates. Logging and fumes from copper smelters destroy many low-elevation forests along the Sacramento River during the mining years. Today the slopes are clothed in whiteleaf manzanita and a scattering of ghost and ponderosa pines. Chaparral is less extensive upriver away from mining districts, where individual chaparral shrubs grow under the conifers. Bigleaf maple creates sizable stands without conifers on steep, north-facing slopes. Many forest stands surrounding Squaw Creek originated after a fire in 1910. Fires that were more recent have resulted in sizable stands of knobcone pine in the western parts of the watershed. Areas with serpentine substrates west along I 5 support forest patterns similar to those on limestone east of the freeway. A small slice of eastern section vegetation exists at low elevations in the upriver reaches of the Salmon River. Hardwoods mingle conspicuously with Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine on all but the driest sites, where canyon live oak becomes common. Isolated patches of Oregon white oak inhabit the thinnest of soils. The northernmost stand of ghost pine grows along the South Fork on serpentine substrates. Black cottonwood replaces Fremont as the cottonwood along the Trinity River, where it conspicuously lines the river with narrowleaf willow below Lewiston Dam. Upland slopes, mostly clothed with Douglas-fir and pines, have isolated patches of oak, especially canyon live oak. Jeffrey pine is restricted to serpentine substrates along the South Fork. Blue oak woodlands inhabit the Hayfork and Hyampom valleys, isolated from the Central Valley and from the foothills of the Trinity Mountains. Recently burned or logged lands are awash in white or light blue sprays of deer brush or wedgeleaf ceanothus in the spring. California buckeye, toyon, hollyleaf redberry, and western redbud are present as groups or as individual plants in the forest openings and woodlands. Stands of Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine are uncommon around the Scott Valley and north of the Klamath River. Instead, extensive woodlands of Oregon white oak and western juniper have the look of the woodlands of the Modoc Plateau, with big sagebrush and rubber rabbit brush mixed with wedgeleaf ceanothus; water birch grows along the watercourses. It is easy to forget that you are in the Klamath Mountains.

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Montane in the Eastern Klamath White fir forests occur between 3,500 and 6,900 feet on the mountain slopes above the Sacramento River and upstream from Hamburg on the Klamath River and Burnt Ranch and Hyampom on the Trinity River. The Scott Valley itself falls just below the belt, but montane elevations are found in the Scott and Salmon River mountains surrounding it. The pattern in the mountains is a broad mosaic of forest and chaparral types. Mixed forest stands occur at elevations below 5,600 feet. Occasionally white fir dominates; at other times, the dominant species is incense-cedar; or the two mix equally with Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, and sugar pine. Tree trunks sport the chartreuse, fruticose wolf lichen. Mountain dogwood is a common understory tree. On drier sites, black or canyon live oaks mingle with the conifers, forming open tree canopies and understories containing huckleberry oak and other chaparral species. At elevations above 5,600 feet, Shasta fir first enters the forests; with elevation, it becomes the only tree. These pure Shasta fir forests represent the upper limits of the belt. Noble fir replaces Shasta fir in the Siskiyou Mountains. Stands of knobcone pine throughout the belt attest to a rich fire history, as do sizable tracts of chaparral. Many of these shrub patches will return eventually to forest in places with deep soil, but steep slopes with thin soils will continue to support shrubs. These areas lack conditions needed for successful tree seedling establishment. Sadler oak joins other chaparral shrubs in the Marbles, as does bush tanoak in the eastern Alps and Trinity Mountains. Greenleaf manzanita, tobacco brush, or wedgeleaf ceanothus commonly dominates old clear-cuts and recently burned areas. Black laurel forms nearly pure stands under forest canopies on the alluvial flats. The interlocking stems of mountain alder create pure thickets, or the alder mixes with other creekside shrubs. Meadows abound at these elevations, and they are most awe-inspiring in the eastern Marble Mountains. They rival famous ones on Mount Rainier for their luxuriance and floristic diversity (Pl. 19). Mesic lower slopes and valley bottoms with deep, loamy soils that developed from metasedimentary substrates support tall, dense, herb-rich meadows with more than 50 species. The more xeric upper slopes and ridges with fluffy soils support meadows of bunch grasses and herbs with half the richness. Ken Stillman, Michael Murray, and I studied these meadows over two decades. Stillman began in the late 1970s, selecting meadows that had a light grazing history; Murray resampled these meadows a decade later. To our surprise, the two meadow types changed only slightly in composition. The herb-rich type had actually increased in species numbers. It was unclear whether these results were related to a low snowpack relative to earlier decades or to the elimination of livestock in the 1960s.

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Unlike the meadows in the Marble Mountains, many in the Trinity Alps developed from granitic substrates. These meadows are less extensive and more restricted to wet sites, and they differ in composition from those in the Marbles. By working with John Palmer and Ryan Ross, I have also come to appreciate the montane meadows in the eastern Alps. Meadows in depressions and around lakes are rich in sedges and herbs, such as sheeplovage, Sierra sailor caps, and yampah. Dry meadows contain bracken, hedge-nettle, stickweed, and vetch. Big sagebrush dots the dry slopes. Many livestock allotments are still active in the eastern Klamath, but the number of cattle is far below that reported for Trinity County in the late 1800s. Ridges and upper slopes with a heavy grazing history have a sparse cover of unpalatable lupines, bracken, or pussy paws. Several wetter meadows with extensive patches of corn-lily, which is poisonous to livestock, attest to years of grazing. Fir trees are invading many meadows, especially those on the upper slopes and ridges. The montane pattern on serpentine substrates is similar to that at low elevations in the eastern Klamath. Open stands of Jeffrey or ponderosa pine forests occur on the drier sites with shallow soils. Mixed forests similar to surrounding stands off serpentine substrates occupy deeper soils. Extensive stands of desert mountain-mahogany exist on gabbro in the northern Trinity and eastern Scott mountains, where they intermingle with fir forests and Jeffrey pine woodlands. Wedgeleaf ceanothus and whiteleaf manzanita are common in the chaparral.

Subalpine of Northwest California In the Klamath Mountains, subalpine forests and woodlands exist on the highest ridges and peaks above 6,900 feet in the Siskiyou, Marble, and Salmon mountains, in the Trinity Alps, and in the Trinity and North Yolla Bolly mountains (Pl. 20). In the North Coast, the subalpine belt is represented by stands on Mount Linn in the South Yolla Bolly Mountains. Granitic and peridotite outcrops share boundaries in many parts of the Klamath Mountains, making for dramatic landscapes; dense forests on granite suddenly become open woodlands on serpentine substrates. Granitic outcrops are extensive in the Trinity Alps and in mountain ranges other than the Yolla Bollys. Serpentine and gabbro substrates are extensive in the Trinity Mountains, and they occur in the Marble and Siskiyou mountains and in the Trinity Alps. In the Klamath ranges, dense mountain hemlock stands on granite near streams grade into upland stands of mountain hemlock and Shasta fir. They give way to pure Shasta fir on the driest slopes. Nearly pure stands of mountain hemlock are typical on north-facing slopes. Noble fir replaces

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Shasta fir in the Siskiyou Mountains. All forests have only occasional sprigs of pipsissewa or white-veined shinleaf under the trees. Serpentine and gabbro localities support open woodlands of varying pine composition with understory shrubs much like those of the montane belt. The dense forest stand of foxtail pine on Mount Eddy is the exception. The open character of the vegetation makes the distinction between woodland and chaparral rather arbitrary as both have isolated trees or patches of shrubs. In the North Coast, Franciscan sediments on Mount Linn and nearby peaks support open woodlands of foxtail and Jeffrey pines. Subalpine meadows grace the highest elevations of the Marble, Salmon, and Trinity mountains and especially the Trinity Alps. The easily eroded metamorphic and serpentine substrates, though glaciated, have rounded ridges with rocky, thin soils with rapid internal drainage. Ridges and upper slopes maintain little snow in the winter. Soils deepen downslope, and the meadows shift to the wet meadows in basins and around lakes. Serpentine substrates develop “dry meadows” that are little more than scattered herbs and grasses in a matrix of sand and gravel. Granitic substrates offer very different conditions at high elevations. Unglaciated slopes are composed of grus. Glaciated surfaces differ notably, since glacial action was mostly erosional at these elevations. The scene of bare, even polished, erratic rocks clutter smooth bedrock in cirque basins set below steep slopes and cliffs. Glaciers traveling down to the valleys left moraines in the montane belt. Sediments have collected in the depressions, creating conditions for local wet meadows. Murray and Stillman also studied the higher, dry meadows that occur on the ridges and upper slopes in the metamorphic eastern Marble Mountains, where low sagebrush mixes with buckwheats, Indian paintbrushes, and Roemer’s fescue. Jennifer Whipple and I studied the Mount Eddy meadows that occur on serpentine substrates. Dry meadows have a scattering of anemones, sandworts, scarlet gilia, and other herbs. Wet meadows contain sedges, marsh marigold, mountain hairgrass, and white mountain heather. Granitic slopes of grus in the Salmon Mountains and Trinity Alps support mats of Brewer’s lupine and cushion buckwheat. Cracks in glaciated rock and small pockets of sand and gravel maintain a rich mix of dry- and wet-adapted shrubs, herbs, and grasses. Patches of Cascade heather, dwarf bilberry, and white mountain heather stand out on the bedrock. Wet soils around lakesides seeps along streamsides, and areas of late snowmelt support sedges, cotton-grass, and many herbs. Talus supports alpine saxifrage, alpine lady fern, mountain sorrel, and other species of the land above the trees.

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Montane of the Western Klamath Montane forests occur between 3,500 and 6,900 feet on slopes above the upper Smith River and downstream from Hamburg on the Klamath River and Burnt Ranch and Hyampom on the Trinity River. I discussed the pattern in the Salmon Mountain watershed in the eastern Klamath section. Elsewhere at montane elevations, the character of the vegetation contrasts sharply by substrate, much more so than in the eastern section. The overall pattern is a grand mosaic of contrasting forest and chaparral types. Douglas-fir and true fir dominate the forests; gone is the mixed character seen in the eastern section. Port Orford–cedar grows along the streams. Stands of Douglas-fir on mesic sites shift on the slopes to mixed stands of Douglas-fir and hardwoods, especially oaks, on drier upper slopes. White fir dominates at midelevations; Brewer spruce grows in isolated pockets. Above 4,900 feet, noble fir or Shasta fir mixes with white fir; above 5,400 feet, at the lower edge of the subalpine belt, the stands are almost pure noble fir or Shasta fir. Patterns on serpentine substrates are very different. Stands of Douglasfir and Port Orford–cedar, with individual trees of western white pine and white fir, grow in areas with deep soils; Douglas-fir or western white pine form open-canopied forests with shrub layers of sclerophyllous shrubs on thin soils. Widely spaced Jeffrey pine trees tower over Roemer’s fescue and bear-grass on the driest sites. Off serpentine substrates, forests shift directly to chaparral. These shrublands occur on steep slopes, thin soils, or areas recently burned or logged. Pure stands of deerbrush, greenleaf manzanita, Sadler oak, or tobacco brush are common in tree plantations in the old clear-cuts until trees crowd out the shrubs over time. Low Elevations in the Western Klamath Low-elevation forests occur below 3,500 feet on the mountain slopes and in the canyons above the Smith River, downstream from Hamburg on the Klamath River, Sawyers Bar and Cecilville on the Salmon River, and Burnt Ranch and Hyampom on the Trinity River. Red alder borders the downstream portions of the Smith River. White alder occurs elsewhere as the streamside tree. On substrates other than serpentine, forest stands of Port Orford–cedar and Douglas-fir on lower slopes grade into stands of Douglas-fir and tanoak, which merge into stands of Douglas-fir and canyon live oak, which give way to mixed oak stands on the driest sites. Douglas-fir towers over hardwoods, forming two-tiered forests on the slopes.

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Stands of Oregon white oak and/or black oak are sizable in the canyons, often occurring on steep slopes with thin soils. California brome is the common grass under the oaks. Meadows are local and small, occurring mainly as openings in the oak woodlands, many at the toes of old landslides. Canyon live oak coats steep canyon walls with rocky soils. Chaparral shrubs grow on nonserpentine substrates as individual plants in forest openings and in woodlands. California buckeye, common manzanita, and toyon reach their northern range limits in California in the Salmon River country. Serpentine substrates offer very different patterns. Stands of Port Orford–cedar and Douglas-fir line the streams, which merge into stands of Douglas-fir and/or western white pine with understories of sclerophyllous shrubs, which grade into open stands of Jeffrey pine on the driest sites with the thinnest soils. These serpentine barrens form a mosaic with the area’s forests and diverse shrublands that is related to the peridotite-serpentine character in the underlying rocks. Mixed in this mosaic are the famous Darlingtonia californica fens of the Smith River. These shrublands are unique in California. They are a mixture of 14 species, some considered by botanists as high-elevation (e.g., huckleberry oak), some as coastal (e.g., red huckleberry), and others as endemic (e.g., running juniper). In contrast, monotonous patches of wedgeleaf ceanothus stand out on serpentine substrates in the middle Klamath River country. A large portion of these forests and shrublands were involved in the Biscuit Fire in 2002 that burned 600,000 acres of northwest California and southwest Oregon.

Enriched Stands of the Klamath Mountains In 1970, Dale Thornburgh and I discovered a stand of trees along Horse Range Creek in the Salmon Mountains that contained 11 conifer species. Petra Bingham’s study and our survey of the adjacent Duck Lake and Sugar Creek watersheds added 6 more, for a total of 17 species in one square mile. We held it to be the richest coniferous locale in the world (Pl. 21). Since then, several other enriched stands have developed throughout the Klamath Mountains. Todd Keeler-Wolf discovered a stand with 10 conifers around Cliff Lake and Twin Lakes in the Trinity Mountains. It occurs not in the montane belt, as is the case in the Salmon Mountains, but in the subalpine. An enriched stand in Bear Basin Butte Botanical Area west of the Siskiyou crest has another mixture of 16 conifers. A third stand, with 9 conifers, occurs nearby in the Siskiyou Mountains at Rock Creek Butte Research Natural Area. Both stands are in the montane belt and contrast with Broken Rib Mountain Botanical Area, which is at low elevations and has madrone, tanoak, Brewer spruce, and 6 other conifers. Recently,

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17 conifers were observed in one square mile in the Crystal Peak area of Mount Rainier National Park. I take up the question of why these stands exist in the next chapter.

East Side of the North Coast Low-elevation vegetation east of the mountain crest and below 3,500 feet occurs in the foothills and canyons of Cottonwood, Elder, Thomes, Grindstone, and Stony creek watersheds. The pattern is a strong mosaic with forests, chaparral, and oak woodlands (Table 6). This section is the most like the rest of California. Open stands, of blue oak and ghost pine, mingle in the foothills and valley bottoms. Grasslands of mainly introduced annual grasses and early spring wildflowers bring forth displays of glorious color as the deciduous oaks leaf out. Closedcanopied woodlands of black oak over California fescue occupy higher elevations in the belt. Chaparral clothes the steepest slopes. Ghost pine mixes with canyon live oak on north-facing slopes. Extensive knobcone pine stands occur, scattered on the foothills. Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine become common in stands of black oak as elevation exceeds 2,000 feet. Evergreen oaks cover the steep, rocky slopes. Sites of serpentine substrates with thin soils support closed-cone forests of McNab or Sargent cypress and chaparral (Pl. 22). Forests occupying deeper, more productive soils are similar to those on Great Valley and Franciscan substrates. Composition of the chaparral and woodlands strongly relates to substrate type. Leather oak and musk bush signal serpentine; birchleaf mountainmahogany and scrub oak suggest other substrates. Pure or mixed areas of chamise, wedgeleaf ceanothus, and whiteleaf manzanita exist on both. Individual trees or groves of ghost pine grow among the chaparral shrubs. Brewer oak forms large patches at somewhat higher elevations, especially on exposed ridges of Franciscan substrates. Localized seeps in the chaparral, called glades, add greatly to the area’s floristic diversity.

Montane of the North Coast Montane forests above 3,500 feet follow the crest of the North Coast Ranges and Yolla Bolly Mountains north along the North Coast–Klamath boundary. Almost all of the highest elevations of the North Coast mountains are in the montane belt. Only the summits of Mount Lynn in the South Yolla Bolly Mountains exceed the 6,900-foot upper boundary; the summit of Snow Mountain barely surpasses it. Patterns in the montane of the North Coast are similar to those of the eastern Klamath.

table 6. Common and notable trees and shrubs that make up the vegetation pattern in the North Coast. Species common and notable conifers California juniper ( Juniperus californica) Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) Ghost pine (Pinus sabiniana) Grand fir (Abies grandis) Incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) Knobcone pine (Pinus attenuata) McNab cypress (Cupressus macnabiana) Mountain juniper ( Juniperus occidentalis var. australis) Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) Port Orford–cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) Sargent cypress (Cupressus sargentii) Shasta fir (Abies x shastensis) Shore pine (Pinus contorta ssp. contorta) Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) Sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) Western red-cedar (Thuja plicata) Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) White fir (Abies concolor) common and notable upland hardwoods Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) Black oak (Quercus kelloggii) Blue oak (Quercus douglasii) California bay (Umbellularia californica) California buckeye (Aesculus californica) Canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis) Interior live oak (Quercus wislizeni)

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table 6. (continued) Species Madrone (Arbutus menziesii) Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana var. garryana) Tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus var. densiflorus) Valley oak (Quercus lobata)

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common and notable wetland trees Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum)  Black cottonwood (Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa)  Brewer willow (Salix breweri)  Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii)  Hooker willow (Salix hookeriana) Narrowleaf willow (Salix exigua)  Oregon ash (Fraxinus latifolia)  Red willow (Salix laevigata)  Red alder (Alnus rubra) Sitka willow (Salix sitchensis) White alder (Alnus rhombifolia)  common and notable shrubs Bearberry (Arctostaphylos urva-ursi) Big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) Birchleaf mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus) Bitter cherry (Prunus emarginata) Blue elderberry (Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis) Brewer oak (Quercus garryana var. breweri) California blackberry (Rubus ursinus) California coffeeberry (Frangula californica ssp. californica) California hazel (Corylus cornuta ssp. californica) California honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula) Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) Coast silk tassel (Garrya elliptica)

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table 6. (continued) Species Coast whitethorn (Ceanothus incanus) Common manzanita (Arctostaphylos manzanita) Coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis) Creeping snowberry (Symphoricarpos mollis) Deer brush (Ceanothus integerrimus) Desert mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) Eastwood manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa) Evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) Fremont silk tassel (Garrya fremontii) French broom (Genista monspesulana) Greenleaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula) Himalayan berry (Rubus discolor) Hoary coffeeberry (Frangula californica ssp. crassifolia) Hollyleaf redberry (Rhamnus ilicifolia) Huckleberry oak (Quercus vacciniifolia) Mahala mat (Ceanothus prostratus) Mountain alder (Alnus incana ssp. tenuifolia) Mountain balm (Eriodictyon californicum) Mountain maple (Acer glabrum var. torreyi) Mountain whitethorn (Ceanothus cordulatus) Musk bush (Ceanothus jepsonii) Ninebark (Physocarpus capitatus) Ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor) Pacific rhododendron (Rhododendron macrophyllum)

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table 6. (continued) Species Pacific wax-myrtle (Morella californica) Pinemat manzanita (Arctostaphylos nevadensis) Pink-flowered currant (Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum) Poison-oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) Redbud (Cercis canadensis var. orbiculata) Red huckleberry (Vaccinium parviflorum) Red osier (Cornus sericea) Rubber rabbit brush (Ericameria nauseous) Salal (Gaultheria shallon) Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) Scrub oak (Quercus berberidifolia) Seaside woolly sunflower (Eriophyllum staechadifolium) Spice bush (Calycanthus occidentalis) Stanford manzanita (Arctostaphylos stanfordiana) Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus) Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata) Wedgeleaf ceanothus (Ceanothus cuneatus) Western azalea (Rhododendron occidentale) Western serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) Whiteleaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos viscida) Wild mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii) Wood rose (Rosa gymnocarpa)

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note: The belts and sections follow the text: LowBE = low-elevation belt of the eastern section; MonB = montane belt; ipLowBW = interior portion of the low-elevation belt of the western section; cpLowBW = coastal portion of the low-elevation belt of the western section.

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In the North Coast Ranges, the montane belt is east of tanoak’s continuous range, so the presence of white fir indicates the lower boundary. In the north, tanoak grows on the lower slopes of the South Fork Mountain, so look for its absence and the presence of white fir to define the lower boundary. Montane islands west of the main crest exist around Board Camp Mountain at the headwaters of Redwood Creek and in the area of the Lassics between the Eel River’s north fork and the Van Duzen River. Forests surrounding King Peak (4,100 ft.) on the coastline lack white fir. Mixed stands of Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, and white fir characterize the lower parts of the belt. Knobcone pine stands are extensive. Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine are less important at slightly higher elevations where white fir is the common tree. With still further elevational gain, Shasta fir mixes equally with white fir. Shasta fir forests cover the highest ridges and peaks. These stands have the same impoverished ground layers seen in the Klamath Mountains. Woodlands and prairies break up the forest landscape at the lowest elevations of the montane belt. Oregon white oak is the most common woodland element. In many stands, Douglas-fir rivals oak in importance. As with the woodlands, prairies are an upper extension from the interior prairies of the low-elevation belt. Mediterranean annual grasses dominate both the prairies and the woodlands. An interesting mixture of Great Basin plants grows in the montane belt on exposed sites at higher elevations. Big sagebrush and rubber rabbit brush range as far south as St. John Mountain, near Snow Mountain. Mountain juniper occupies Soldier Ridge above the Eel River’s Middle Fork, far from its home in the Sierra Nevada and the mountains of southern California. Jeffrey pine woodlands occupy serpentine substrates at Red Mountain and in the Lassics area. Both areas, isolated by elevation, are also islands of serpentine substrates in a sea of graywacke and other Franciscan substrates.

Interior Portion of the North Coast’s West Side at Low Elevations Lands below 3,500 feet and east of the ranges of redwood and tanoak form a crude triangle with its northern apex in the Redwood Creek country. These lands continue south through the Mad and Eel river country, where they are most extensive. These are the “Bald Hills” where prairies mix with oak woodlands and forests, and all grow on mélanges and other Franciscan substrates. Prairies are extensive on the rounded ridges surrounded by woodlands; forests inhabit the steep, north-facing slopes. Mixtures of Douglas-fir, madrone, and oaks make up the forests. Stands of ghost pine and knobcone pine are scattered in the southern drainages. Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine become common with black oak above 2,000 feet. Steep rocky slopes support hardwoods.

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Six oak species grow throughout the Bald Hills. Oregon white oak is the most familiar and widespread and often the only one present. Black oak usually occurs in small numbers; it is the most abundant oak in the montane belt. Blue oak is a member of the woodlands in the Eel River country south of Round Valley. Valley oak inhabits the deep, loamy soils along the main Eel River north, almost to the Humboldt–Mendocino county line. Stands of canyon live oak and interior live oak dominate rocky sites. Canyon live oak becomes more abundant at higher elevations. California Spanish moss covers oak branches. Woodlands have mainly nonnative grasses under the oaks. Species composition of the prairies varies with the ranch’s grazing history, and you commonly find introduced annual grasses, clovers, and filarees. Degraded sites support Klamath weed and star-thistle. Tracts of chaparral enrich the Bald Hills mosaic in the Eel River country. Chamise ranges north almost to the convergence of the Eel River and its south fork. Hoary manzanita and wedgeleaf ceanothus continue into the more northerly watersheds, mainly as individual shrubs. White alder and bigleaf maple create riparian ribbons along the streams in the southern watersheds. Red alder grows along the Mad River and Redwood Creek. Elsewhere in California, incense-cedar and sugar pine are indicators of montane elevations. But near Laytonville and on more inland settings, these conifers occur on deep valley soils. Large Sargent cypress groves are restricted to serpentine substrates in Eden Valley east of Covelo. Isolated serpentine patches support incense-cedar or ghost pine woodlands and spots of leather oak chaparral throughout the southern portion of the section.

Coastal Portion of the North Coast’s West Side at Low Elevations Redwood and tanoak distinguish the coastal portion of the North Coast where nearly continuous tracts of forest exist. The Mattole and Bear river country is the exception. Here redwood lives only in the upper portions, where it grows with Douglas-fir and tanoak. An excellent example occurs at Mattole Sanctuary Forest and River Reserve near the hamlet of Whitethorn. Elsewhere, prairies and coastal scrub dominate, and stands of Douglas-fir, grand fir, or Sitka spruce lack redwood. The 4,000-foot King Range that makes up the coastline west of the Mattole River also lacks redwood. Instead, Douglas-fir, canyon live oak, and tanoak grow to the highest elevations. Recently logged forests support coast whitethorn. Redwood forests again appear as small ravine stands surrounded by forests of Douglas-fir and tanoak in Sinkyone Wilderness State Park south of the King Range.

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Redwood forests north of Humboldt Bay do not hug the immediate coastline. Instead, stretches of red alder and Sitka spruce or coastal scrub grace the coastal bluffs and headlands. Individual trees or clumps of shore pine inhabit rock outcrops. North of the Van Duzen River forests are a mixture of redwood, Douglas-fir, Port Orford–cedar, western hemlock, and western redcedar. Hardwoods are rare in these northern redwood forests. The scene is reminiscent of temperate rainforests of Washington. Ferns, especially sword fern, completely cover the ground. These are the forests of Redwood National Park and of Del Norte, Prairie, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods state parks. South of Humboldt Bay, the extensive redwood forests of redwood shift inland, east of the Mattole and Bear river country. Forests of the Eel River country are a mixture of redwood, Douglas-fir, and hardwoods, especially tanoak. Terraces along the Eel River and its major tributaries at Humboldt Redwoods State Park boast nearly pure stands of redwood. Many trees exceeding 375 feet tower over beds of redwood sorrel. Local patches of Oregon white oak woodland and prairies add variety to the densely forested landscape. The crown of redwood, as with other coniferous trees, becomes rounded, even flattened, with age. If the leader dies or breaks, sprouts create new leaders. In old-growth trees, the structure can become a complex of living and dead branches, some fusing together. Litter of leaves and other debris collects and creates humus at intersections, in crotches, and on branches. A plethora of plants grows here. William Ellyson determined that epiphyte biomass approached 132 pounds, with 260 pounds of dead organic matter recovered from a single tree. Some 90 plant species grew in these mats, including ferns, huckleberries, and even small Sitka spruce and western hemlock trees (Table 7). These mats were the home of marbled murrelets, wandering salamanders, and many kinds of invertebrates. Red alder dominates the riparian habitat along the coast where smaller streams contain narrow terraces, with mountain slopes closely approaching the stream channels. Excellent black cottonwood lines the lowest reaches of the Eel River. Elsewhere, alluvial terraces are committed to agriculture, while patches of willow and Sitka spruce suggest their original conditions. Extensive coastal prairies exist near Cape Mendocino in the Mattole and Bear river country. Inland from the coast on thin or sandy soils, the prairies contain annual grasses, but most prairie grasses are perennials. Velvet grass and vernal grass are especially common on the immediate coast. Patches of the native, the coarse leaves of Pacific reed grass inhabit wetter sites. Coyote brush and other shrubs in the prairies suggest that some prairies are the result of type conversion. Oak woodlands, if present, are small and local.

table 7. Common and notable herbaceous plants and ferns mentioned in the text on the North Coast. Common Prairie Grasses perennial grasses Alta fescue (Festuca arundinacea)* Bent grass (Agrostis capillaris)* Blue wild-rye (Elymus glaucus) California brome (Bromus carinatus) California fescue (Festuca californica) California oat grass (Danthonia californica) Creeping bent (Agrostis stolonifera) Curly blue grass (Poa secunda) Harding grass (Phalaris aquatica)* Kentucky blue grass (Poa pratensis)*† Lemmon’s needle grass (Stipa lemmonii) Onion grass (Melica geyeri) Orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata)* Pacific reed grass (Calamagrostis nutkaensis)§ Pampas grass (Cortaderia jubata)* Red fescue (Festuca rubra) Roemer’s fescue (Festuca roemeri) Rye grass (Lolium perenne)*†

Tall oat grass (Arrhenatherum elatius)* Timothy (Phleum pratense)*† Velvet grass (Holcus lanatus)* Vernal grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum)* annual grasses Cheat grass (Bromus tectorum)*† Dogtail (Cynosurus echinatus)*† Meadow foxtail (Alopecurus aequalis)* Medusahead (Elymus caput-medusae)*† Rattail fescue (Festuca myuros)* Rattlesnake grass (Briza maxima)* Red brome (Bromus rubens)*† Rescue grass (Bromus catharticus)* Ripgut brome (Bromus diandrus)*† Silver hair grass (Aira caryophyllea)*† Slender oat (Avena barbata)*† Smilo (Oryzopsis miliacea)* Smooth brome (Bromus inermis)* Soft brome (Bromus hordeaceus)*† Squirreltail grass (Hordeum marinum)*† Wild oat (Avena fatua)*†

Common and Notable Herbs Alsike clover (Trifolium hybridum)* Bird’s eye (Gilia tricolor) Blue dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum) California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) Common thistle (Cirsium vulgare)*† Cow parsnip (Heracleum lanatum)§ Cream cups (Platystemon californicus) Cut-leaf stork’s-beak (Geranium dissectum)* Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)*† Dwarf onion (Allium cratericola) Fiddleneck (Amsinckia menziesii) Goldfields (Lasthenia californica) Ithuriel’s spear (Triteleia laxa) Klamath weed (Hypericum perforatum)*†

Kruckeberg’s jewel flower (Streptanthus morrisonii ssp. kruckebergii) Lassic lupine (Lupinus constancei) Lassic sandwort (Minuartia decumbens) Long-beak filaree (Erodium botrys)* Meadow-form (Limnanthes douglasii) Miniature lupine (Lupinus bicolor) Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)*† Popcorn flower (Plagiobothrys nothofulvus) Prostrate milkweed (Asclepias solanoana) Red clover (Trifolium pratense)* Red-stem filaree (Erodium cicutarium)* Sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella)*† Snow Mountain buckwheat (Eriogonum nervulosum) Star zigadene (Toxicoscordion fremontii) Suckling clover (Trifolium dubium)*

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table 7. (continued) Common and Notable Herbs (continued) Two-flowered pea (Lathyrus biflorus) Western lily (Lilium occidentale) White clover (Triflorum repens)*† Woad (Isatis tinctoria)*†

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)§ Yellow mariposa (Calochortus luteus) Yellow star-thistle (Centaurea solstitialis)*†

Common Lichens in Trees Lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria)‡ Old beard (Usnea cornuta)‡ Tree ruffle liverwort (Porella navicularis)‡ Witch’s hair (Alectoria vancouverensis)‡ Wolf lichen (Letharia vulpina)

Beaded tube lichen (Hypogymnia apinnata)‡ California Spanish moss (Ramalina menziesii) Cattail moss (Isothecium myosuroides)‡ Hanging millipede liverwort (Frullania niquallensis)‡

Common Ferns and Allies Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum)§ California polypody (Polypodium californicum)‡§ Deer fern (Blechnum spicant) Field horsetail (Equisetum arvense) Ground-pine (Lycopodium clavatum) Indian’s dream (Aspidotis densa) Lace fern (Cheilanthes gracillima) Lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina ssp. cyclosorum) Leather fern (Polypodium scouleri)‡

Licorice fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)‡§ Narrow-leaved sword fern (Polystichum imbricans ssp. imbricans) Parsley fern (Cryptogramma acrostichoides) Scouring-rush (Equisetum hyemale ssp. affine) Sword fern (Polystichum munitum)§ Western chain fern (Woodwardia fimbriata)

Common and Notable Dune Plants Beach bursage (Ambrosia chamissonis)? Beach morning glory (Calystegia soldanella)? Beach pea (Lathyrus littoralis)? Bee plant (Scrophularia californica) Brewer’s rush ( Juncus breweri) Dune buckwheat (Eriogonum latifolium)? Dune grass (Leymus mollis) Dune sagebrush (Artemisia pycnocephala)?

Dune tansy (Tanacetum camphoratum) European beach grass (Ammophila arenaria)* Humboldt Bay wallflower (Erysimum menziesii var. eurekense)? Seashore blue grass (Poa douglasii)? Yellow bush lupine (Lupinus arboreus)*§ Yellow sand-verbena (Abronia latifolia)?

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table 7. (continued) Common and Notable Salt Marsh Plants Arrow-grass (Triglochin maritima) Dense-flowered cordgrass (Spartina densiflora)

Pickleweed (Salicornia depressa) Salt rush ( Juncus leseurii) Salt grass (Distichlis spicata)

Common Marsh Plants Cattail (Typha latifolia) Duckweeds (Lemna minor) Eel-grass (Zostera marina)

Marsh-pennywort (Hydrocotyle ranunculoides) Slough sedge (Carex obnupta) Tule (Schoenoplectus acutus)

note: * = nonnative on the North Coast; † = nonnative and also occurring in the Klamath Mountains; ‡ = epiphyte in redwood crowns; § = in coastal scrub; ? = in dune mat.

Catherine Michaels and I encountered only small patches of Pacific reed grass or red fescue sandwiched between the forests and the ocean along the coast north of Humboldt Bay. Again, coastal prairies become larger to the north on the coastal plain of the lower Smith River. Point George west of Crescent City offers sweeping views of grass and seascapes. The coastal slopes and headlands immediately above the sea contain long stretches of shrublands (Pl. 23). Often referred to as “northern coastal scrub,” they differ in species composition from shrublands in the rest of the state. James Belsher and I found that these areas are a mixture of coyote brush, brambles, and herbs that grow under the trees in the local forests. Coastal dunes stretching from Trinidad Bay to the mouth of the Eel River offer a very different landscape. A ridge of European beach grass lines the upper beach, where once it was patches of dune grass. Originally, the dunes behind the beach contained patches of “dune mat,” our local name for these mats of ground-hugging perennial plants. Today monotonous stretches of European beach grass or shrub fields of yellow bush lupine and coyote brush cover the dunes. Fortunately, protected dunes on the North Spit of Humboldt Bay maintain the original pattern of open sand, dune mat, and seasonal marshes at the Lanphere Unit of Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge (Pl. 24). These dunes also support alder, spruce, and willow swamps and upland forests of beach pine. The coastal plain of the Smith River offers its own collection of coastal dunes, marshes, swamps, and forests surrounding Crescent City and at Tolowa Dune State Park. Salt marshes surrounding Humboldt Bay have not fared very well; only about one-tenth of them remain. Most are now reclaimed pasture and

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industrial sites around the bay. Dense-flowered cordgrass, most likely a ship ballast introduction from Chile in the mid-1800s, covers the remaining salt marshes. Arrow-grass, pickleweed, and saltgrass grow around the bay and at the mouth of the Eel River. The muddy waters of South Bay supports extensive eel grass beds.

Beyond the Ancient Meeting Ground

HOW OLD ARE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA’S FOREST PATTERNS?

The answer lies in the geological record. For example, fossils of Sequoia go back to the Jurassic, and other conifer and angiosperm genera go back only to the early Cenozoic. How long have Douglas-fir or tanoak been part of the redwood forest? Fortunately, there are several fossil locations in and around northwest California. California’s fossil localities from the early Cenozoic suggest tropical forests with evergreen, broad-leaved trees growing in warm and humid climates. Forests along the coast at low elevations contained relatives of trees that we now call avocados, cycads, figs, palms, and tree ferns. These plant groups exist today in southern Mexico and Central America (Table 8). Redwood and plants of other temperate genera grew elsewhere. In the Oligocene and Early Miocene, climates and forests in northwest California were more temperate. Climates were drier and cooler, and temperatures varied more widely than earlier in the era. We can have a close peek at these forests with the fossils that exist in the Weaverville Formation—the same rocks that supplied the miners with their gold. Fossil localities east of Hayfork and near Hyampom contain cattails and water-loving, winter deciduous trees. These fossils suggest a lowland forest along a slow, meandering stream or shallow lake. Of the fossils present, only sycamore and willow grow currently in northwest California. Walnuts are native to the more southern parts of California; the other trees exist today in forests of eastern North America. We need to turn to adjacent areas of California for fossil localities of Miocene age. The nearest one is Upper Cederville in the Warner Mountains, where fossils are similar in composition to those in the Weaverville rocks. Fossils of deciduous broad-leaved trees included chestnut, ginkgo, 85

86 beyond the ancient meeting ground [COMP: This table would be suitable for 2-column setup.]

table 8. The fossil record from northern California fossil locations. Tertiary Record paleogene Cycads Ficus-like fig Palms Persea-like avocado Tree ferns oligocene or early miocene Bald cypress (Taxodium) Cattail (Typha) Elm (Ulmus) Spice bush (Lindera) Sycamore (Platanus) Tupelo (Nyssa) Walnut ( Juglans) Willow (Salix) middle miocene Bay tree (Umbellularia) Chestnut (Castanea)

Ginkgo (Ginkgo) Hickory (Carya) Maple (Acer) Nutmeg (Torreya) Ponderosa-like pine (Pinus cf. ponderosa) Redbud (Cercis) Red-like fir (Abies cf. magnifica) Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) White-cedar (Chamaecyparis) pliocene Avocado (Persea) Elm (Ulmus) Fir (Abies) Hemlock (Tsuga) Holly (Ilex) Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) Spruce (Picea)

note: Paleogene list for California from Wilken (1993); Oligocene (or Early Miocene) list from MacGinitie (1937); Middle Miocene list for Upper Cederville in the Warner Mountains from Millar (1996); Pliocene list for a locality near Santa Rosa from Noss (2000: Chap. 2).

and hickory, genera that botanists no longer find in California. The locality also had redwood and white-cedar, genera present elsewhere in California today, as well as bay tree, fir, maple, nutmeg, pine, and redbud, genera still present in northern California. These trees may or may no longer grow together today. Climate at the end of the Neogene began to change to one much like today’s. Summer rainfall decreased, and a Mediterranean climate became the norm, with dry summers. A Pliocene locality near Santa Rosa contained fossils of redwood, fir, hemlock, spruce, avocado, elm, and holly; the hardwoods do not grow in the modern redwood forest. This mix of conifers and hardwoods had the structure of today’s redwood forest, but we need to look to the Quaternary to find forests with modern species composition. What were the plant populations doing during the climatic and mountain-building cycles of the Quaternary? A detailed pollen record at Twin Lakes in the Siskiyou Mountains offers a look at forest patterns for the last

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50,000 years. Forests before 12,700 years ago were woodlands of fir, mountain hemlock, pine, spruce, and western hemlock with grass and sagebrush. Woodlands in the Tulelake Basin of the Pleistocene contained pine, oak, western juniper, incense-cedar, and sagebrush. This vegetation occurs in the Scott Valley and Greenhorn Mountains today. Douglas-fir was absent from the Twin Lakes location until 12,000 years ago. After its appearance, forest composition changed greatly. Out went the hemlock and spruce; the new commonly occurring trees were alder, cedar (probably incense-cedar and Port Orford–cedar), and pine in a closed forest—not a woodland. Douglas-fir and tanoak became common about 3,000 years ago. Detailed fossil pollen records from glacial lake sediments in the Trinity Mountains near Mount Eddy and packrat midden data in the Sacramento River drainage lay out an interesting history. Shrubs of common juniper and sagebrush were common at the end of the late Pleistocene around Mumbo Lake. Pine woodlands with some fir, mountain hemlock, and Port Orford–cedar occurred at the end of the Pleistocene; chaparral dominated during the Hypsithermal. During the late Holocene cooling period, mountain hemlock and the eight other conifer species arrived. Contemporary forests appear to be a phenomenon of the last 4,000 years. At Bluff Lake, the vegetation during the Hypsithermal was woodland of Oregon white oak and pine. Woodlands with current forest composition are only about 2,000 years old at this locality. Modern woodland composition at Crater Lake came into being in the last 1,250 years and at Cedar Lake in the last 3,500 years. Packrat midden data from Potter Creek Cave at lower elevations on the McCloud arm of Lake Shasta suggest a forest of incense-cedar and cypress in the late Holocene. Now there is a forest of ghost pine and canyon live oak. Detailed fossil pollen records at middle elevations in the Hypsithermal on South Fork Mountain and on nearby Pilot Ridge in the mountains of the North Coast indicate high levels of pine and oak pollen. Douglas-fir and tanoak became common only 3,000 years ago. In the upper Eel River drainage and at Clear Lake, the pattern is similar to that on Pilot Ridge. Pines dominated in the early Holocene. Oaks replaced the pines in the Hypsithermal, only for them to reappear in the late Holocene. Modern forest composition is about 3,000 years old. Redwood pollen was abundant in the Hypsithermal at coastal fossil localities where summers were very foggy. Pollen records suggest that redwood forests reached current species composition in the last 4,000 years. Only at this time did Douglas-fir and tanoak begin to mix with redwood. These findings have important implications on how we view vegetation today. While walking through redwood or other ancient forests, many people

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may assume that forest interactions have not changed for millennia. The fossil evidence tells a very different story. We should consider that vegetation patterns are impermanent in nature. Species mix in unique and changing ways in response to ever-changing environmental conditions. When you consider the life spans of the trees, current forests are new indeed. For example, 2,200 years is often cited as the maximum age for redwood, and 2,000 years for Douglas-fir. Foresters and ecologists often estimate the average age of old-growth redwood trees as 800 years and Douglas-fir as 500 years; today’s trees were seedlings or young sprouts during the Medieval Warm Period and then lived through the Little Ice Age. A hiker in Humboldt Redwoods State Park is truly among the ancients from a human point of view, but from the trees’ viewpoint, these species have not been interacting for that long.

HOW TO READ THE PALEOBOTANY LITERATURE

Paleobotanists recognize two general fossil types. Megafossils are plant parts, such as leaves, woods, and other plant parts, and microfossils are pollen and spores. I usually think of Tertiary fossils as hunks of wood or leaf impressions and of pollen for Pleistocene fossils, but current methodology allows paleobotanists to study both types regardless of the period. Leaves are the most commonly encountered fossils at Tertiary-age sites. They yield diagnostic information, including leaf size, shape, margin, vein pattern, surface features, as well as the presence or absence of petioles and stipules. Cleared leaves allow us to study leaf surfaces with a light or electron microscope for even more features. Wood and other fossils offer their own set of features. With this information, paleobotanists identify a fossil. Just like students of modern flora, they compare it to descriptions of accepted taxa in a procedure called the analog method. If the fossil leaf has all the morphological characters of living beech (Fagus) leaf, for example, they consider the fossil is that of a beech leaf. This method assumes that fossils of the same taxonomic rank to be analogous ecologically to modern taxa (i.e., the taxon’s ecological requirements have not evolved over the millennia). Miocene-age beech required seasonal temperatures and summer rain, the conditions under which it grows today. This assumption is less valid with age, so paleobotanists do not assign modern generic names to fossils older than the Middle Eocene. Paleobotanists name older fossils that resemble modern Fagus leaves Fagopsis or “Fagus,” or they refer to them as beechlike. Paleobotanists identify fossils, when possible, to order, family, genus, or species. Using modern procedures, they are reevaluating earlier fossil determinations from western North American localities. Caution! As fossil names are changing, so are their estimated ages. For example, older literature references to Sequoia refer to dawn redwood (Metasequoia), not our redwood. Palynologists identify pollen grains in peat, lake sediments, and other depositions of Quaternary age by the analog method. In addition, carbon-dating methods offer a

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MUCH OF NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA’S FLORA HAS A LONG HISTORY

Some Plants Are Relicts Large areas of northwest California have been well above sea level for at least 65 million years and therefore have been available to terrestrial plant growth. With this geological history, we might expect to find relicts—plants surviving after extinction of related groups, or once-widespread populations persisting in isolated localities—in our flora. Redwood is our most famous relict. Fortunately, abundant fossil locations exist in western North America that are younger than the Middle Eocene (Table 9). Studies of these fossils suggest that as many as half of the modern genera of woody plants that

way to date the deposits. Sediment cores from lake bottoms contain pollen grains at different levels. Microfossils identified and dated at different levels give us a way to study changing species composition through time. The resulting pollen profiles offer an interesting look into the past. Today paleobotanists are more successful in pollen and spore identification from Tertiary-age deposits. They assign modern generic names to pollen and spores as far back as the Middle Eocene. Using both methods in studying fossils gives a most complete description of a fossil locality. Pack rats (Neotoma) collect plant parts and other objects in their vicinity and create middens at their nest sites. Urine helps protect the plant material from rotting, as does arid air. Identified and dated plant parts give us a way to study changes in species composition. These middens give paleobotanists a 40,000-year window in the dry Southwest. Poor preservation in humid environments offers a much shorter time. Phytoliths (plant opals) offer us still more information. They are microscopic silica bodies in the cells of many grasses and sedges. Collecting soil at different depths and identifying the phytoliths confirm the presence of grasslands at a location in the past. We can use dendrochronology, the dating of past events through the study of tree ring growth, to re-create fire histories. As fires burn, they scar tree trunks. The surviving trees continue to grow and to add new annual growth rings that can be counted and cross-dated to other trees, and thus the scar can be aged. We can study trees at the individual, stand, and landscape level, but the approach is limited to the age of trees in today’s forests and woodlands. Determining the age distribution of trees by coring them and counting the number of annual rings is another useful approach. Ages of trees that establish after a stand-replacing disturbance will be similar in age, telling when the fire occurred. If dates form clusters of different ages, they indicate fire intervals.

table 9. Tree genera in North America in fossil localities in northwest North America in the Early and Middle Miocene compared to where they are extant today. Genus conifers Abies Calocedrus Cephalotaxus Chamaecyparis Cunninghamia Fokienia Ginkgo Glyptostrobus Keteleeria Metasequoia Picea Pseudotsuga Sequoia Taxodium Thuja Tsuga flowering plants Acer Aesculus Ailanthus Alangium Albizia Alnus Amelanchier Arbutus Aristolochia Betula Carya Castanea Catapla Ceanothus Celtis Cercidiphyllum Cercis Cercocarpus Cladrastis Clematis Clerodendrum

Extant in Northwest California Today

Extant in Eastern North America Today

 







  



 

  

  ()

 

    

         

() ()

   

   

Extant in Asia Today

                               

table 9. (continued) Genus Clethra Cocculus Comptonia Cornus Crataegus Diervilla Diospyros Eleutherococcus Exbucklandia Fagus Fothergilla Fraxinus Gordonia Gymnocladus Halesia Holodiscus Hydrangea Idesia Ilex Itea Juglans Leucothoe Liquidambar Liriodendron Magnolia Malus Nyssa Ostrya Ostryopsis Pistacia Platanus Populus Prunus Ptelea Pterocarya Quercus Rhododendron Rhus Rosa Rubus Sageretia Salix

Extant in Northwest California Today

 









         

Extant in Eastern North America Today

                                   

Extant in Asia Today

                                    (continued)

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table 9. (continued) Genus Sambucus Sassafras Shepherdia Sorbus Spiraea Symphoricarpos Tilia Toxicodendron Ulmus Viburnum Vitis Zelkova

Extant in Northwest California Today

       

Extant in Eastern North America Today

          

Extant in Asia Today

         

note: Compiled from Wolfe (1969); checkmarks in parentheses () indicate nonnative genera recently introduced to the area. Of trees that once grew in northwest California, today 87 percent grow in Asia, 74 percent in eastern North America, and 46 percent in northwest California. While 35 percent grow in all three areas, 20 percent grow only in Asia, 4 percent only in eastern North America, and 4 percent only in northwest California. A full 30 percent grow in eastern North America and Asia but not northwest California; 5 percent grow in northwest California and eastern North America but not Asia; and 2 percent grow in northwest California and Asia but not eastern North America.

grow in northwest California existed at that time. Many of them are widespread in North America today. But comparing modern and fossil floras is not the only way to evaluate the idea that northwest California flora is rife with relicts. Plant geographers study distributional patterns of modern taxa to understand the history of a plant group. They consider plants that share many characteristics to be closely related, even if they are found in very different parts of the world. Settlers of New England came upon beech, oak, and pine trees that were nearly identical to those in Britain and Europe. Gold miners were using oak and pine from northwest California’s forests in their mines. When they saw the fruits of the local chinquapin trees, they recalled the chestnuts of Europe. They also encountered trees, such as Douglas-fir, that did not resemble the familiar conifers of Europe. By the mid-1800s, botanists had cataloged many regions of the world. At this time, Asa Gray, the foremost authority on the North American flora, received a copy of Carl Thunberg’s Flora Japonica. To Gray’s surprise, he discovered that he knew Acer, Aquilegia, Dicentra, Philadelphus, Torreya, Wisteria, and many other genera in the Japanese flora from eastern North America.

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In his 1858 paper, “Observations upon the Relations of the Japanese Flora to That of North America,” Gray offered an explanation. These genera were relicts, he believed, surviving in eastern North America and in eastern Asia, two areas of similar climate and geological history, but continents apart. Plant geographers refer to plant groups with fragmented, disparate ranges as vicariant taxa. The textbook example involves eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) of New England and western white pine (Pinus monticola) of California. These fragmented ranges are not restricted to the generic level. False bugbane (Trautvetteria carolinensis) grows with little morphological difference in three isolated parts of the United States. Aspen grows from Newfoundland to California with some ecological differences (e.g., plant longevity, size, and age of clones) in various parts of its range, but with few morphological differences. Hazel (Corylus cornuta) has two subspecies: the western C. c. ssp. californica with broadly elliptical leaves and the eastern C. c. spp. cornuta with narrowly elliptical leaves. The California spice bush (Calycanthus occidentalis) has a close relative, wintersweet (Chimonanthus), in China. Californian relicts with close relatives in eastern North America are easy to identify using both fossil and range information. Fossils of sycamore (Platanus) are widespread in California. Today the genus ranges from California and Arizona to eastern North America, Europe, Iran, and China. Pseudotsuga includes the familiar Douglas-fir that grows in northern

SEQUOIA’S HISTORY

Redwood’s ancestry is a venerable one. We can trace the fossils of Sequoia back to the Jurassic, and the tree was widespread throughout temperate North America in the Paleocene. Specimens at that time had the overall appearance of the only extant species, Sequoia sempervirens. This redwood grew with other conifers and hardwoods under warm climates with summer precipitation. The cooler Neogene saw a restriction of its range to the Pacific Northwest and to California in the Quaternary. This was a time of decreased rainfall, a shift in seasonal precipitation from summer to winter, more extreme summer and winter temperatures, and the uplift in the Klamath Mountains and North Coast Ranges. Redwood’s Pleistocene range stretched as far south as Santa Barbara County. Elsewhere within its current range, it grew in small, protected coastal pockets. Redwood’s range expanded at the end of the Pleistocene as climates warmed, but the climate in the Holocene was far from uniform. Temperatures in the Hypsithermal were warmer, and the summers foggy, and redwood was more widespread than it is today. In the late Holocene, temperature and fog patterns moderated, and its range shrank to its current size.

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California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Rocky Mountains. Other Pseudotsuga species grow in southern California, Mexico, Japan, and China. Today plant geographers have additional methods to test hypotheses based on range. In 1969, Dale Thornburgh and I discovered a population of subalpine fir in the Klamath Mountains of California, a common tree in the Rocky Mountains. Was this a relict population far out of range, or was it the result of a recent immigration? Ed Cope worked with us to compare the chemical makeup (monoterpenes) of fir needles among California, Oregon, and Colorado populations. The results showed that the needles from the southern Cascades of Oregon and the Klamath Mountains were similar and that they differed greatly from the Colorado needles. We thus rejected the hypothesis that subalpine fir was a relict in the Klamath Mountains.

Some Plants Are New Endemics are plants with restricted ranges. The two-flowered pea exists only at the Lassics and the Castle Crags harebell on north-facing granodiorite cliffs on that pluton. These are good examples of narrowly restricted endemics. Botanists use the term for different taxonomic levels as well. The diverse and widespread genus Penstemon is endemic to North America; giant sequoia and valley oak are endemic to California; Brewer spruce is endemic to the Klamath Mountains. California’s flora is particularly high in the number of endemic taxa (species, subspecies, and varieties). The California Floristic Province of plant geographers is a region that includes southwest Oregon and parts of California west of the Cascade–Sierra Nevada–Peninsular Range crest and northern Baja California. James P. Smith reports that the province has 3,092 endemic taxa, and an area including just northwest California and southwest Oregon has 225. These numbers are very high in comparison with those of other areas in temperate North America of comparable size. Plant geographers distinguish between paleo- (old) and neo- (new) endemics. Paleoendemics come from ancient stock; they represent a special subset of an area’s relicts. Brewer spruce probably originated somewhere other than in northwest California, since fossils exist in the Miocene fossil localities in Oregon and Nevada (Map 15). Engelmann spruce and Sitka spruce are distant relatives of Brewer spruce, but both grow near Brewer spruce in the Klamath Mountains. Brewer spruce’s close relatives are two highly restricted species in the Mexican highlands. Sadler oak’s close relatives are in Japan. The closest relative of the limestone-loving snow-wreath lives in the southeast United States. These plants fit the very special category of being both relicts and paleoendemics. Redwood, California bay, California nutmeg, California sycamore, Oregon ash, storax, and western burning bush are all paleoendemics of the

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Map 15. Range of Brewer spruce in California. Map from Griffin and Critchfield (1972).

California Floristic Province, and they are widely distributed throughout the province. Populations of Sierra bladdernut, spice bush, and Darlingtonia, a plant most botanists associate solely with the Klamath Mountains, also grow in the Sierra Nevada. Other parts of the state have their own paleoendemics. Western leatherwood (Dirca occidentalis) grows in the hills around San Francisco Bay. Sierra sweet-bay (Myrica hartwegii) occurs only in the central Sierra Nevada. Paleoendemics have a special place in the hearts of botanists, but most endemic taxa in California are neoendemics. Botanists argue that relatives of newly evolved taxa are nearby. As the range of a species expands, different populations come under distinctive selection pressures in slightly different environments. The plants in these distinct populations eventually

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establish detectable differences, and botanists formalize the pattern by recognizing subspecies or varieties within the range of the species. If the populations are sufficiently distinct, botanists recognize them as species. Since the process has occurred recently, the taxa will have small ranges. Northwest California has many closely related taxa in its highly endemic flora. Neoendemics evolve in several ways. For example, Berry’s penstemon and Oregon bleeding heart are local versions of species widespread in the western mountains of California (Table 10). Yellow-tubered toothwort grows only on serpentine substrates of the Josephine ophiolite. Other toothwort species grow on many substrates throughout the region’s mountains. Henderson’s horkelia, a member of a moderately large genus, grows only on granite talus slopes high in the Siskiyou Mountains. Shasta eupatorium, a member of a widespread genus, exists on limestones in the Sacramento River watershed. Kneeland pennycress, one of a few in the genus, thrives on only two local slices of serpentine in the North Coast. Another interesting example is the Del Norte race of lodgepole pine that grows on serpentine substrates in the upper Smith River watershed. Specimens from the Smith’s north fork do not key to any one of lodgepole’s four subspecies. Mignonne Bivin, Jim Oliphant, and I determined that the trees are intermediate in both morphological and allozyme characters. Surprisingly, Del Norte specimens have more traits in common with the Rocky Mountain subspecies than with the Sierra Nevada or with the coastal subspecies. It seems as if Quaternary events allowed long-isolated populations to mingle in the western Klamath Mountains, and a future neoendemic may be the result. Neoendemics are most numerous on the region’s serpentine outcrops. The chemical composition makes serpentine a very difficult substrate for plant growth, but over time some plant populations have evolved to take advantage of this habitat. The 70 endemics on the Josephine ophiolite are more than on any outcrop in North America. The majority come from only a handful of families that have solved the evolutionary problems posed by these inhospitable substrates: mustards (especially in Arabis and Streptanthus) in Cruciferae, buckwheats (Eriogonum) in Polygonaceae, parsleys (mostly in Lomatium and Perideridia) in Umbelliferae, and waterleaves (Phacelia) in Boraginaceae. However, not all rare plants inhabit serpentine substrates. Table 10 lists 200 neoendemics, arranged to show how they are distributed. Some are widespread, and others are regional but in scattered localities. Both endemic species and subspecies are restricted to mountain ranges. Each serpentine outcrop has its own rarities. Some occupy granitic and sedimentary substrates; still others favor temporary environmental conditions following fires and logging.

table 10. A selection of northwest California’s neoendemics. Endemic Forms of Widespread Species widespread in the region Berry’s penstemon (Penstemon newberryi var. berryi) Great red Indian paintbrush (Castilleja miniata ssp. elata) Oregon bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa ssp. oregana) scattered throughout the region Mendocino tarweed (Hemizonia congesta ssp. calyculata) Tracy’s pea (Lathyrus lanszwertii var. tracyi) Tracy’s tarweed (Hemizonia congesta ssp. tracyi) restricted within the region Siskiyou Mountains Vollmer’s lily (Lilium pardalinum ssp. vollmeri) Wiggins’ lily (Lilium pardalinum ssp. wigginsii) Salmon Mountains Salmon Mountain wake robin (Trillium ovatum var. oettinerii) Scott Mountains Scott Mountain bedstraw (Galium serpenticum ssp. scotticum) Red Mountain in Mendocino County Red Mountain catchfly (Silene campanulata ssp. campanulata) Humboldt Bay Dunes Humboldt Bay wallflower (Erysimum menziesii ssp. eurekense) Josephine Ophiolite Serpentines Koehler’s rock cress (Arabis koehleri var. koehleri) Stipitate rock cress (Arabis koehleri var. stipitata) Yellow-tubered toothwort (Cardamine nuttallii var. gemmata) Rattlesnake Terrane Serpentines Mount Tedoc bush-gilia (Linanthus nuttallii ssp. howellii) Coastal Bluffs Whitney’s farewell to spring (Clarkia amoena ssp. whitneyi) Serpentine Substrates at Kneeland Prairie Kneeland Prairie penny cress (Noccaea californica) Local Forms of Endemic Species scattered throughout the region Pale-yellow stonecrop (Sedum laxum ssp. flavidum) Pale-yellow stonecrop (Sedum laxum ssp. heckneri) Pale-yellow stonecrop (Sedum laxum ssp. laxum)

(continued)

table 10. (continued) Local Forms of Endemic Species (continued) restricted within the region Scott Mountains Scott Mountain fawn lily (Erythronium citrinum var. roderickii) Trinity Mountains Trinity Mountains triteleia (Triteleia crocea var. modesta) Josephine Ophiolite Serpentines Serpentine pink (Silene sepentinicola) Klamath and Trinity River Canyons Howell’s lewisia (Lewisia cotyledon var. howellii) Species Endemic to Mountain Ranges klamath mountainsa Marble, Scott, and Trinity Mountains Copeland’s speedwell (Veronica copelandii) Trinity Alps and Scott, Siskiyou, and Trinity Mountains Mount Eddy draba (Draba carnosula) Siskiyou fireweed (Epilobium siskiyouense) Siskiyou phacelia (Phacelia leonis) Trinity Alps and Scott and Trinity Mountains Mountain Eddy lupine (Lupinus croceus) Trinity phacelia (Phacelia dalesiana) Scott and Trinity Mountains Klamath manzanita (Arctostaphylos klamathensis) Showy raillardella (Raillardella pringlei) Siskiyou buckwheat (Eriogonum siskiyouense) Trinity Alps Canyon Creek stonecrop (Sedum paradisum) Tracy’s penstemon (Penstemon tracyi) Scott Mountains b Nelson’s sandwort (Minuartia stolonifera) Scott Valley (Phacelia greenei) Silk ivesia (Ivesia pickeringii) Trinity Mountains b Serpentine haplopappus (Ericameria ophitidis) Thread-leaved penstemon (Penstemon filiformis) Trinity buckwheat (Eriogonum alpinum)

table 10. (continued) Species Endemic to Mountain Ranges (continued) Castle Crags c Castle Crags ivesia (Ivesia longibracteata) Castle Crags harebell (Campanula shetleri) Greenhorn Mountains a Siskiyou mariposa lily (Calochortus persistens) Yreka phlox (Phlox hisuta) Siskiyou Mountains a Applegate’s stonecrop (Sedum oblanceolatum) Klamath Mountains buckwheat (Eriogonum hirtellum) north coast mountains South Fork Mountain and North Yolly Bolly Mountains Elmer’s lupine (Lupinus elmeri) Yolla Bolly Mountains trefoil (Lotus yollabolliensis) Lassics a Lassics lupine (Lupinus constancei) Lassics sandwort (Minuartia decumbens) Two-flowered pea (Lathyrus biflorus) Red Mountain in Mendocino County a Kellogg’s buckwheat (Eriogonum kelloggii) Red Mountain stonecrop (Sedum eastwoodiae) McDonald’s rock cress (Arabis macdonaldiana)d Habitat Endemics serpentine substrates Josephine Ophiolite Serpentines Del Norte willow (Salix delnorticus) Brook wake robin (Pseudotrillium rivale) Siskiyou inside-out flower (Vancouveria chrysantha) Rattlesnake Terrane Serpentines Dubakella buckwheat (Eriogonum libertini) Niles’ tarweed (Harmonia doris-nilesiea) Stebbins’ tarweed (Harmonia stebbinsii) other substrates Klamath River Canyon Marble Mountains (Silene marmorensis) Siskiyou mountain mint (Monardella siskiyouensis)

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table 10. (continued) Habitat Endemics (continued) Sacramento River Limestones Shasta ageratina (Ageratina shastense) Shasta snow-wreath (Neviusia cliftonii) Coastal Bluffs Mendocino coast paintbrush (Castilleja mendocinensis) Alkali Seeps Howell’s alkali grass (Puccinellia howellii) High-Elevation Habitats gravelly slopes

Heller’s lupine (Lupinus lapidicola) Stebbins’ lewisia (Lewisia stebbinsii) forest openings

Tracy’s lupine (Lupinus tracyi) Creek Beds and Disturbed Areas Dimorphic snapdragon (Antirrhinum subcordatum) Recently Disturbed Forest Sites Humboldt milk-vetch (Astragalus agnicidus) Tracy’s sanicle (Sanicula tracyi) a Many

mountain endemics are also serpentine substrate endemics. endemics of the Scott and Trinity mountains are also Trinity ophiolite substrate endemics. c Also, granite substrate endemics. d Also grows on Josephine ophiolite substrates. source: From Smith and Sawyer (2006). Some species are widespread in California, but their subspecies or varieties are endemic; some endemic species have several subspecies or varieties; some species are restricted to mountain ranges or special habitats. b Most

Interestingly, northwest California lacks neoendemic genera. The monotypic Tracyina rostrata, once thought endemic, grows in Lake and Sonoma counties, but northwest California does support nearly half of the 68 genera endemic to the California Floristic Province. Among the region’s neoendemics, two-thirds are species; the rest are subspecies or varieties.

Many Plants Are Widespread A surprisingly high proportion of species in California’s larger genera grow in northwest California. We find half of California’s pines (Pinus), two-

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thirds of the oaks (Quercus), and two-thirds of the gooseberries (Ribes) here. Genera of herbaceous plants show the same pattern. Three-fourths of the state’s Carex occur in northwest California, as do 21 of the 24 wild peas in the genus Lathyrus. These are only a few examples. Many of northwest California’s species grow throughout the West. Ponderosa pine ranges from South Dakota to Mexico and throughout western mountain ranges. Virgin’s-bower has a similar range. Canyon live oak, greenleaf manzanita, and tobacco brush also reside in the Rocky Mountains. Many species whose distribution centers in the Pacific Northwest have ranges that extend south into northwest California. Mountain alder, Pacific yew, wild ginger, and yellow pond-lily grow from Alaska to the Sierra Nevada. We see the opposite pattern with the California poppy and sugar pine, which range from southern California to central Oregon. Other species have extensive ranges. For example, madrone (Arbutus menziesii) ranges from British Columbia, where its common name is arbutus, to Baja California, where it is madroño. Much of northwest California’s floristic richness comes from these generalists (Table 11). Many of these widespread species have additional genetic diversity at the local level. Forest geneticists recognize 18 seed zones for Douglas-fir in northwest California. These areas have similar selection pressures and comparable biotic and environmental conditions. Populations are sufficiently similar genetically within a seed zone, and foresters use seeds from local trees for restocking logged sites. WHY IS NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA’S FLORA REGIONALLY DIVERSE?

Northwest California’s flora is diverse at many levels. It is the home of 3,540 taxa, more than in all of New England and adjunct Canada. Only one other region of roughly equivalent size in the nation, the southern Appalachian Mountains, is comparable. Robert Whittaker explained this fact almost 50 years ago by noting that California’s mountains are a great meeting ground. The region’s central location along the Pacific Coast, its continuity with other mountain systems, its diverse climate, geology, and topography, and its long geological history led to the development of a complex, diverse flora. The title of David Rains Wallace’s The Klamath Knot encapsulates the argument well. You can easily see the region’s central location along the Pacific Coast on maps, but its continuity with other mountain systems is less evident. Most people think of the Rocky Mountains, the Cascades, the Sierra Nevada, and the Klamath Mountains as separate ranges, but they actually are part of an uninterrupted mountain system that geologists call the western cordillera. The Cascades are volcanic and the Trinity Mountains are not, but their ranges are continuous at midelevations, and they share many

Alaska yellow-cedar Bishop pine Brewer spruce California juniper California nutmeg Common juniper Douglas-fir Engelmann spruce Foxtail pine Ghost pine Grand fir Incense-cedar Jeffrey pine Knobcone pine Large-coned mountain hemlocka Lodgepole pine McNab cypress Mountain hemlock Mountain juniper Noble fir

Species Pacific NW* California† Endemic‡ California† California† W North America Pacific NA W North America* Endemic‡ California† Pacific NW* California California California California California§ California† Pacific NW California§ Pacific NW*

Overall Distribution w mon, sub KM n coast NC mon, sub KM east NC e low KN sub KM NC, KM e mon KM sub NC, KM inter, east NC low KM coast NC NC, KM int, east, mon NC, KM low, mon NC, lo, mon KM sub KM mon, sub KM e low KM mon, sub KM mon NC w mon, sub KM

Distribution in the Region

table 11. Distribution of conifer taxa growing in northwest California.

Local Local Local Locally common Very local Local Regionally common Local Locally common Locally common Locally common Varies with subdivisions Locally common Locally common Locally common Locally common Local Locally common Local Locally common

Abundance in the Region

W North America Near endemic‡ California Endemic‡ California† California Pacific NW Endemic‡ Pacific NW Western NA* California Pacific NW* Pacific NW Great Basin§ Pacific NW Western NA W North America

Ponderosa pine Port Orford–cedar

Redwood Running juniper Sargent cypress Shasta fir Shore pine Siskiyou cypress Sitka spruce Subalpine fir Sugar pine Western red-cedar Western hemlock Western juniper Western white pine White fir Whitebark pine

mon NC, KM n coast NC, w low, w mon, sub KM coast NC, w low KM w low, w mon KM int, east NC mon NC, mon, sub KM n coast NC mon KM coast NC e mon, sub KM s coast, int, mon NC, KM n coast NC n coast NC, w low KM e low KM w low, mon, sub KM mon NC, mon KM sub KM

e mon, sub KM NC, KM

Locally common Locally common Local Local Regionally common Locally common Local Locally common Local Regionally common Local Locally common Locally common Locally common Regionally common Locally common

Regionally common

Local Regionally local

Populations of mountain hemlock are Tsuga mertensiana var. grandicona. source: The overall distribution includes taxa whose southern range limits are in the region (*), taxa whose northern range limits are in the region (†), taxa endemic to the region (‡), and taxa whose eastern range limits are in the region (§). Distribution in the region uses the subdivisions of the region listed in the legend of Plate 1. Scientific names appear in Tables 4 and 6.

a

Pacific NW* Pacific NW

Pacific silver fir Pacific yew

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plants and animal species. The Trinity Mountains are continuous with the Scott, Salmon, and Marble mountains. The Klamath River separates the Marbles and the Siskiyou Mountains, which are continuous with the Cascades in Oregon. The Yolla Bollys connect South Fork Mountain with the Coast Ranges. One way to appreciate the botanical significance of this environmental continuity is to recall where you first learned your plant names. Was it in the Santa Cruz area, where you met redwood? Was it in the heights of Yosemite National Park, where you first encountered whitebark pine and its partner, the Clark’s nutcracker? Was it in southern California for birchleaf mountain-mahogany and Nevada for desert mountain-mahogany? Was it in the flower fields at Mount Rainier for red heather and Alaska for crowberry? All these plants also grow in northwest California. Plant migration into and out of the region has been greatly aided by these land connections. Beyond the physical continuity, the multitude of habitats in northwest California offer suitable environmental conditions for myriad species. Granitic, metamorphic, sedimentary, and serpentine substrates, including limestone, exist at all elevations. The cool, foggy climate of the coast contrasts with the sun-baked interior. Annual precipitation exceeds 120 inches in the Smith River watershed west side and is a modest 18 inches in the Stony Creek watershed. Scott Valley’s winter temperatures are often well below freezing, and snow is long lasting. On the coast, winters are mild, and snow is a fleeting event about once a decade. The maze of mountain ranges and complicated river systems make for many local climates in the rugged terrain, even within a single watershed. The variable and patchy structure of the vegetation itself adds to microclimatic variability. Patches of open woodlands with filtered light, well-lighted chaparral, and dark coniferous forests mingle on a single mountain slope along the Sacramento River watershed. In the current jargon of ecology, “environmental heterogeneity is high at all scales” in northwest California. Northwest California’s lands have been available to flowering plants during the last 65 million years. Cenozoic volcanism created the Cascades to the east and the hills in the Clear Lake area to the south, but the region has no recent volcanic deposits. Glaciers were not that regionally extensive, and in many mountain ranges the glaciers were spotty. With this geological history, we should expect to hold onto relicts and also allow residents and new immigrants to evolve and to change to meet new environmental situations. The region’s flora is a rich collection of long, enduring lineages mixed with more recently evolved ones. All can find a place in northwest California. Indeed, our flora may be rich because it responds quickly to environmental change. Helen Constantine-Shull and I surveyed the flora of San Joaquin Roadless Area, just north of the town of Mammoth. Unlike most of the Sierra Nevada, volcanic rock and ash buried this area during the

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Holocene. Some eruptions occurred only 650 years ago. Yet, in a very short geological time, a new flora developed that is similar to that of the central Sierra Nevada as a whole. Gordon Leppig and I came to the same conclusion when he studied fens in northern California. WHY ARE SOME LOCALITIES EXCEPTIONALLY DIVERSE?

Many ecologists have suggested that reduced biological interactions can lead to communities rich in species. Thornburgh and I used this argument to explain the enriched forest stands at Russian Peak in the Salmon Mountains (described in the previous chapter). We argued that it is impossible for some tree species to grow in the deep shade found under tree canopies of older forests. For example, pines have difficulty growing under old firs in the montane forests. Dense tree canopies cannot develop on heterogeneous, rocky moraines. Under these conditions, pines will have plenty of light, even if they are near fir trees. Other suggested mechanisms that maintain rich communities include (1) disturbances that reduce population sizes but do not eliminate them, (2) serpentine and other nutrientlimited substrates, and (3) extreme climates. Under these conditions, species richness remains high. Andrew Eckert and I compared mixed and pure foxtail pine forests in the Klamath Mountains and Sierra Nevada to test these hypotheses. We concluded that mixed stands in both mountain ranges were not confined to disturbed, nutrient-limited, or extreme sites. On the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, for example, red fir grows over a considerable range. Lodgepole and foxtail pine forests replace montane red fir forests as elevation increases to the subalpine belt. Individual red fir trees can occur in the lower elevations of the subalpine belt, but rarely at higher elevations, where stands are almost exclusively foxtail pine. These high-elevation stands lack seed sources of red fir. This is not the case in the compressed forest belts of the Klamath Mountains, where individual Shasta fir and other montane trees reach the highest ridges. Therefore, pure stands are less probable in the Klamath Mountains than in the Sierra Nevada. Mixed stands also occupy the steep, eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Recent work in the Sierra Nevada with Fabrice De Clerck showed that productivity, stability, and resource-use efficiency increase with species richness. We concluded that seed-source availability and substrate heterogeneity were also important in explaining rich stands. I propose a similar explanation for the outrageous shrub richness that exists on Hosselkus limestone in the Sacramento River drainage. Here the shrubs are an atypical mixture of species that elsewhere segregated to dry or wet sites. The Hosselkus limestone site has seed sources nearby, and soil conditions are highly heterogeneous.

Regimes of Fire

Fire ecologists describe a forest’s fire regime in terms of frequency, intensity, and severity. Fire frequency refers to the number of years between one fire and the next in a defined area of a particular size. Fires may have a seasonal pattern and may involve a single tree or many acres. Intensity refers to the energy released by the fire, and severity refers to fuel consumed, the rate of spread of the fire, and the way the fire affects the dominant plants. Severity reflects the level of plant mortality from the fire. There are three levels of severity: High —fires kill all or most large trees. A new stand of trees must establish after the fire. Fires of high severity are stand replacing or stand replacement fires. Moderate —fires kill or heavily damage patches of large trees. Some of the original trees remain, and many new seedlings establish after the fire. Fires of moderate severity are stand-modifying or partial stand replacement fires. Low— fires kill or damage few trees of any size. All or most of the large trees survive, and small trees and shrubs are killed or damaged by the fire. Most of the trees of the original stand survive, and only a few seedlings establish themselves. Fires of low severity are surface fires. Considering fire severity and frequency together offers us a way to describe the many ways that fires burn. Some forests burn frequently at high severity; other forests grow for many decades, even centuries, between fires. Fires that burn at low severity tend only to modify the structure of the forests, whereas high-severity fires burn almost everything in their path. These latter fires mean that forests have to start from scratch. 106

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AGENTS THAT MODIFY FIRE REGIMES

Fire regimes vary greatly throughout the region as environmental conditions change. Intervals between fires vary as well. Human activities are another confounding agent. After a fire, plants take different lengths of time to respond. Sorting all these influences is a challenge.

Role of Climate We have many variations on our theme of a wet winter/dry summer climate. Contrast the coastal climate, with its rainy then foggy season and moderated temperatures, with that of the subalpine meadows in the Trinity Alps or the chaparral on the east side of the North Coast Ranges. The subalpine belt has cold and long, snowy seasons, followed by a short period of warmth, while the low elevations on the east side of the North Coast Ranges have a short rainy season followed by a long, hot summer. Lightning also varies throughout the region. In some parts, it is an annual event; in other parts, it is rarely seen. Most Californians think little of lightning, unless they are in the mountains in the late summer when airflow brings heat and water from the Gulf of Mexico, fueling massive thunderclouds. In the Rocky Mountains, thunderstorms are a continual part of summer life. Our mountains also exhibit the monsoonal pattern during the summer, resulting in periods of thunderstorm activity. Nevertheless, these storms are not as predictable as they are in the Rocky Mountains or the Sierra Nevada. In our mountains, some summers are open and clear, whereas others experience long periods of thunderstorm activity. Lightning accompanies these thunderstorms after weeks or even months of being rain-free. Many storms involve dry lightning, so the chance of fire is great (Figure 6). The storms in 1987 generated more than 1,600 strikes in a 12-day period, leading to more than 600 fires over almost a million acres in the Siskiyou, Marble, and Salmon mountains. The Megram fire in 1999 burned 125,040 acres of the Trinity Alps and adjacent lands of Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers national forests, the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, and private lands. The 2002 Biscuit fire that involved 500,000 acres in southwest Oregon and northwest California (29,000 acres in California) started in July and continued until early November. Both fires resulted from lightning strikes. Not all lightning strikes lead to fires, nor are the fires always massive. A fire may involve a single tree or a small patch of land. A single fire, especially a larger one, is a mosaic of severities. Some last a few hours or less, but extensive ones can be long-lived.

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Figure 6. Lightning in Salmon River country. Each star represents a fire start since 1922, but not all starts result in a fire. Map prepared by the Salmon River Restoration Council and available at the Klamath Resources Information System (KRIS), http://www.krisweb.com/index.htm.

The Role of Terrain Terrain greatly affects a fire’s complexity. The potential for a large fire is significant throughout northwest California, but in a terrain with ridges and knolls, dissected by cliffs and ledges or ravines and gullies, I would expect a complex burn and a less complex fire pattern in gently rolling ter-

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rain. Local topography can affect the moisture content of fuel by influencing microclimates, which can further modify fire regimes. The extreme topography of the Klamath Mountains may inhibit a fire’s spread mainly by interrupting fuels. Topography at montane elevations in the Yolla Bolly Mountains and North Coast Ranges is similar, if not more dissected, than that in the Klamath Mountains. Steep canyons and narrow ridges are common at montane elevations, but they do not attain the heights of those in the Klamath Mountains. Topography at low elevations on the west side of the North Coast Ranges is less dramatic than it is in the higher lands to the east. The Bald Hills and low mountains of the coastal section contain gently rolling lands alternating with more rugged ridges and canyons. We might expect fire regimes here to differ from those of the rugged Klamath Mountains.

Role of Plants Many of our plants are well adapted to fire. Old pines have thick bark that resists being burned. Fire stimulates suppressed buds in burls, crowns, trunks, and branches of surviving hardwoods, creating sprouts that result in new crowns. Seeds of many species germinate from seeds banked in the soil. Knobcone pine trees bank their seeds in closed cones on their trunks. These cones open when heated, shedding their cache of seeds. Populations eliminated locally by fire can reestablish by easily dispersed seeds. In contrast, other plants may become locally extinct (Table 12). Role of Native Peoples The Holocene involves a time of a substantial Native American presence in the region. People crossed the Bering land bridge to arrive in North America some 15,000 to 13,500 years ago, and they reached California about 13,000 years ago. While scholars debate every detail of this narrative, people clearly have had an important but varying impact on California’s landscape over the centuries. They may have arrived earlier or by an alternate way. Hunters or changing climate and/or habitat conditions may have caused the megafauna’s demise. We know that as populations grew in the Holocene, their use of the land’s resources changed. During the Medieval Warm Period, a time of great droughts in California, population sizes declined and land use practices changed again. The effect of the epidemics on people in northwest California before 1850 is unknown. While the specialists debate the details, they agree that changing population sizes would have transformed vegetation patterns. The oldest archaeological sites, which exist around Lake County’s Clear Lake and in Sonoma County, date from 9,000 years ago. The early people

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table 12. Plant characteristics that allow plants to resist and recover from fire. Plant Resistance to Fire . . . . . . . . .

Plant bark that is fire resistant—thick, corky Plant stems that shed lower branches Plant stems with large butt swells that shed litter Plant root systems that are deep Plants being dormant during the dry season Plants able to grow on sites that poorly carry fire Plants that disperse seed widely Plants with rapid growth and maturity, heavy seed production at an early age Plants with growth habits that protect the meristem from fire (bulbs, corms, stem bases, rhizomes, lignotubers, layering stems) . Seeds that bank above ground, closed and semiclosed cones and fruits—capsules . Seeds with dormancy mechanisms—seed buildup in the duff or soil as seed banks . Seeds with mechanisms to bury themselves in the soil—seeds drawn down by pseudoroots Plant Response to Fire . . . . .

Plants continue to grow. Plants respond rapidly to damage. Stressed plants increase blooming and seed set after fire. Plants sprout from bulbs, corms, stem bases, rhizomes, and layered stems. Adventitious or latent auxiliary buds in stems, including trunks, lignotubers, and roots are activated—sprouts. . Dominant seeds germinate. . Seeds from closed and semiclosed cones and fruits are dispersed. note: These plant characteristics may or may not be adaptations to fire, but they allow plants to grow in areas that experience fire. From Barrow (1990).

were hunter-gatherers, but by the late Holocene, more sophisticated methods of exploiting, processing, and storing salmon and acorns led to a more sedentary lifestyle. At this time, our populations were some of the densest in the state. How the great droughts of the Medieval Warm Period affected the people in northwest California is unclear. Elsewhere in the state, violence between peoples occurred and overall population declined, but here, with a moderated climate, Native Americans may have experienced less impact from these events. Twenty ethnic groups, speaking languages from five linguistic groups and two cultures, inhabited northwest California in 1800 (Table 13). They

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table 13. The Native Americans of northwest California. Group

Culture

Number of Villages

Population in 1800/2000

algonkian languages Yurok Wiyot

Northwest Northwest

53 20

2,500/2,300 1,200/250

athabascan languages Tolowa Hupa Chilula Whilkut Mattole Nongatl Lassik Wailaki Sinkyone Cahto

Northwest Northwest Northwest Northwest Central California Central California Central California Central California Central California Central

10 26 18 4 — — — 21 — 20

450/200a 1,000/2,000 500/0 500/100 1,200/100b 2,000/500 See Nongatlc 1,900/400 See Nongatl 500/600

penutian languages Wintu

Central California

14

12,000/3,200a

hokan languages Chimariko Huchnom Karuk Pomo Shasta Yana Yuki

Northwest Central California Northwest Central California Northwest Central California Central California

7 13 36 — 27 16 —

250/0 500/0 2,700/2,700 —a 2,000/500a 1,500/0a 2,000/100

a Lands

extended beyond northwest California. as a culture; survivors settled in the Rohnerville Rancheria. c Estimate is for the Eel River tribes; descendants were absorbed into other cultures. source: Estimates are from Larry Sunderland, “Native American Historical Data Base” in The Native American Handbook, http://www.fourdir.com/california_indians.htm. b Extinct

controlled limited areas, especially when compared with their numbers. Heizer and Elasasser in The Natural World of the California Indians estimate the Yurok and Hupa densities at five persons per square mile. The Wintuspeaking peoples were the most populous. In spite of high ethnic diversity, spatial isolation, and rugged topography, the groups approached living in surprisingly similar ways. Their interconnectedness and interdependency may be the reason, as emphasized in

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Brian Fagan’s Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest Inhabitants. Those of the Northwest culture constructed houses of wood planks and redwood canoes, which turned the rivers into travel ways. Elegant twined basketry was their hallmark. Peoples of the California culture in other parts of the region fabricated conical lean-tos with bark slabs of Douglas-fir, incense-cedar, or redwood. Ceremonies and rituals also differed, but, as Alfred Kroeber discusses in his Handbook of the Indians of California, the cultural practices and worldviews shifted gradually from a Northwest culture in the north to a Californian one in the southern parts of northwest California. Settlements were associated mainly with water (Map 16). The Karuk lived on the flats found at the confluences of the creeks of the Klamath River and on the Salmon River downstream of Wooley Creek. Panámniik (Orleans) occurs on an extensive river terrace. The less populous Sinkyones established many smaller, seasonal settlements on the terraces along the Eel River upstream from Scotia, and along Bull and Salmon creeks. The Tolowa, Yurok, Wiyot, and Mattole used the coastline and the resources of the sea. Large valleys (Hoopa, Round, Scott, and Trinity) were well settled by the Hupa, Yuki, Shasta, and Wintu. Resources were plentiful. Diet centered on salmon and acorns. Streams supplied three kinds of salmon, as well as steelhead, sturgeon, lamprey, and trout. The ocean furnished sea lion and seal along with shellfish and surf fish. Upland game birds, elk, deer, and bear (including grizzly bear) added to the catch. People used the rich stores of plant materials of the forests, woodlands, and prairies as well. They tended groves of tanoak and several oak species to supply acorns for their daily use. With 17 species of acorns to choose from, the peoples of the northwest region preferred tanoak, while others used black oak. Pruned and burned plants supplied the materials needed in basketry. Cultivated seeds, bulbs, corms, rhizomes, tubers, and mushrooms added variety. Fire played a role in enhancing the bounty. It sometimes increased the complexity of vegetation patterns and sometimes made them less complicated. Fire reduced fuel levels on the ground, lessened the possibility of damaging fire near settlements, increased food needed by game, opened areas for hunting and near trails, drove game and insects, and increased the quality and quantity of their useful plants, especially groves of tanoak and areas of bear-grass, hazel, huckleberries, iris, and other plants. Roland Raymond’s comments in The Redwood Forest are most informative regarding the use of fire in the redwood forest: “Villages were usually located outside the deepest woods, and many forests were managed using annual fires. Fire was used to create, enlarge, and maintain openings in the

Map 16. Villages of the Lolangkok Sinkyone along the Eel River. The Mattole, Bear River, Nongatl, and Shelter Cove Sinkyone were neighbors. Map from Baumhoff (1958).

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forest and to reduce plants to an ash rich in nutrients for spreading on cultivated plots.” The long-standing practice of deliberately burning near settlements, many near rivers, must have had a strong impact on the vegetation patterns throughout northwest California. Considering the high population densities and similar lifestyles of the many tribes, it seems that the effect of fire would have been pervasive in creating a single landscape. Yet, if this were the case, then why was there such a variety of landscapes in the early 1800s? Jedediah Smith found that some areas contained tall and thick grass; in others, it was so sparse that little was available to feed the stock. Some forests were open and parklike; in other areas, downed trees and shrubs obstructed the Smith party’s travel. Game was abundant or almost nonexistent. Fire regimes throughout northwest California were as diverse as its topography and climate.

Role of History The land’s ability to grow trees varies immensely, but so does the age of the trees that make up its forests and woodlands. The interplay of these two variables makes it difficult to interpret patterns in a region of shifting fire regimes. Chaparral shrubs replace forests on productive, montane sites after being burned in stand replacement fires. If soils are deep, rich in nutrients, and hold abundant water, trees will eventually establish themselves and shade out the shrubs as a forest canopy develops. A fire in a nearby unproductive site of chaparral will result in more chaparral. Trees, if they establish, will be few and far apart, never shading out the shrubs. Soil is thin, supplying few nutrients; plants gain water from cracks in the bedrock. In other cases, the relationship is less apparent. The Megram and other fires of recent decades burned at all levels of severity. At some sites, the fire killed all or most large trees; in other places, it damaged them heavily; and in still other places, almost all of the trees survived, with only small trees and shrubs killed or damaged. The fire’s varying severity is easily interpreted after 1 year, but doing so becomes much more difficult after 100 years of growth. The relationship between environmental variation and history can be subtle. Tom Duebendorfer and I considered this type of problem in the Smith River’s north fork. We were interested in what caused the patchy mosaic of woodland and chaparral, first noticed in the 1950s by Robert Whittaker. Woodlands of Jeffrey pine are scattered over a continuous ground layer of Roemer’s fescue, California oat grass, and wild blue rye. The chaparral, described by Linda Barker, is unique in California with its shrub component of huckleberry oak, shrub tanoak, shrubby California bay, red huckleberry, and Pacific rhododendron.

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Surprisingly, Whittaker suggested that chaparral grew on the more productive site. The mosaic is found on the Josephine ophiolite, with its rainy winters followed by long, dry summers, its peridotite and serpentine soils, and its flat terrain. The dry summers and soils may explain the xeromorphic character of the plants, but why chaparral on the more productive sites? As predicted, serpentine was associated with woodlands and thin, loamy soils high in magnesium, and peridotite with chaparral and deep, clayey soils low in magnesium. The latter soils averaged a meter deep. Exposed bedrock occurs in the woodlands where the soils are consistently thinner. Still, why would the chaparral contain many young trees? The answer lies in the area’s history. We found that the oldest trees on deep soils averaged only 120 years old. Miners discovered copper and chrome here in 1853. Soon the region supported the town of Altaville, with a population of 1,500. Local trees supplied the building materials. Prospectors burned the land in search of its riches. Within two decades, the boom ended. Little of the town exists today. White pine blister rust, an introduced fungal disease from Asia via England, arrived in northwest California in 1930. Since then, outbreaks have greatly reduced the tree’s dominance in the North Fork. No wonder this land is covered with chaparral. Forests do occur, but Douglas-fir is the dominant tree in most, not western white pine. In Douglas-fir stands, little light reaches the ground; but in those of western white pine, forest canopies are open, and chaparral shrubs are present. In sum, recent human activities have created a brand-new kind of chaparral not seen before in California. PAST FIRE REGIMES IN NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA

We have several methods to help us understand past fire patterns. Sediments in the lakes furnish a look at the last 15,000 years. Fine particles settle out of smoke and collect in the lake sediments. The age and amount of charcoal at different levels in the sediment yield a charcoal profile. This method gives clues into the amount of regional fire for a given period, but it does not offer information on fire intensity or severity. Spikes in the profile suggest local fires. Dendrochronology studies limit us to the last 2,000 years, and studies based on fire scar and tree age distribution date to the last 800 years.

Past Fire in the Klamath Mountains Subalpine Regimes Sediments from Bluff, Crater, and Mumbo lakes in the Trinity Mountains reveal periods of both low and high fire frequency (Table 14). Many fires occurred during the Medieval Warm Period, but fewer occurred during the Holocene. At Crater Lake, the fire frequency

THE WAY FORESTS WORK

I find that the model called stand dynamics applies well to forests found on productive sites in northwest California. It is superior to the traditional succession model taught for decades, in that it does not assume a return to past conditions after a disturbance, and the stages of the new model are more descriptive. A stand is an area of forest of any size. You can describe it in terms of structure and species composition. Structure refers to tree numbers, size, the presence of layers, and so forth. Species composition refers to species present and the relative importance of different species in the forest. In the stand dynamics model, if fire or flood destroys the forest stand, the result is bare ground. With abundant light, water, nutrients, and seed sources, many tree seedlings establish and grow vigorously. New seedlings command little space, but as they grow taller and develop larger crowns, they create a low tree canopy. As the trees grow taller, the lifting forest canopy results in dark conditions on the ground. Not all trees demand the same level of resources. The first seedlings to establish tend to grow faster than the others, so they get more of the water, nutrients, and especially light. The shorter, slower-growing trees will eventually grow in deep shade. These trees die, and the stand thins. Thinning continues until the canopy becomes discontinuous, letting light once again reach to the ground, and a new cohort of seedlings establishes under a canopy of older trees. New seedlings may be of the same or different species as the original ones, depending on their adaptations and seed availability. In time, younger trees replace the original generation. At this stage, trees are of many ages, and the stand takes on an all-aged aspect. Many ecologists refer to this stage as old growth. Foresters usually present the model as a set of stages, even though the process is actually continuous. Breaking with the standard terminology, I suggest instead that we use the terms establishing, young, mature, and old growth to describe the stages. Young forests have many small trees that create continuous low canopies. Mature forests have fewer, larger trees that create somewhat open canopies. Old-growth forests have still fewer, larger trees that create open and variable canopies. Trees of all sizes and ages are present in the old-growth stage. Of course, not all stands will reach old growth. Stand-modifying events, such as windstorms, floods, pathogens, and logging, destroy trees and change conditions, allowing for a new generation of seedlings. In addition, disturbances can occur at any stage, and they need not be stand replacing. Stand-modifying fires, for example, leave patches of surviving trees that are little affected by the event mixed with patches of ashes. Here new seedlings establish, and the process begins; few, if any, seedlings establish in the first patch. A few examples from northwest California may help to illustrate this way of thinking. In the eastern Klamath, burned stands of Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine reestablish only after the site goes though a shrub stage. Seeds of deerbrush banked in the soil are stimulated to geminate by fire, and in a few years the area is a thicket of shrubs. If seed sources are available, Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine establish among the developing shrubs that thin as they age. In time, the tree crowns create a canopy and deerbrush shrubs are history. On the coast, red alder plays a role that is similar to that of the inland deerbrush. After logging, alder seedlings establish among stump sprouts of redwood. The fast-growing, but short-lived, alder quickly creates a tree canopy. Hemlock, redwood, and Sitka spruce establish along with the developing alder canopy, if seedling sources are available. The

conifers grow under low-light levels. In time, the conifers overtop the alder trees, and they join the redwood sprouts in a new canopy composed of long-lived conifers. Ice storms brought on by quick temperature shifts and high winds are occasional winter events in the montane belt. Trees lose all or part of their crowns, or patches of trees crash to the ground, leaving light gaps in the canopy. Douglas-fir and white fir seedlings establish now that sufficient light reaches the ground. The theoretical transition from bare ground to old growth takes hundreds of years, and many disturbances may modify a stand during that period. Few, if any, of the stands in northwest California fully meet this definition of being all aged as a result of tree-by-tree replacement from one event. Stand-modifying disturbances are too common, but many of our old stands are all-aged because of several disturbances. I consider them old growth because they harbor characteristic sets of plants and animals not found in younger stands. Using the term disturbance in this ecological sense does not suggest that the event is not natural or that it is something outside the system. Disturbances—fires, windstorms, floods, landslides, and the like—have always been part of the landscape, and species are as well adapted to their effects as they are to shade. Occasional winds and fungi act as agents of disturbance. Shayne Green and I found that small-wind events toppled patches of old, deceased beach pines in the coastal forests at Humboldt Bay. These events led to the establishment of new pine seedlings. Recently ecologists have argued that we have placed too much emphasis on competition at the expense of other important mechanisms, such as mutualism. You first heard about the positive relationship of algae and fungi living as lichens in your high school biology course. Other mutual relationships, such as pollination, seed dispersal, enhancement of germination by animals, nitrogen fixation, and mycorrhizae, come to mind. The roots of alder, deerbrush, lupine, and most legumes harbor bacteria that fix nitrogen from the atmosphere in chemical forms that are usable by the vascular plants. The bacteria receive carbohydrates for their use. Some of the nitrogen mixture leaks into the soil for use by the plants. Mycorrhizal fungi have a similar relation with most vascular plants in which the fungi obtain carbohydrates, and the plants obtain immobile soil nutrients, especially phosphate, for plant use. Tobacco brush fills recent clearcuts on granitic soils in the Salmon Mountains. Greenleaf manzanita and its mycorrhizal associates help it to clothe the steep slopes and ridges in the Yolla Bolly Mountains that are too harsh to support forest. Other positive associations between plants are just as common. Shade can reduce the extremes in temperature, allowing another plant to grow. Shade increases the success of Douglas-fir plantings on south slopes in the Trinity Mountains. Small Shasta red fir trees sticking their heads though a canopy of montane chaparral shrubs is a common sight throughout the Klamath Mountains. Shade from the shrubs supplied the needed environmental conditions for the tree seedlings to establish. There is no question that all these ecological mechanisms are important in explaining an area’s forest pattern. On less productive sites with thin soils, trees are widely spaced. Light is not limiting, and safe sites for seedling establishment are not abundant. Trees establish in cracks and depressions in expanses of glaciated bedrock or among boulders of a moraine in the Trinity Alps’ subalpine. Jeffrey pine trees sparsely clothe the ridges and south-facing slopes over serpentine substrates in the Siskiyou Mountains. Steep hillsides along the south fork of the Trinity River support a sparse stand of ghost pine and canyon live oak.

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table 14. Patterns of past fires in the eastern Klamath Mountains inferred from charcoal in lake sediments. Years Ago

Fires/ 1,000 Years

Years between Fires

Background Charcoal

bluff lake >13,000 13,100–10,000 10,000–4,450 4,450–2,150 2,150–200 200–present

6–9 5–8 6–10 5–8 5–8 3

24–108 48–144 48–120 48–180 48–108 12–60

Low Low Higher Higher Highest Declining

crater lake 8,400–5,650 5,600–1,250 1,200–present

11–17 10–13 9–13

13–73 20–120 19–60

Low Higher High

mumbo lake 15,220–10,450 10,450–6,600 6,600–present

3 5–6 4–6

— — —

Low High (after 7500 b.p.) High

source: Bluff Lake at 6,800 feet and Crater Lake at 7,500 feet are in the Scott Mountains (Mohr et al. 2000). Mumbo Lake at 6,100 feet is in the Trinity Mountains (Daniels 2001).

was high throughout much of the Holocene. This lake is closest to Scott Valley and considerably influenced by Native American burning. Fire history studies of mountain hemlock forests found that fire return intervals often exceeded 300 years, the age of many of the trees (Table 15). When fires occurred, they were small, burning at low intensities in complex patterns as stand-modifying or surface fires. Woodlands are common on rocky, upper slopes and summits, or on glaciated bedrock supporting only scattered trees. Because fires involve individual trees or small tree clumps; woodlands are not easily burned. Little fuel exists among the widely spaced trees. Fire history studies found fire intervals similar to those in the mountain hemlock stands. Montane Regimes Long-lived Douglas-fir and fir trees at midelevations form extensive stands with closed canopies, even on diverse terrain. Fires in these stands ranged from small to immense, burning at complex intensities and patterns. They were stand-replacing, stand-modifying, or surface

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table 15. Fire regimes in northwest California inferred from fire scars. Klamath Mountains subalpine belt Mountain hemlock forests Mixed pine woodlands montane belt Douglas-fir forests Mixed forests Shasta fir forests White fir forests White fir–Douglas-fir forests

Fire Return Intervals (In Years) 115, 100–300 95–71, 4–64 30, 2–56, 90–141 64, 3–55, 5–57, 7–50 5–65, 5–57 12–161 61–64

low-elevation belt Forest pattern Canyon live oak forests Douglas-fir–tanoak forests Tanoak forests Douglas-fir–oak forests Douglas-fir–ponderosa pine forests Deciduous Woodland Pattern Oregon white oak woodlands Pine Woodland Pattern Jeffrey pine woodlands

7–39 17, 90, 3–71, 4–90 3–23 37 10, 3–55 3–55 50, 7–25, 4–96

North Coast Western hemlock forests Port Orford–cedar forests Redwood forests Douglas-fir–tanoak forests

65 50 2–37, 8–87, 17–175 1–18, 6–58

source: Some studies report mean or median fire return intervals. Other studies report fire return intervals as ranges (Frost and Sweeney 2000).

fires, or mosaics of all three. Fire intervals varied greatly, from 5 to more than 160 years. The longer intervals were half those found in the subalpine belt. Low-Elevation Regimes Fire histories at low elevations show three distinct patterns: (1) a forest pattern, (2) a deciduous woodland pattern, and (3) a

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pine woodland pattern. Trees that make up the first pattern are fast growing and long-lived. Older Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine with their thick bark are not easily killed. Tanoak and canyon live oak sprout from basal burls if fire kills their branches or trunks. Conifers reestablish from seed. Stands with similar age distributions have various size distributions. Fires varied in size, burning at all intensities, and in complex patterns as standmodifying or surface fires. Fire intervals were similar to those at montane elevations. Trees in the second pattern sprout vigorously after fires. Stands of similarly aged oaks are extensive in the eastern portion of the region and local in the western portion. Surface fires were local. Intervals between fires were low, often about 20 years, but some fires were annual occurrences. Fire regimes of the third pattern varied with the kind of pine. Fires in closed-cone, knobcone pine stands were intense and severe, and commonly stand-replacing ones. Fires in ghost pine stands were quite variable, perhaps due to the associated plants. In some areas, the trees grew over grass; in others, there were shrubs with leathery, oily leaves, such as chamise. Fires in Jeffrey pine stands were diverse. These woodlands occur in many kinds of habitats, including serpentine and alluvium. No wonder the fire regimes varied. In summary, differing climates, terrain, and the ecology of the plants explain much of the variation in fire regimes, but the role of Native Americans was notable.

Past Fire in the North Coast The long-lived trees of the montane belt create closed forest canopies, even over broken terrain. These forests—and their fire regimes—are similar to those in the Klamath Mountains. The lands on the west side of the mountains at low elevations show three patterns: (1) an interior forest pattern, (2) a deciduous woodland pattern, and (3) a redwood forest pattern. Forest stands of the interior forest pattern have the same species composition, structure, and ecology as forests in the Klamath Mountains at low elevations. I would expect that the fire regimes be similar, but we have no studies. However, we do have information for the other patterns. Woodland Regime Early accounts by explorers and settlers traveling in the North Coast left little doubt that Native American burning practice left a strong imprint on the land. Frank Marryat’s 1850 description of autumn in the hills of Sonoma County, just south of the Eel River watershed, is insightful: “The rainy season was approaching, and the heat became occasionally intense. At times the Indians would fire the surrounding plains, the long oak-straw of which would ignite for miles. The flames would advance with great rapidity, leaving everything behind black and char. At times a

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dense smoke would hang over the atmosphere for two or three days, increasing the heat until it became insupportable.” According to Marryat, there were many reasons for burning the prairies. “Indians burned the grass to enable them to get at roots and wasps’ nests; young wasps being a luxury with them. These fires have the good effect of destroying immense quantities of snakes and vermin; and one can scarcely imagine the extent to which these might multiply were they not occasionally . . . burnt out.” Other accounts of burning practices in the interior North Coast are less descriptive, but they leave little doubt about whether the prairies and woodlands existed under a frequent, lowintensity fire regime. Studies in the Bald Hill woodlands find fire regimes similar to those in the Klamath Mountains at low elevations. Stands of similar-aged trees are extensive. Fires were stand sized, burning mainly on the ground. The literature suggests fire intervals of 1 to 20 years. Redwood Forest Regimes Fires of the redwood forest pattern came in various sizes and burned at all intensities and in complex patterns. They were surface fires or mosaics of surface and stand-modifying fires. Redwood trees withstand fire well. Damaged trees sprout from suppressed buds in the swollen base or along the stems. These sprouts then can grow into new trunks or branches. The redwood’s thick and fibrous bark resists ignition when wet. Estimates of fire intervals vary widely, ranging from 7 to 500 years. Steve Veirs studied the role of fire in Redwood National Park. He proposed that coastal sites had a fire interval of 250 to 500 years; intermediate sites, 150 to 200 years; and inland sites, 35 to 50 years. Lower intervals of one or two years are associated with Chilulan and Yurok settlements. Fires may never have burned coastal stands. Many stands throughout the range of redwood show signs of past fire. I expressed it this way in The Redwood Forest: Some “casual surveys of redwood stands in parks and reserves throughout the species’ range present abundant evidence of past fires. Trunks and snags are often black with charcoal. In many examples, trees are sufficiently burned to create . . . goose pens. We commonly see trees surrounding a burned skeleton; they are apparently sprouts brought on by fire in the remote past. New branches and entire crowns can grow from buds started when the cambium is damaged by fire.” Envisioning an open redwood forest of 200 years ago is easy, especially after reading Raymond’s description of Yurok burning practices. Many descriptions of redwood forests suggest that they were open and parklike 200 years ago, but Harrison Rogers reported: Through this forest we could not travel to exceed two miles a day. The reason for this was the immense quantity of fallen timber that lay upon the ground

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in every conceivable shape and direction, and in very many instances, one piled upon another so that the only alternative left to us was literally to cut our way through. To go around them was often as impossible as to go over them. We were obliged, therefore, constantly to keep two men ahead with axes, who, as occasion required, chop into and slab off sufficient timber to construct a sort of platform by means of which the animals were driven upon the log and forced to jump off on the opposite side. There was not the least sign indicative of the presence of any of the animal creation; indeed it was almost as impenetrable for them as for us, and doubtless was never resorted to save for purposes of shelter.

Bruce Bingham and I estimated the amount of downed woody debris (trunks and branches cluttering the ground) at 540 tons per acre for oldgrowth forests in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, one of the highest estimates ever made for any forest type. Dan Porter and I came to an even higher estimate—800 tons per acre—for a smaller forest stand nearby at Yurok Research Natural Area. The fire return interval must be long to collect that much debris! Estimates are as low as 27 tons per acre in drier parts of the redwood forest. It seems that the use of fire changed the structure of some stands locally, leaving other stands free of fire for long periods. Forest stands near the coast are more apt to have moist fuel most of the time; inland stands with drier fuel experience more fires. Regimes in Forests Other Than Redwood A snapshot into how fine-scaled patterns were in the early 1800s comes from a study at Patrick’s Point State Park by Susan Bicknell. It is a very popular state park, considering its small size—only 640 acres. A broad beach with agates, a rugged coastline with dramatic vistas, and brilliant sunsets from the headlands explain its attractiveness. The other charm of the park is a varied mosaic of forests, coastal scrub, and meadows along the 16 miles of hiking trails. In the early 1800s, the park’s lands included the Yurok village of Sumig at the base of the cliffs near Patrick’s Point itself. Much of the parkland involves a maritime terrace homesteaded in 1850. Soon after its creation in 1929, seedlings of beach pine, red alder, and Sitka spruce began to establish in the abandoned fields and pastures. In time, these trees threatened the meadows, an important part of the visitor’s experience. They maintained the meadows by mowing them. Bicknell created a map of the 1800 “presettlement” vegetation. The state park personnel were especially interested in the presence and extent of prairies. She used historical accounts, cultural deposits, tree ages, and charcoal, phytolith, and pollen data found in the soil to create a habitat classification of the park. She then mapped the park as if it were 1800. Her reconstruction showed small prairie patches at the toes of the cliffs where today red fescue forms even smaller grassy openings in the coastal

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scrub. Phytoliths were present in the leaves of an introduced hair grass. Pollen and other information suggested that little prairie existed on the terrace. Instead, it was a mosaic of forest and woodland types dominated by various mixtures of red alder, beach pine, redwood, or Sitka spruce. The Yurok burned the vegetation around the houses in the fall. These fires affected mainly the prairie and coastal scrub types on the slopes below the terrace. The deep redwood forest was far to the east of Sumig and its fires on the immediate coast. SUPPRESSION IN NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA

Fire regimes in northwest California were as varied as is its geology and vegetation. In some areas, lightning was a frequent visitor; in others, it was a rare event. Sometimes, a single tree burned; in other cases, great tracts of land burned. Fires incinerated some areas and left others unburned or hardly touched. The consistent use of a frequent, low-intensity fire regime by northwest California’s tribes created local expressions of the regional vegetation. The large-scale fires associated with the Bald Hills were the exception. Focused burns by the Native Americans, which reduced fuels near settlements, increased the quality of the habitat for game and useful plants and, for hunting, enhanced existing vegetation mosaics created by lightning in the broken terrain that is so common throughout the region. With improved road systems and better equipment, fighting wildfires became more effective after World War II. No more long hikes by the fire crews up the trails to find remote “smokes” seen by a patroller in the local fire lookout. Satellite technology today replaces the eyes of the patroller. Fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters rush smokejumpers to small fires. As a fire spreads, helicopters drop fire retardant and water. If the area has a road system, trucks hurry firefighters, hotshot crews, caterpillar tractors, and other heavy equipment to the scene. However, if the weather is against the firefighters and if fuels are abundant in the forest, the fire becomes a conflagration. For example, the 1999 Megram fire cost $73 million and involved 1,156 people until it ended after the autumn rains came (Pl. 25). Has recent fire suppression allowed fuels to accumulate, setting the stage for these massive fires? Considering the landscapes, their biological richness, and the varied environmental and cultural conditions in the whole region, I am not inclined to accept this generalization for northwest California. Instead, fire suppression in the region has allowed fuels to accumulate at many different rates. Plants of Jeffrey pine woodlands on serpentine substrates grow at a different rate than do plants of redwood forests on deep, rich soils derived from sandstone. Under similar environmental conditions, 20-year-old plantations of Douglas-fir created after clear-cutting have

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fuel loads very different from those of mature stands that developed after the gold rush. A World Wildlife Fund report compared the most recent fire interval with historic return intervals in the forests in the Klamath Mountains. Although few studies exist, they span the elevation belts and a mixture of forest types. The report asks whether the last fire-free period was in “the range of historic variability.” The answer depends on forest type and elevation. The study’s authors found that the last fire-free period was very different from the historical period in the low-elevation oak woodlands and Douglas-fir–ponderosa pine forests. The last fire-free period differed somewhat in the Douglas-fir–tanoak, Douglas-fir, and white forests, but it differed little in the Jeffrey pine woodlands or the red fir and the mountain hemlock forests. These findings correlate with the apparent change in forest structure and composition suggested by observation. Many low-elevation Oregon white oak stands contain an understory of small Douglas-fir trees. These woodlands, and nearby Douglas-fir–tanoak and Douglas-fir–ponderosa pine forests, were most affected by Native American practices. These types surround home sites, settlements, and highways today. Small trees of incensecedar and white fir are seen in many montane forests. In lower parts of the montane belt, the productive Douglas-fir and Douglas-fir–white forest types have felt the brunt of road building and logging over the last 50 years. Selectively logged stands have even more regeneration among the remaining large trees. Clear-cuts are now plantations of dense trees. Logging has had less effect on the high-elevation red fir and mountain hemlock forests. These are the common forest types in the wilderness areas. On the North Coast, productive Douglas-fir and Douglas-fir–ponderosa pine forests of the montane belt contain most of the road building and young stands. Red fir forests are less modified. The greatest change has come to the interior prairies and oak woodlands at low elevations, but Native American burning is not the only influence. Settlers, loggers, and ranchers used fire in the past, but recent ranching practices account for most of the present conditions. Likewise, recent logging practices account for the state of the commercial timberlands. Today park managers are using prescribed burns to return fire influences to the prairies, oak woodlands, and redwood forests. Prescribed burns diversify the stand age and structure in the east side chaparral.

Agents of Change

Pierson B. Reading discovered gold in 1848 on the banks of the Trinity River on what is now Readings Bar. Lindsay Applegate encountered the precious metal in 1849 at the head of the Scott River. Other strikes followed in 1850 on the Salmon River and along Greenhorn Creek. These finds meant that within months all of the Klamath Mountains were to change. Miners and other newcomers cleared the land, built towns, ripped up and rerouted streams, and decimated the native peoples, fish, forests, and wildlife. They brought new land management ideas with them and in the process introduced new animals and plants. Mountain slopes and rivers dramatically changed with hydraulic mining. Fumes from shelters laid bare the lands of the Sacramento River. Whole forests supplied the wood needed to construct buildings associated with mines and new towns. Cooking and heating required additional wood. Oil exploration scarred the lands on the coast. Homesteaders established ranches and farms at higher elevations, only to abandon them later. After a few years, many areas that had been altered were then abandoned and left to “return to a natural state.” Several decades of tree growth mute the effects of many of these activities. The bare lands of the Sacramento River are now clothed in chaparral and forest. Trees in the new 100-year-old forests around Weaverville and Arcata are sufficiently large that they can be logged again. Signs of oil exploration are hard to find near Petrolia. Maps of the Klamath Mountains show scores of Native American villages and mining towns that are hardly noticeable on the ground today. Redwood trees are reclaiming the town of Falk in the Elk River watershed south of Eureka. Patrick’s Point State Park has a history of human use that is similar to that of many other state parks. Knowing the history of a location goes a long way in interpreting current landscape patterns. 125

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agents of change MINING

Miners viewed the Klamath Mountains as a vast expanse of open land. There was “gold in them thar hills,” and it was free for the taking, even if it meant significant and serious destruction of whole watersheds. Most miners intended to strike it rich and then retreat back to their homes. They cared little about the state of the land when they left.

Placer Mining Gold deposits came in two forms: placer and lode. A lode is a quartz vein of mineralized rock, and a placer is a deposit of gold mixed with the accumulations of sand, gravel, and rock fragments in current or former streams. Placer mining was done in several ways. Panning took time, and it was usually done singly or by small groups of miners. It did not take much of a grubstake, since a miner could easily search with only a pan and supplies. Pouring water into a rocker or cradle washed and sieved the gravel, separating out the gold. This approach was more efficient than using only a pan. These methods had little effect on the streams. The long tom, a wooden trough, brought water to a riffle box to wash the gravel and separate its gold from the rest. The riffle box evolved into the sluice, where several riffle boxes were placed in a line to separate the gold. These devices, especially the sluice, meant that more steam deposits could be worked more efficiently, but they had more environmental impact. Within a decade, most stream bottoms had been worked, many several times. Then gravel deposits in the stream banks were worked by ground sluicing. Dammed waters were suddenly released against the stream banks to carve off new material to run through a sluice. A wing dam diverted the streams so that deep gravel could be put into the sluice. These new methods had a greater impact on the streams, but their effects were minor in comparison to the hydraulic mining methods that followed. Hydraulic mining was the primary mining method used in the late 1800s. Massive water releases under high pressure eroded extensive riverbanks and even mountain slopes, washing gold-bearing deposits to be worked by gangs of sluices. High-elevation streams and, at times, lakes supplied the water pressure needed to extract the gold though a series of gravity-fed flumes, ditches, and hoses attached to nozzles called monitors. With hydraulic mining, whole landscapes were permanently altered. Mountainsides were removed; streams were buried in sand, gravel, and rock; drainages downstream were filled with silt and clay; fish populations were decimated. The impact of hydraulic mining is readily grasped by anyone traveling on SR 299. A monitor of the La Grange Mine sits along the highway in an area just west of Weaverville, where the mountain slopes are still raw from

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mining. The water needed to operate the monitors traveled 60 miles from the mouth of Deer Creek on the Stuart Fork through a system of ditches, flumes, siphons, trestles, and tunnels, removing some 131 million cubic yards of rock from the mountainsides. Tailings filled gulches 130 feet deep as the burden spilled toward the Trinity River. In 1933, a notch was made in Oregon Mountain with the same monitors to accommodate the highway that we use today. These tailings are a new source of wealth, and the landscape continues to change under our direction. Finally, the larger streams were dredged. Massive, flat-bottomed boats worked down the streams, strip-mining riverbeds and leaving piles of tailings in their wake. A century later, only a few scattered plants grow on these sterile leavings. Dredging reached a peak in the 1930s, and it continued until 1968 in the Klamath Mountains.

Hard Rock Mining It seems that digging tunnels and shafts would have little effect on the land when compared with placer mining, but it left its mark on the landscape. Local trees were cut for the roofs and sides of the mine shafts. A mule- or steam-powered stamp mill, called an arrastra, accomplished the crushing of ore. Mixing quicksilver (mercury) with water and finely ground ore formed an amalgam with the gold. Later in the process, mercury was separated by heat (retorted) from the gold. The reclaimed mercury was used again, but the process left behind slag heaps of rock and metals. Gold was not the only metal found in the Klamath Mountains by any means. Copper became important in the Sacramento River watershed in the late 1800s. Cadmium, lead, limestone, sulfur, and zinc were extracted as well. A review of mining maps about Redding suggests a high level of activity, with mines dotting the map in nearly all directions but south. With the mines came the associated smelters. Their toxic fumes killed plants up to 15 miles away. Lands near the smelter were denuded, and the erosion was extreme. Today the waters of the Shasta Dam cover many of these slopes. Iron Mountain, near the town of Keswick, is today a notorious toxic waste site. Tree growth mutes the effects of many of these activities. GROWING TOWNS

As the hordes of miners and other people arrived in the early 1850s, they traveled the many existing trails into the mountains. The Great Indian Trail from Oregon to the Sacramento Valley followed the Sacramento River, passing west of Mount Shasta into Shasta Valley and on to the Boundary (Siskiyou) Mountains on the California-Oregon line. Since the native people of the upper reaches of the Sacramento River were more hostile than

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were the Wintu, travelers took trails over the Trinity Mountains to the Trinity River and Scott Valley to reach the Siskiyou Mountains. By 1860, these and other pack trails became wagon trails and then a stagecoach route over the Scott Mountains to Oregon, today the site of SR 3. By 1850, people were looking for the quickest way to the gold diggings. The strikes were centered in several different parts of the Klamath Mountains. The eastern activities occurred along the drainages of the Trinity River’s main stem near Weaverville or farther north around the Scott Valley. Western activities centered in the Klamath and Salmon river drainages near Somes Bar. These miners needed supplies, and so mining activities attracted many other people to the region.

Shasta and Weaverville The gold rush years bought great changes to Shasta and Trinity counties. The town of Shasta, now a suburb of Redding, was the first to boom as the entrance to the Trinity mines, via French Gulch and Clear Creek. Shasta was a key stop on the route to Oregon. Barges moved supplies up the Sacramento River to Red Bluff, and pack animals carried the loads via Shasta to the mines. Later the easier route up the Sacramento Canyon was picked for the railroad, with Redding an important station on the Shasta Line. By 1850, Weaverville was the county seat of Trinity County. It was also a stop for passengers and freight on their way to Oregon or to the west on their way to Union and Eureka. In 1854, Weaverville had 22 stores, two banks, six hotels, six saloons, seven lawyers, and four physicians. One of the banks, now the oldest bank in the state, is still going strong. Arcata and Eureka Like the inland counties, the coastal lands of Humboldt and Del Norte changed greatly during the gold rush years. The towns of Humboldt City, Union, Bucksport, and Eureka started around Humboldt Bay as speculation properties by several land companies. Early trails to the western fields started at Trinidad Bay, so most of the traffic left from nearby Union (later called Arcata) to get to the western diggings after a boat ride from San Francisco. Humboldt Bay is a more sheltered port than Trinidad Bay, surrounded by more gentle terrain. The Union Town Company chose land high on a terrace at the north end of Humboldt Bay. Soon its wharf helped transport material from the ships to town. Bucksport had the advantage of being directly east of the mouth of the bay with a deeper port, but it suffered from being farther from the trails. The third settlement, Humboldt City, to the south and straddling Elk River, dwindled as Eureka grew in importance. By 1853, a trail existed from Crescent City to Happy Camp

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Plate 1. The Trinity River country seen from South Fork Mountain on the boundary with the North Coast. The Trinity Alps cap the horizon.

Plate 2 (above). Limestone scenery in the middle Sacramento River country. Dekkas Rock is along the McCloud Arm of Lake Shasta with Mount Shasta in the distance. Plate 3 (left). Canyonlands of the Klamath River between Somes Bar and Happy Camp.

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Plate 4. Foothills of Greenhorn Mountains east of Scott Valley. Northern juniper and Oregon white oak are scattered in the rangelands. Plate 5 (left). Looking down the Salmon River’s north fork towards Sawyers Bar. The Siskiyou Mountains are seen on the horizon. Plate 6 (below). High Trinity Mountains. Foxtail pine woodlands dot the highest elevations of Trinity ophiolite.

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Plate 7 (left). High Trinity Alps. Thompson Peak, above Upper Canyon Lake. Plate 8 (below). Flat mountain tops, these pieces of the Klamath peneplain are stark the spring following the 2002 Biscuit Fire.

Plate 9. Chaparral in Beegum Gorge. These slopes are just south of the mountain gap used by Jedediah Smith.

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Plate 10 (above). Characteristic mosaic of forest, woodland, and prairie in the interior portion of the Eel River country. Plate 11 (right). Extensive grasslands found in the slopes above Bear River along the road from Ferndale to Petrolia.

Plate 12. The sheltering Trinidad Head helps to form a small bay where Bruno Heceta and Juan Francisco Bodega y Cadra landed in 1775 at the Yurok village of tsurai below the current town of Trinidad.

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Plate 13 (above). Fog is common inland in Redwood Creek country. Here we are looking to northwest from State Route 299 towards the redwood forests on the coast. Plate 14 (right). Old-growth redwood forest. Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park offers some of the most impressive stands in the entire range of redwood.

Plate 15 (left). Old-growth Douglas fir–tanoak forest. The two-tier canopy is shown on steep slopes along the Klamath River. Plate 16 (below). Old-growth white fir forest. The most common montane forest type in the region as found in the near North Trinity Mountain.

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Plate 17. Boundaries between outcrops of serpentine and granitic substrates are striking. Swift Creek in the foreground and the granitic Stewart Fork are part of the Trinity Alps.

Plate 18 (above). Jeffrey pine on Pine Flat Mountain in Smith River’s North Fork. This sparse woodland exists on serpentine outcrops of the Josephine ophiolite. Plate 19 (right). Lush meadows of the Marble Mountains. The surrounding forests are of white and Shasta fir.

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Plate 20 (above left). Subalpine forests of mountain hemlock. Stands are common on northfacing slopes on substrates other than serpentine. Plate 21 (above right). Enriched stands at Russian Peak. Stands on moraines along Horse Range Creek can have up to 11 conifers. Plate 22 (right). Chamise and whiteleaf manzanita are common on the North Coast ophiolite.

Plate 23. Northern coastal scrub at False Klamath Cove. Flowers of cow parsnip stick up above the shrubs.

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Plate 24. Dune mat at Lanphere Dunes.

Plate 25 (right). Months after the Magram fire. Fire burned unevenly though this dense fir forest. Plate 26 (below). Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary. Duckweed blooms are common in the summer.

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and the Scott River. By 1855, a pack trail between Union and Weaverville was more direct than the older trails that followed the Trinity River’s south fork. A wagon trail and a telegraph line from Shasta to Weaverville existed in 1860. Eureka was now the county seat of the newly created Humboldt County, and it became a shipping center of lumber to both domestic and foreign ports. Timber was becoming “the gold” of the coast. IMPACTS ON NATIVE PEOPLES

The gold strikes changed everything. The period from 1848 to 1870 was one of the most miserable times in California’s history. Harold Steen stated it succinctly: “Neither Indians nor ‘unreasonable’ federal laws would impede settling the West.” Byron Nelson’s Our Home Forever: The Hupa Indians of Northern California and Jack Norton’s Genocide in Northwestern California offer local histories that help us understand Ray Raphael’s general conclusion in An Everyday History of Somewhere: “From 1850–1870 nearly 200,000 people were decimated by every conceivable act that the imagination of man can inflict upon his own. Finally, by 1910, the original people of California were reduced to a mere 17,000.” The number of immigrants quickly grew, and so did their impact. Measles, smallpox, tuberculosis, and venereal diseases were epidemic; slaughter and rape were widespread; slavery was sanctioned and practiced; legal rights were denied. Details differed from place to place, but massacres went unchecked throughout northwest California. The infamous massacres of the Wintu people at Hayfork in 1852, the Tolowa people along the Smith River in 1853, and the Wiyot people at Indian Island, Humboldt Bay, in 1860 were three of many. Attacks by volunteer companies, regular army units, bounty hunters, and casual killings continued until 1870. Captured Sinkyone people who did not die of starvation or exposure suffered in prison camps near Eureka and Fort Bragg and later on reservations. The Karuk and others lived off the reservations, but their influence on the land and forests was greatly curtailed. A 1998 Land and Resource Management Plan established Karuk Ancestral Lands in a portion of Klamath and Six Rivers national forests. Ellen de Rijke and I described the status of current vegetation to set up a baseline to help the Karuk evaluate their management direction, one that emphasizes traditional use plants. We expected that the village, ceremonial ground, and gathering sites maintained by frequent burning would be invaded by Douglas-fir. What was the character of this invasion? What is the status of use plants at these sites? Today the use sites are meadows surrounded by mature Douglas-fir forests in which most trees are less than 100 years old. These trees have

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filled in around larger, older Douglas-fir and hardwood trees. This pattern supports the assertion that a frequent, low-intensity fire regime maintained only patches of hardwoods and individual Douglas-fir trees upslope from the culture sites. Release from this fire regime allowed hardwoods to grow larger and Douglas-fir seedlings to establish in the filtered shade of the developing tree canopies. A period of frequent fires followed by a long interval without fire and the subsequent tree response bestowed a very distinctive fingerprint along the middle Klamath River today. River terraces, landscape deposits, and adjacent canyon slopes support uniform-sized Douglas-fir trees emerging from the canopies of black oak, California bay, madrone, and other hardwoods. Few of the Karuk use plants remain at the village, ceremonial ground, and gathering sites. Decades of tree growth mutes the effects of many of these traditional activities of the Karuk. AGRICULTURE ACTIVITIES

Settlers by 1851 cultivated crops throughout northwest California for the market created by the hungry gold seekers. Terraces were cleared near Trinidad Bay to provide farmland, but they were neither extensive nor productive. The “heavy timber” of the redwood forest was just as difficult to get rid of as it was for Jedediah Smith to traverse. However, the alluvial soils along the Mad River near Union offered good farming. Farther south, the fertile soils around Humboldt Bay, the terraces of Table Bluff, and the valleys near the Eel River and its tributary, the Van Duzen River, provided even more extensive lands. The settlers grew wheat, barley, oats, corn, and potatoes. The souvenir edition of a pamphlet created by the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco rejoices in the way of life in Siskiyou County, and it gives the reader a sense of land use in the late 1800s throughout northwest California: The gold miner of Siskiyou County has a world market for his bullion. The lumber not only supplies the needs of a large part of California, but ships his finished products eastward more advantageously than his maritime competitor. . . . Greater are the advantages of the grower and stock raiser [of cattle and sheep]. Almost at his door are thousands of men engaged in mining and lumbering activities. Most of the food they consume is supplied by their thrifty neighbors. Their surplus products find a ready market in the centers of population on the Pacific Coast, as well as in eastern localities.

The population of Siskiyou County was larger than it is today where “all the opportunities of pioneer days are now to be realized without the privations of the toilsome past.” Adjacent counties in northwest California had much the same history by the beginning of the 20th century.

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Already northwest California was known for its “romantic retreats among the virgin solitudes.” New roads and railroads brought city people to vacation spots and returned timber, stock, and produce to the cities. Dams on the Klamath and Shasta rivers supplied electricity to the towns and water for irrigation. Growing alfalfa and other forage crops, cereals, fruits, and nuts; dairy ranching; and truck farming were all land-modifying activities that changed the face of the Klamath Mountains and the North Coast, but not as much as cattle and sheep ranching and logging. OIL

Northwest California’s oil boom left little impact on the land. Oil was discovered near Cape Mendocino as early as 1857, and in the 1860s, people clambered to tap this source of wealth. This excitement created the town of Petrolia and 11 oil districts between Shelter Cove and Arcata. Geologists predicted that Humboldt County would be “the richest spot in the world,” but others doubted these proclamations. The Union Mattole Company exported oil from the county in 1865, but after that, many other operations failed. With insufficient output, interests then shifted to the substantial oil strikes in southern California. DAMS

Northwest California receives more precipitation than any other part of the state, and precipitation is an important source of electricity and water for all of California. Water management is done through a confusing mixture of federal, state, and local agencies, including the Bureau of Reclamation, California Department of Water Resources, local agencies, such as the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District and Orland Unit Water Users’ Association, and the Pacific Gas & Electric Company. The region sports 12 dams and associated reservoirs. The only watershed to lack a dam is that of the Smith River, although major forks of other streams lack dams as well. The most elaborate complex of dams and reservoirs is part of the Central Valley Project. Shasta Dam, the hub of the project, was finished in 1945. Lake Shasta, with a surface area of 29,500 acres and a shoreline of 365 miles at maximum storage, is the largest reservoir in the state. Additional dams create Lake McCloud, whose water is transported, via an aqueduct, to Iron Canyon Reservoir on Iron Canyon Creek, a tributary of the Pit River. The water then flows to the Pit Arm of Lake Shasta; from there it is transported to Keswick Reservoir, where it continues to flow on into the Sacramento River and to the Red Bluff Diversion downstream, a seasonal reservoir, and on to San Francisco. The Trinity River Diversion (Trinity Dam, Lake, and Powerplant; Lewiston Dam, Lake, and Powerplant; Trinity River Fish Hatchery; Clear Creek

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Tunnel; Judge Francis Carr Powerplant; Whiskeytown Dam and Lake; and Clear Creek) transports water from the Trinity River to the Sacramento River. Clearly it takes a great deal of engineering to move water between watersheds. Trinity Lake’s surface area covers 17,000 acres at maximum storage. Water on the North Coast is diverted from the Eel River at Lake Pillsbury to the south-flowing Russian River to be used in Sonoma County. Morris Reservoir on Davis Creek is near Willits. Ruth Lake on the Mad River supplies water to towns and mills around Humboldt Bay. On the eastern side of the Coast Ranges, a complex involving East Park Reservoir and Stony Gorge Reservoir supplies water to the western Central Valley. Reservoirs have inundated a great deal of land in this part of the state. Trinity Dam resulted in flooding Trinity Valley, one the largest valleys in northwest California, and Shasta Dam resulted in submerging the canyons of the Sacramento River and Pit River. Round Valley was almost lost in the 1980s to a state water project on the Eel River. Ted Simon calls stopping the Dos Rios Dam project “a pivotal chapter in California’s water wars” in The River Stops Here. Reservoirs not only submerge canyons and valleys but represent a new and different condition for fish. The use of dams blocks migrations of anadromous fishes. Changes in the river geomorphology occur below the dam so that eventually fish populations decline. Earlier national concerns, highlighted so well by the Dos Rios Dam controversy in California, led to the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. The act created a mechanism for preserving selected rivers or segments of them in a free-flowing condition. RANCHING

It did not take long after finding gold for the word to spread that riches lay in the extensive grasslands of northwest California. The rich soils of the Eel River and other coastal areas around Humboldt Bay were quickly claimed and farmed. By 1851, cattle began replacing elk east of the redwood belt and in the prairies on the hills above Humboldt Bay. Cattle and sheep became abundant on the extensive prairies of the Bear and Mattole river watersheds and throughout the Bald Hills. Livestock was shipped to San Francisco. Inland, Trinity Valley, with its rich land and abundant water, was by 1900 one of the most important cattle operations in northwest California. Even today ranching continues to be important in the inland North Coast. Along the Eel River, dairy ranching became significant by 1855, and it continues as a major activity. Many cattle allotments are still active on the national forest land, although grassy areas are not extensive at lower elevations in the Klamath Mountains. Signs along the highways tell of existing open range. Cattle use the

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mountain meadows as summer pasture, even in some wilderness areas. Livestock grazing has been much more important in shaping the landscapes of the North Coast. Large ranches are everywhere in the Redwood Creek, Mad, Eel, Bear, and Mattole river watersheds. Ranches have carved up the blue oak woodlands at low elevations on the east side as well. Ranching continues to be an important part of northwest California’s economy.

The Bald Hill Prairies Redwood National Park contains good examples of the Bald Hills prairies that are open to the public, including Gan’s Prairie where Jedediah Smith camped in 1828. Prairies inhabit ridges and southern slopes where soils are fine textured and conducive to the growth of grasses with short, fine roots. Before 1978, when these prairies were added to the park, they were ranches supporting great expanses of introduced annual grasses. These conditions vary greatly from Joseph Burtt-Davy’s 1902 report, Stock Ranges of Northwest California: Notes on Grasses and Forage Plants and Range Conditions, based on surveys in 1899 and 1900. He interviewed the ranchers in the Bear, Eel, and Mattole river watersheds, which he ranked as “the most important pastoral area in the region.” Burtt-Davy learned that the perennial California oat grass was “the most abundant on hillside and valley floor” from a homesteader in 1853 in Sherwood Valley, which today contains Laytonville. He encountered native, perennial grasses in the 1899 survey including tufted hair grass and California barley. His description of the “upland ranges” better approaches the condition of Redwood National Park prairies. Here, his list contained annual grasses including soft chess mixed with many perennials such as California melic, fescues, and needle grasses. Introduced filarees were abundant in 1900. The shift from perennial to annual grasses seen in the Bald Hills parallels that of the rest of California, and it has been attributed to several factors. The Spanish and the Russians brought annual grasses such as wild oats and filarees from the Old World. These grasses flourished as herds of elk and deer were exchanged for immense herds of cattle and sheep. The modification of the pervasive, frequent, low-intensity fire regime as practiced by the Native Americans and the cultivation that occurred in the few valleys also influenced the region. In Ecological History and Cultural Ecology of the North Fork of the Eel River Basin, California, Thomas Keter details this shift to livestock. Most ranchers in the late 1800s moved cattle or sheep from the winter range in the Eel River to the summer pastures in the Yolla Bolly Mountains. “Bands of sheep (numbering about 1,500 to 2,500) might spend as long as four to eight weeks slowly moving through the basin,” and “during the 1870s and 1880s

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as many as 40,000 to 60,000 sheep may have passed through the North Fork region each year.” Keter concludes that “after 40 years of intensive grazing [native] grass was difficult to find and had been replaced by exotic annuals and weedy species.” Keter also reports that large populations of feral pigs were very destructive, and they contributed “to the decline of native grasses, and affected bulbs, clovers, acorns, and other resources that the local Indian populations depended upon. The result was widespread hunger and even starvation among the Wilaki and Lassik.” Cattle still roamed the prairies in 1982 when Loretta Saenz and I began our study of the grasslands and woodlands in the Redwood Creek watershed. The split ownership of Schoolhouse Peak prairie included Redwood National Park and the Lyon Ranch. The history of these lands was similar to that of the North Fork area. During the gold years, cattle supplied meat to miners. In the 1870s, when tariffs were placed on imported wool, ranchers converted to sheep, until they shifted back to cattle after World War II. We learned that cattlemen used two grazing regimes. In areas where cow poison, a larkspur, grew, they delayed grazing until it died back. As a result, the grazing season was about four months long. In areas lacking cow poison, the season was about eight months. The difference in the composition of prairie plants under the regimes was striking. Native and introduced perennial grasses dominated areas grazed for the shorter time, including bent grass, fescues, and tall oat grass. Areas that were grazed all season long lacked the important perennial grass component. Instead, annual grasses, especially dogtail, and sheep sorrel accounted for more than half of the plant cover. In the early 1980s, two decades had passed since the removal of toxic Klamath weed that had infested the rangelands in northwest California for decades. It had been introduced from Europe in the 1920s. In 1946, two species of leaf-eating Chrysolina beetles were introduced into California, and they succeeded beautifully in controlling this pernicious weed. This was one of the first successes at biological control. After the beetles arrived, pastures near Blocksburg were again mainly California oat grass. A plaque at the Agricultural Center Building in Eureka, California, commemorates the beetles’ success. Katie Grenier and I described Counts and Dolason prairies by the late 1980s after eight years without cattle grazing. We found that species composition of each prairie corresponded with pasture grasses and clovers planted by the owner in the past. Ranchers in the early 1900s were very interested in clovers, because of their ability to help enrich the soil with nitrogen. Today we find them in many prairies. Ranchers also introduced

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many grasses to “redeem depleted ranges.” All are lasting members of today’s North Coast prairies. By the late 1980s, tall oat grass became the dominant grass of the prairies of Redwood National Park. Leonel Arguello set out to find out whether prescribed burns could reverse this trend. He determined that the native California oat grass responded positively to fall burns, but neither fall nor late spring burning reduced the rate of spread of tall oat grass. Since then, park personnel have used fall burns to shift the composition of more native grasses, but tall oat grass persists. Roosevelt elk populations have increased with the creation of the park. Historical accounts report that thousands of elk once used the prairies, woodlands, and forests in the Redwood Creek watershed. Populations were depleted to fewer than 100 by 1960. Jeffrey Grenier found that with the cattle gone, elk were again able to roam the hills of the Redwood Creek area with abandon, and the elk population rebounded. It will be interesting to see how the prairies continue to change under current conditions of frequent, low-intensity burning and elk grazing.

The Bald Hills Woodlands Woodlands have California brome, California fescue, and introduced perennial grasses as dominants in oak understories. On many ranches, the woodlands are being invaded by Douglas-fir. Peter Cooper and I described the scene in 1972, which is still easily seen today when driving along SR 299 between Blue Lake and Willow Creek. Young Douglas-fir trees are amassed below Oregon white oak crowns. Douglas-fir trees are sometimes taller than the oaks. They are expected in time to shade out the oaks, converting the stand to one of mainly Douglas-fir. Thomas Keter reported a 30 percent decline of oak woodland and a 35 percent increase in forests with Douglas-fir in the Eel River country between 1865 and 1985. Today this area is one of the least populated parts of the state, different in many ways from when the Wilaki and Lassik lived here. Most oak woodlands have a history very similar to that of the adjacent prairies. Ranching replaced the frequent, low-intensity fire regime practiced by the Native Americans. The ruinous grazing in the late 1800s was followed by more enlightened practices on many ranches, but feral pigs continue to prosper today on acorn crops. In many cases, the grazing intensity is lower in recent decades as ranchers have moved from raising sheep to cattle. Other properties, now owned by land developers, go ungrazed by livestock. The distinctive fingerprint of frequent burning by Native Americans is greatly muted by more recent practices. The charge of Douglas-fir that started in the mid-Holocene continues unabated.

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Coastal Prairies Coastal prairies in the lowest parts the Eel River valley may have been as extensive in the past as those in the Mattole and Bear river watersheds today. Determining their pattern in the 1800s is difficult. Burtt-Davy described the Eel River bottomland in 1900 as supporting forage crops of alfalfa, barley, hay, mangel-warzel, oats, and red clover. Today small parts of the bottomland support the original mosaic of wetland trees. A few stumps suggest that higher land once supported redwood trees. More than a century later, the land is mainly made up of dairy farms. The coastline of northwest California was home to many Native American villages. The Yurok shared the coast with the Tolowa to the north and with the Wiyot and Mattole to the south. Soils that develop under prairie grasses have a very different character than those that develop under trees. Prairie soils are rich and deep, and conditions are suitable for burning in the late summer and fall before the rains come, even on the coast. Both forest and prairie soil types are present today on the immediate coast. They suggest that in the early 1800s a mosaic of forest and prairies occurred around the lagoons north of Patrick’s Point to Redwood Creek; around Humboldt Bay; on the terraces and the mouths of the Smith, Klamath, Eel, and Mattole rivers; and along smaller creeks on the coastline. Today, extensive prairies exist only along the Mattole and Bear river coastlines. Only faint marks of past burning and other Native American activities exist today; agricultural practices prevail. It was in such a setting that Doris Niles rediscovered the federally endangered western lily on Table Bluff, just north of the mouth of the Eel River. Its deep red flowers were scarcely sticking above the shrubs, just out of the reach of the cattle. With further surveys, local botanists encountered the lily in four nearby locations, including one in the Department of Fish and Game’s Eel River Wildlife Area. Seeing the precarious conditions in 1987 with plants growing at pasture margins, David Imper and I got the Table Bluff populations in the newly created Table Bluff Ecological Reserve fenced, started monitoring the lily, and devised ways to increase its population size. At first we assumed that the population would flourish once the cattle were removed, but we were surprised. After we removed the cattle, the number of lilies tripled but then fell. Shrubs and Pacific reed grass began to overtop the lilies, and the resulting shade reduced lily vigor. Clearly our attempts at restoration needed to be rethought. It appeared that the lily required a certain level of disturbance for its success. Might not seasonal cattle grazing offer the right level of disturbance? We introduced cattle for a five-month period of winter grazing. Cattle grazed down plants, created trails, supplied nutrient-rich cow pies, and packed down the soil—just the kind of places seedling establishment

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occurred. The lily population rose once again. We have saved the western lily from extinction by continuing to manipulate its habitat. USE OF THE FOREST

Logging, more than any other activity, defines northwest California. As with mining technology, logging practices have evolved over the last 150 years. The way in which society thinks about forests has evolved as well. These considerations fall under four topics: (1) widespread logging followed by active management, (2) widespread logging followed by leaving the land alone, (3) logging limited to local areas followed by active management, and (4) management for natural conditions. These four treatments, as ecologists might call them, have created very different landscapes in today’s northwest California.

Widespread Logging Followed by Active Management The first Europeans lacked efficient equipment to handle the massive redwood, Douglas-fir, and sugar pine trees of the region. Trees were brought down with hardwood wedges, ironbound wooden mallets, and hand axes to make room for farms and to create local supplies of lumber, but turning the unbounded forests into money proved difficult until the mid-1800s. Then, more modern methods of cutting trees and transporting logs allowed people to prosper, and loggers searched out the biggest ponderosa pine, sugar pine, and Douglas-fir in the inland forests of the Sacramento River country. Elaborate flume systems, filled with rushing water, brought the logs to the mills of the Redding area, where railroads transported the lumber made from ponderosa pine and sugar pine to a ready market in San Francisco and other developing cities. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 after much lobbying for this expensive undertaking. The act established loans and granted public land to the railroad companies in alternate sections, checkerboard style, on both sides of the right-of-way in a 40- milewide strip. This act, written to keep railroads from having a land monopoly along the rights-of-way, generated the largest private landowner in the state. The Southern Pacific Railroad, which developed from the Central Pacific and other railroads, controlled 10 million acres in California in 1920. The 40-mile-wide strip along the Pacific Railroad right-of way meant that alternate sections of industrial land (now mainly owned by Sierra Pacific Industries) exist in Shasta, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties. Forest lands distant from the railroad were not logged until after World War II, when the developing federal road system made land available. Then foresters used uneven-age (i.e., selection) logging methods. In recent years,

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the foresters have changed to even-age (i.e., clear- cutting) methods. Forest Service maps reveal the extent of these checkerboard lands. Local railroads on the North Coast, the first in the state, transported redwood lumber to Humboldt Bay in the early 1850s. Ships carried the lumber on to San Francisco and elsewhere. By 1914, the rail lines were extended from Eureka to San Francisco. Persistent landslides from unsteady bedrock along the rightof-way in the rugged Eel River canyon have caused the permanent closure of this railroad. Redwood was king along the coast. Dale Thornburgh surveys historic logging methods in The Redwood Forest. He emphasizes that current forest conditions are mainly the result of past management practices. At the time of Jedediah Smith’s explorations, the Yurok and other native peoples practiced a regular, low-intensity fire regime in interior forests and in some redwood stands. Fires sustained tanoak groves, created firebreaks around villages, made access easier, and enhanced game populations and desirable plants. Forests that experienced this kind of management in the past are all but restricted to today’s parklands. In the mid-1800s, loggers felled trees, bucked them into logs, and removed their bark. Lumberjacks rolled the logs to creek bottoms or to handmade skid trails where the logs were taken by oxen to be milled. Loggers burned the area repeatedly during the process. Today we see mainly redwood in the forests that followed. Only redwood survived and sprouted after the recurring fires. This is the history of Arcata’s Redwood Park. By the late 1800s, steam donkeys and cables replaced oxen in getting logs to the railroads. Trucks and tractors transported more redwood logs from the woods after World War II. Tractor logging greatly disturbed the soil, favoring trees other than redwood. Tractor logging allowed forest stands to be clear-cut, burned, and then planted with genetically modified, nurserygrown redwood or Douglas-fir seedlings. Today, if competing red alder and blue blossom begin to dominate an area, herbicides are used to kill the hardwoods. Stands are usually thinned several times before being logged. Then the clear-cut is replanted, to start the cycle again. In this way, the species composition of the stand is not left to chance. As in mining, newer and more effective logging methods impinge more and more on the landscape; but, unlike mining, large-scale logging continues on industrial timberlands. Today three companies own most industrial timberlands with redwood. Consolidation has been the name of the game. The 55-year history of Simpson Timber Company, now Green Diamond Resource Company, includes lands once owned by Requa Timber Company, Coast Redwood Company of Klamath, Northern Redwood Company, Arcata Redwood Company, and Louisiana Pacific Corporation. Pacific Lumber began in 1863 with the purchase of 6,000 acres at $1.25 per acre. Over the years it added to the land base until it owned 220,000 acres. The Maxxam Corporation acquired

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Pacific Lumber in a hostile takeover in 1986, which led to a decade-long fight to save the Headwaters Forest. Mendocino Redwood Companies, owned by a Boston investment company and several families, manage 232,500 acres in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. Logging of maturing second-growth stands that established after World War II is all but done. Trees in today’s timberlands are mainly young, thirdgrowth forests. Many people worry about the consequences of simplifying the forests of the coast. Their concerns encompass not only the fate of the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet but also watershed integrity, water quality, and the future of coho and Chinook salmon, steelhead, and coastal cutthroat trout.

Widespread Logging Followed by Leaving the Land Alone Changes in the forests associated with the Bald Hills were as profound as those of the prairies and woodlands. Before the lumber boom of the mid1900s, tanoak was the principal tree of commerce. Tanoak bark was harvested for its tannic acid and used in tanning hides. The bark was peeled from the trees, dried, pulped, and boiled in large vats to extract the tannic acid. Timber in the form of Douglas-fir had its local uses, but logging in earnest required good transportation. The Northwestern Pacific Railroad was the first railway, with its completion in 1914, resulting in an overland way to move lumber from Eureka to San Francisco Bay. Only in 1923 did a paved, two-lane Redwood Highway replace the dirt roads. Now both rail and truck could quickly transport timber out of the area. These factors came together after World War II when soldiers returned home and needed housing. Ranchers and small landowners, often called nonindustrial timber owners, were eager to harvest their stands of Douglas-fir, many of which were old growth. The timber was valuable, easily logged, and transported to the mills and on to the growing cities. Other owners, less interested in immediate gain, were convinced to harvest the big Douglas-fir trees when their tax bill arrived. At the same time, standing timber was taxed annually on its assessed value under the ad valorem tax system. If a landowner cut at least 70 percent of the volume from the area, the remaining timber was taken off the tax rolls until new trees reached merchantable size again. In addition, the estate inheritance tax of 55 percent on current land and timber forced many landowners to log their stands. Thornburgh calls this method the “high-grading-diameter-limit-cut method”; others call it “high grading” (cutting of all trees of value) or “gypologging.” This period of unrestrained logging left the landscape with a brand-new forest pattern. Stands with large Douglas-fir were all but gone. Instead,

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sprouting hardwoods, especially madrone and tanoak, were left to create today’s forested landscape. People in the 1960s became interested in alternate lifestyles away from the constraints of the law and in good land prices. Dense, fast-growing expanses of hardwoods have become the home of even higher-valued sites for growing marijuana. Outsiders are wise to heed the “No Trespassing” signs in this part of the North Coast. Today people find value in the hardwood trees, as chips for plywood and other building materials, for fuel cogeneration plants creating electricity, and for flooring and furniture. Today the only outstanding stands of old-growth Douglas-fir–tanoak forest in the North Coast exist at the Anglo and Marjorie Angelo Coast Range Reserve. This reserve, found along the Eel River’s south fork and established in 1959 by The Nature Conservancy, was the first in the state. The 4,000 acres became part of the University of California Natural Reserve System in 1994. The contiguous 3,000-acre Bureau of Land Management’s Elder Creek Watershed Area of Critical Environmental Concern adds to the protected area. Bruce Bingham and I described this reserve’s forests in 1991 in some detail. What was surprising to us was the variation among stands, even in the old growth. Douglas-fir at 180 feet in height consistently exceeded tanoak at 130 feet. On the ground, seedlings and hardwood sprouts exceeded 17,300 per acre occasionally; in other areas, they were in the 100s among the widely spaced columns of Douglas-fir. It seems that inconsistency was the norm for these forests, but we will never really know, as little old-growth forest remains to be studied on the North Coast.

Logging of Local Areas Followed by Active Management Richard Boerker’s 1918 history, Our National Forests, summed up the years before the Forest Service’s creation as one of prodigality, “a time of extravagant generosity and wastefulness.” Generosity to Boerker indicated the extravagant way that the federal government was divesting itself of its public domain. Wastefulness referred to the exploitive grazing, lumbering, and mining practices of the day. The settling of the West encouraged a great deal of fraud, so that speculators, lumber companies, and ranchers illegally gained title to exorbitant tracts of land. By the end of the 1800s, many in the nation were calling for an end to this plunder. Sportsmen and others knew that the immense herds of bison and flocks of passenger pigeons were almost gone, as were the vast forests of white pine in New England and the Midwest and the animals that lived in them. Americans know of depleted wildlife, pillaged forests, deliberately started fires, overgrazed mountain forests and meadows, and miles of streams clogged by tailings and silt from hydraulic mining. Here the grizzly, chosen

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for the state flag, was all but extinct. California’s forests, with the tallest and the largest trees in the world, were being logged at breakneck speed. These forest practices worried many people, especially those who had read the 1864 book Man and Nature by George Perkins Marsh. He warned that deforestation in other countries led to the fall of past civilizations. With the forests gone, the resulting floods and ensuing erosion created a barren and sterile land. This scenario was now happening in the West. No wonder developers of the growing cities wished nearby watersheds to be forested. Farmers wanted to ensure a source of water for irrigation. People began to hear the calls in the 1870s by George Bird Grinnell in Forest and Stream for the preservation of wildlands and their wildlife. The writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and the paintings by George Catlin, also helped engender an inner appreciation for the nation’s lands. People wanted to travel to regions free of the congestion and unwholesomeness of the cities. Natural areas needed to be preserved. The historian Roderick Nash in Wilderness and the American Mind summarized the mood of the time: “Protection of wild country seemed part of the defense of the finer things of life.” The creation of national parks and forest preserves followed, including Yellowstone National Park in 1872 and Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve in 1891. The Organic Act of 1897 laid down the rules of an expanding number of reserves. Unlike the parks, reserves were to be managed to protect forests and to assure favorable water flow, but simultaneously to provide for a supply of timber. The reserves became national forests in 1907. An important aspect of the new law was that 25 percent of the gross timber-harvesting receipts was transferred to the counties for support of their schools and roads. The Forest Service’s job was twofold: to protect forest resources and to supply timber. At the time the national forests came into creation, most of the lowelevation forests and inland grasslands on the North Coast were privately owned. In contrast, most of the land of the Klamath Mountains and mountainous North Coast was in the public domain. Today we find five national forests in northwest California. In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt created Klamath, Shasta, Siskiyou, and Trinity national forests. Shasta and Trinity eventually became one administrative unit, Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Lands of Mendocino National Forest were set aside in 1907 as Stony Creek Reserve. It was renamed Stony Creek National Forest, then California National Forest, and then finally its current name. Six Rivers National Forest has a much shorter history, being created in 1945 from sections of Mendocino, Trinity, Klamath, and Siskiyou national forests. In the early 1900s, transportation was mainly by trails and wagon roads, and many people were interested in establishing links between the Central Valley and the coast. State Route 36 was finished in 1912, but this highway

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missed more populous parts of Trinity County. Buckhorn Toll Road connected the towns of Shasta and Weaverville in the late 1850s, but the great gorge and steep slopes of the Trinity River defied attempts to connect Redding to the coast until they created SR 299 in 1924. It took another 40 years to get the highway completely paved. Ben Bennion and Jerry Rohde’s Traveling the Trinity Highway provides details of this enterprise. The Civilian Conservation Corps constructed and upgraded buildings in the 1930s, including fire outlooks, and built trails throughout this mountainous region. Active road building began after World War II, and with it came vigorous logging. Following the forestry practices of the Pacific Northwest at that time, professionals preferred clear-cutting. Forest Service personnel selected an area to be logged; they estimated the volume of timber in the area, and independent loggers bid on the sale, which might include building an access road. After the trees were felled, cable systems carried the logs to a landing, where trucks transported them to local mills. Loggers usually cut all trees in the sale area, and others burned an area to prepare it for the planting of nursery-grown seedlings. This approach created a harsh mosaic of plantations and abutting tracts of original forest. Foresters of the day considered that this method imitated nature. After all, fires caused by lightning and other disturbances created bare patches in the regional forest. However, the developing forest stands in the clear-cut differed from a stand recovering from a natural disturbance. The new plantation was structurally and spatially simple. Natural disturbances create rugged edges and messy patches. Douglas-fir was the most important commercial tree in the Klamath Mountains, as it was in interior parts of the North Coast. Some stands with large Douglas-fir existed at lower elevations near the highways, but large trees were rare among the more frequent stands of small Douglas-fir and hardwoods. Much of the land at low elevations, with its steep slopes and thin soils, was unproductive. The productive sites, in the lower zone of the montane belt, contained extensive stands of large Douglas-fir. This zone has been the center of timber sales over the last 50 years. Today it contains a maze of roads that cross through a checkerboard landscape of original forests and plantations. Private lands have a very different landscape created by selectively logged areas. There, snags, discarded logs, and other pieces of large debris remained among the standing trees. Usually the site was unburned. Seedling establishment was high in the partial shade of the remaining trees. Forest Service lands had little but burned stumps. The amount of wood remaining on the site that could become snags and downed debris was small. Soils were highly disturbed and ground temperatures not moderated. Success of planted seedlings was often low.

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I worried about the long-term biological consequences of clear-cutting as early as the late 1960s. Plantation growth justified cutting more of the original forest. Soon all the original forests would be gone, along with the great diversity of plants and animals requiring the special conditions associated with older forests. Might forestry bring to California’s mountains the same fate that agriculture brought to the Great Plains? The vast prairie grasslands that once covered millions of acres had been reduced to a few remnants, and corn and soybeans replaced the rich array of plants and animals that once lived on the prairies. Much has happened since the 1960s. The carrying out of federal legislation such as the Wilderness Act of 1964, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Environmental Protection Act in 1970, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Clean Water Act of 1977, and the Northwest Forest Plan in 1998, along with corresponding state laws, has changed management of the federal lands. Looking back at the 1960s, I find it interesting that so few biologists were involved in the debate at that time. Environmentalists were hikers and others of that ilk, not academic biologists. Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring changed all that. She highlighted the developing concern of the loss of native animals as the result of human actions. She warned that the bald eagle, California condor, California bighorn, and gray whale would suffer the same fate as that of the passenger pigeon and the California grizzly bear. Biologists, particularly conservation biologists, became involved two decades later in expressing concern over the loss of the nation’s biological diversity. In the Klamath Mountains, these concerns centered on the northern spotted owl, which was state listed as endangered in 1980 and federally listed as threatened in 1990. This meant that agencies needed to decide “critical habitat,” so that ways to conserve the species could be developed. The spotted owl inhabited the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest and northwest California, the very forests that were being quickly turned into plantations. The timber industry was not pleased with the possible protective listing of the owl, since it seemed to require the old-growth conditions that were the backbone of the logging boom of the 1970s and 1980s—big, old trees. However, did the owl really need habitat characteristics that existed in old growth? People looked to the wildlife biologists and mathematicians to answer questions concerning the owl’s population size and habitat requirements. Other biologists simultaneously were concerned not just with the overall loss of original forest and associated biota but with its fragmentation. The practice of dispersing clear-cuts maximized the fragmentation of the original forest. In the Midwest, these small isolated forest patches lacked

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the birds typically encountered in the original forest. They have a less buffered environment, and they are isolated, creating barriers to travel to other forest patches. The overall effect was one of less diversity, as birds that had adapted to the forest conditions were lost. Evan Frost and I wondered whether this was the scenario for plants in the western Marble Mountains. Unlike in the Midwest, where continual loss of forest lands to other uses (pasture, croplands, and homes) created fewer and smaller forest patches, the 12- to 85-acre clear-cuts were interspersed within the original forest pattern. This forest practice maximized the amount of edge that existed between nonforested and forested areas. The western Marble Mountains contained a good study site. The forests are biologically diverse and had well-developed forest edges. In the study region, which included old growth and areas logged 15 to 25 years ago, we colleted 160 plant species, mostly perennial herbs. The results pointed to lines of young trees that had grown up along the forest edge of the old clear-cuts. Few herb species grew in the dense shade of these trees, compared with the interior of either the clear-cut plantation or the forest. The interior of the old clear-cut contained herbs that grow best in sunny conditions, and the forest interior had a different set of herbs that grow best under the moderate shade of old trees. These plants develop slowly in these buffered conditions and recover slowly from disturbances. In a study in similar forests in Oregon’s Siskiyou Mountains, Maureen Jones and I found that the richness in young stands declined as stands entered the canopy closure stage and then increased as stands gained older forest attributes such as light gaps and structural diversity. As studies on the requirements of the northern spotted owl and forest fragmentation accumulated throughout the 1980s, it became clear that forestry practices on federal lands had to change. Many plants and animals are now known to need expanses of mature or old-growth forest. In addition, foresters talked of “new” or “ecosystem” forestry practices that emphasized the need to retain part of the original structure of the forest stand (living trees, snags, logs, etc.), to maintain large areas of existing forest, and to create ways to reduce the effects of fragmentation. It meant an end to extensive clear-cutting on federal land. The Northwest Forest Plan in 1998 has given the lands of the Klamath Mountains a reprieve. Reserves with abundant old growth limited the lands open to logging. Activity in the Klamath Mountains is greatly reduced today, leaving the land as a patchwork of plantations mixed with older forests. The present landscape in the Klamath Mountains differs greatly from that of the low elevations on the North Coast. Finding stands with oldgrowth Douglas-fir trees at lower elevations in the Klamath Mountains is still quite possible. Much of the land at montane and subalpine elevations

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is included in wilderness areas, which are now seen as the cornerstone for protecting the region’s biological diversity because they contain whole landscapes unrestrained by human activities.

Management for Natural Conditions The Forest Service The second congressional mandate made with the creation of the National Forest Service in 1907 was to protect the Forest Service’s wild country. Aldo Leopold, Robert Marshall, Arthur Carhart, and other Forest Service employees in the early years worked hard to keep some lands free of roads and other trappings of civilization—areas “untrammeled by man.” Establishment of the first wilderness area in the nation, Gila Wilderness, in 1924 is the consequence of their work. New regulations in 1929 allowed regional foresters to establish primitive areas “to maintain primitive conditions for transportation, subsistence, habitation, and environment to the fullest degree compatible with their highest public use.” Marble Mountains, Salmon-Trinity Alps, and Yolla Bolly primitive areas were created in the early 1930s. More restrictive regulations in 1939 allowed only “contiguous blocks of at least 100,000 acres in which there would be no roads or motorized transportation, no commercial timber harvest, and no special use permits for hotels, lodges, resorts, or similar facilities” to be considered. Most other rights of public access were open, including prospecting and developing mineral resources. The new regulation required existing primitive areas be reviewed for wilderness designation. The need for lumber following World War II accelerated logging on national forest lands, a time when interest in conservation was low. In reviewing the old primitive areas, the Forest Service failed to recommend them for wilderness or proposed very small ones. It seemed as if only “areas of nothing but rocks and ice” were proposed and low-elevation, highquality forests withdrawn; the wilderness proposal for the Marble Mountains at the time was much smaller than the 237,527-acre primitive area. After eight years of wrangling, Congress passed the Wilderness Act of 1964, creating a 213,238-acre Marble Mountain Wilderness. The act required that the creation of new wilderness areas needed congressional action, and the Forest Service was mandated to evaluate not only old primitive areas but also other roadless areas for wilderness designation. After two rounds of reviewing roadless areas, the California Wilderness Act of 1984 added seven new areas in northwest California and expanded Marble Mountains and Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel wilderness areas. The resulting Trinity Alps Wilderness, now the second largest in the state, is about twice the size of that proposed by the Forest Service in 1974. The 1984 act created Chanchelulla, Castle Crags, North Fork, Red Buttes, Russian, Siskiyou, and

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Snow Mountain wildernesses. The State of California had created Sinkyone Wilderness State Park in 1975. Today these lands are left chiefly to natural processes. The aftermath of mining and homesteading are less and less apparent to the visitor over the years. The mining town of Denny in the western Trinity Alps has returned to forest. Now the Forest Service worries about adverse effects of heavy use by equestrians and hikers, especially near the popular subalpine lakes. Other Federal Agencies The Wilderness Act of 1964 also mandated that the lands of the Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management be considered lands for wilderness designation as well. The National Park Service is another federal agency growing out of the conservation movement of the late 1800s. National forests, under the leadership of Gifford Pinchot, the first director of the Forest Service, emphasized the use of their forests, grasslands, and mineral resources. However, many people agreed with John Muir that some areas were so exceptional that logging, grazing, and mining cannot be permitted. Within 10 years of the creation of Yellowstone in 1872, three national parks in California— General Grant, Sequoia, and Yosemite—preserved their lands “for the inspiration and recreation by all people.” The Park Service’s expanded role since 1916 includes overseeing national monuments, national preserves, national seashores and lakeshores, historic sites, memorials and battlefields, national recreational areas, and national parkways. Northwest California has Redwood National Park, Smith River Recreation Area, and Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area. Large tracts of land are managed to enhance natural processes. The Bureau of Land Management is another important federal agency charged with managing the nation’s lands “for inspiration and recreation for all people.” As with the Forest Service, its lands may be grazed, logged, and mined. Recreation may include not only passive pursuits encouraged in the national parks but off-highway vehicle (OHV) use. The many uses of Bureau of Land Management land for inspiration and recreation are suggested by the names applied to special-use areas in northwest California: ChappieShasta OHV Area, Headwaters Forest Reserve, King Range National Recreation Area, Little Darby Environmental Education Area, and Samoa Dunes Recreation Area. Portions are managed to enhance natural processes. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is another federal agency arising from the late 1800s’ interest in conservation. The US Commission on Fish and Fisheries was established in 1872. The Lacey Act of 1900 prohibited interstate shipment of illegally taken wildlife. The first dedicated federal bird reservation in 1901 was the Pelican Island Federal Bird Reservation in Florida. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act that further regulated hunting of migratory birds followed in 1918. Pelican Island and other early federal

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wildlife reservations were renamed “National Wildlife Refuges” in 1942. Portions are managed to enhance natural processes. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 preserves selected rivers that possess outstanding scenic, recreational, geological, biological, historical, or cultural values. Three levels of preservation exist: wild rivers, accessible only by trail; scenic rivers, accessible by occasional roads; and recreational rivers, easily accessible by road. In northwest California, segments of the Eel, Klamath, McCloud, Salmon, Scott, Smith, Trinity, and Van Duzen rivers and some tributaries of these rivers are managed to enhance natural processes. California State Parks As noted, by the late 1800s, Californians wished to preserve the state’s historical and natural heritage. The places and structures associated with the mission years, the gold rush, and the struggles of the Donner party became important. Restoration of the mission at Carmel began in 1882. Purchase of the site where gold was first discovered in California followed in 1890. The Pioneer Monument dedication in 1910 had survivors of the Donner party present. Californians had similar desires to preserve the giant sequoias of the Sierra Nevada and the redwoods of the coast. The US government granted 20,000 acres in 1864, including Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove, to the state reserve. After 42 years of inadequate financial support and disputed management, the land returned to federal control and, in 1906, was included in the larger Yosemite National Park. California Redwood Park, today called Big Basin Redwoods State Park, dedicated in 1902, is California’s first state park. Active logging of redwoods along the right-of-way to create a highway connecting San Francisco and Eureka began in 1917. Intensive logging would clearly follow in the Eel River watershed. A major push for preservation of northwest California’s redwoods got under way with the establishment of the Save-the-Redwoods League in 1918. Prominent professionals, members of the business community, academics, women’s garden club members, and Automobile Association members joined in the common cause. The league looked to philanthropy as a source of funds to purchase a set of groves. This heritage began with the purchase of Colonel Raynal C. Bolling Grove, now part of Humboldt Redwoods State Park, in 1921. A 1927 report by Frederick Law Olmsted recommended four locations along the Redwood Highway: . . . .

Bull Creek–Dyerville (now Humboldt Redwoods State Park) Prairie Creek (now Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park) Del Norte (now Del Norte Redwoods State Park) Mill Creek–Smith River (now Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park)

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In 1928, the California legislature passed a bond act authorizing the use of public money to match the private donations raised for the purchase of land for state parks. From this history came the California State Park System. Today northwest California contains 45 different state beaches, parks, recreation areas, reserves, and wildlife areas. All but three of these are along the coastline. Large portions are managed to enhance natural processes. Most of the lands on the North Coast were in private hands in the early 1900s, so purchase and land exchange were the only methods available to reclaim these lands “for the enjoyment of all people of California.” Today the landscapes of northwest California run the gamut. Lumber mills, buildings, and homes associated with the towns and smaller settlements dot the land, as do farms with their pastures, fields of produce, and orchards. Scars on the land from mining are still evident but mainly muted. The short rotation cycle of forest growth and harvest is quite apparent on commercial timberlands. Ranches vary greatly in their appearance. Some resemble farms; others appear to approach a more natural state. Lands managed by federal and state agencies vary comparably in their naturalness. The recently harvested forest patches and roads that wind through the federal forests represent one end of a continuum of management. At the other extreme, we find wildlands managed by many agencies to maintain their wilderness character. Much of the lands of northwest California lie between these extremes. Landscapes of the redwood belt differ greatly from those of the Klamath Mountains and the interior parts of the North Coast, and land use practices, especially in the last decades of the 20th century, magnify the differences seen by Jedediah Smith in the 1820s.

The Status of Northwest California Today

The rich plant diversity in northwest California is paralleled by the rich animal diversity in the high number of salamanders, unique mammals, bountiful bird life, and once-plentiful fish. Biologists expect that butterflies, fungi, and snails, when better known, will match the high richness of the better-known vascular and vertebrate groups. However, we are losing this heritage through species decline and extinction. Three vascular plant, five mammal, one bird, and two fish species are now extinct. Dramatic population declines have been sufficient to warrant federal listing of several organisms as threatened or endangered, as in the case of the northern spotted owl in 1992. The owl’s significant decline is associated with habitat loss, with forest fragmentation due to logging, increased predation by great horned owls, and interbreeding with barred owls. The possibility of listing several runs of Chinook and coho salmon has captured newspaper headlines in the 2000s. The number of threatened or endangered species continues to grow, but this issue is not the only one facing the conservation community. A host of nonnative plants and animals have invaded northwest California. These new members of the landscape increase the region’s overall biodiversity, but some have strong, negative impacts on associated native organisms. The number of introductions varies greatly with group, with vascular plants and fish being most affected. Almost half of the fish species and 20 percent of the plants that live in northwest California were not here in 1828. These organisms interact with the natives in many ways, and several have caused population declines. Nonnative plants and animals and new diseases are changing the face of northwest California. 149

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status of northwest california today STATUS OF VASCULAR PLANTS

Surprisingly few plants have become extinct in northwest California in the last 200 years. California Native Plant Society’s inventory lists only three. The single-flowered mariposa lily was known from farmlands along the Shasta River near Yreka. The caper-flowered tropidocarpum grew in the foothill grasslands on the east side of the North Coast Ranges, and the livid sedge is gone from the wetlands along the Mendocino coast but still grows in coastal Oregon and Washington. We may be buoyed by this knowledge until we learn that the most recent inventory reports that 1,021 plants (16 percent of the state’s native flora) are in trouble. Northwest California’s flora has fared better than the rest of the state’s, with only 150 plants listed as rare, threatened, or endangered. We might expect a disproportionately high number of rarities on unusual substrates, such as serpentine (Table 16), but this it not the case. Other special habitats, in many ways less challenging for plant growth, have their share of rare plants. Shasta ageratina and Shasta snow-wreath are associated with limestone. Highly mineralized salt springs support Howell’s alkali grass. Coastal dunes, salt marshes, and other marshes at all elevations have their associated rare plants. Surprisingly, the number on the North Coast (101 taxa) is twice that in the Klamath Mountains (49 taxa), and they are not necessarily associated with unusual substrates. Instead, many rare plants grow in low-elevation rangelands and chaparral. We find rare ones in more developed parts of Lake and Mendocino counties, but also in the eastern foothills of the North Coast Ranges and in the Yolla Bolly Mountains, two of our least populated areas. Habitat loss is the principal cause, especially for plants that were naturally disturbed by native grazers and by fire. Such habitats often occurred at lower elevations where we have chosen to build towns, carry out intensive agriculture, and greatly modify environments. Coastal plains of the Eel River delta, lands around Humboldt Bay and the Smith River, Round Valley, and Scott Valley are a small part of northwest California, yet they support many rare plants. The flora of northwest California consists of 3,538 vascular plants, including those introduced from other parts of the United States, Europe, and the rest of the temperate world. Many are weeds, plants “that interfere with management objectives for a given area of land at a given point in time,” according to the Western Society of Weed Science’s fifth edition of Weeds of the West. We find weeds in cultivated fields, gardens, hayfields, rangelands, roadways, and waste areas where they compete for space with ornamental plants and contaminate seed crops. Many are widespread and economically important in reducing crop yields; others are toxic to livestock (Table 17). They are an important part of the region’s ecology.

table 16. Rare flowering plants of northwest California arranged by habitat. Extinct or Extirpated Plants Caper-flowered tropidocarpum (Tropidocarpum capparideum) Livid sedge (Carex livida) Single-flowered mariposa lily (Calochortus monanthus) Plants Associated with Serpentine Outcrops josephine outcrop Howell’s jewel-flower (Streptanthus howellii) Klamath Mountain buckwheat (Eriogonum hirtellum) Koehler’s rock cress (Arabis koehleri var. stipitata) McDonald’s rock cress (Arabis macdonaldiana)* Mendocino gentian (Gentiana setigera) Opposite-leaved lewisia (Lewisia oppositifolia) Western bog violet (Viola primulifolia ssp. occidentalis) Yellow-tubered toothwort (Cardamine nattallii var. gemmata) trinity mountains outcrop Crested potentilla (Potentilla cristae) Golden draba (Draba aureola) Great Basin claytonia (Claytonia umbellata) Mason’s sky pilot (Polemonium chartaceum) Pickering’s ivesia (Ivesia pickeringii) Scott Mountain bedstraw (Galium serpenticum ssp. scotticum) Scott Mountain fawn lily (Erythronium citrinum var. roderickii) Scott Mountain phacelia (Phacelia dalesiana) Scott Mountain sandwort (Minuartia stolonifera) Scott Valley phacelia (Phacelia greenei) Shasta chaenactis (Chaenactis suffrutescens) Shasta owl’s-clover (Orthocarpus pachystachyus) Showy raillardella (Raillardella pringlei) Siskiyou fireweed (Epilobium sishiyouense) Siskiyou phacelia (Phacelia leonis) Thread-leaved beardtongue (Penstemon filiformis) Tracy’s penstemon (Penstemon tracyi) Trinity buckwheat (Eriogonum alpinum) Wet cliff lewisia (Lewisia cantelovii) Woolly balsamroot (Balsamorhiza hookeri var. lanata) rattlesnake terrane Dubakella buckwheat (Eriogonum libertini) Mount Tedoc linanthus (Linanthus nuttallii ssp. howellii) Niles’ madia (Harmonia doris-nilesiae) Stebbins’ madia (Harmonia stebbinsii) (continued)

table 16. (continued) Plants Associated with Serpentine Outcrops (continued) north coast outcrop Colusa layia (Layia septentrionalis) Dwarf soaproot (Chlorogalum pomeridianum var. minus) Kneeland Prairie penny cress (Noccaea californica) Lassics lupine (Lupinus constancei) Lassics sandwort (Minuartia decumbens) Tehama County western flax (Hesperolinon tehamense) Two-flowered pea (Lathyrus biflorus) Granitic Outcrops Castle Crags harebell (Campanula shetleri) Castle Crags ivesia (Ivesia longibracteata) Wilkens’ harebell (Campanula wilkinsiana) Limestone Shasta ageratina (Ageratina shastensis) Shasta snow-wreath (Neviusia cliftonii) Coastal Dunes Beach layia (Layia carnosa)* Humboldt Bay wallflower (Erysimum menzisii ssp. eurekense)* Pink sand-verbena (Abronia umbellata ssp. breviflora) Sand dune phacelia (Phacelia argentea) Salt Marshes and Mud Flats Eelgrass (Zostera marina) Humboldt Bay owl’s-clover (Castilleja ambigua ssp. humboldtiensis) Point Reyes bird’s-beak (Cordylanthus maritimus ssp. palustris) Freshwater Marshes and Associated Habitats Howell’s alkali grass (Puccinellia howellii) Northern adder’s-tongue (Ophioglossum pusillum) Sanford’s arrowhead (Sagittaria sanfordii) Western howellia (Howellia aquatilis) Prairies and Open Habitats Adobe lily (Fritillaria pluriflora) Baker’s navarretia (Navarretia leucocephala ssp. bakeri)

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table 16. (continued) Prairies and Open Habitats (continued) Beaked tracyina (Tracyina rostrata) Brandegee’s eriastrum (Eriastrum brandegeae) California balsamroot (Balsamorhiza macrolepis var. macrolepis) Dimorphic snapdragon (Antirrhinum subcordatum) Greene’s mariposa lily (Calochortus greenei) Howell’s montia (Montia howellii) Humboldt milk-vetch (Astragalus agnicidus) Jepson’s milk-vetch (Astragalus rattanii var. jepsonianus) Mendocino coast paintbrush (Castilleja mendocinensis) Red Bluff dwarf rush ( Juncus leiospermus var. leiospermus) Robust monardella (Monardella villosa ssp. globosa) Snow mountain willowherb (Epilobium nivium) Silky cryptantha (Crypantha crinita) Tracy’s sanicle (Sanicula tracyi) Western lily (Lilium occidentale)* Wolf’s evening-primrose (Oenothera wolfii) Forested Habitats Bensoniella (Bensoniella oregona) Coast checkerbloom (Sidalcea oregana ssp. eximia) Maple-leaved checkerbloom (Sidalcea malachroides) Marble Mountain campion (Silene marmorensis) Robust false lupine (Thermopsis robusta) Siskiyou checkerbloom (Sidalcea malvaeflora ssp. patula) note: * = federal status as endangered. The list includes plants cited in Nakamura and Kierstead Nelson (2001) and rare plants that also live outside northwest California, whereas Table 10 lists only endemic taxa. The California Native Plant Society’s Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants of California includes 150 taxa for northwest California.

Many ecologists recognize another group of nonnative plants variously called “aliens,” “exotics,” or “invasive plants.” They often grow in nonagricultural settings with native plants. Dandelions are considered weeds by anyone trying to create a lawn of blue grass, but labeled aliens in a nearby weed lot where they mix with California natives. We can recognize old homesteads inside wilderness areas by the presence of apple trees, rose bushes, and periwinkle patches, although the buildings are long gone. Weeds and exotics are commonly ignored in considering a region’s natural history, but these plants are estimated to invade 4,600 acres of new land daily. Recently, however, nonnative plants have become conspicuous

table 17. Weeds and invasive plants in northwest California. Trees Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)

Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) Shrubs

French broom (Genista monspesulana)* Gorse (Ulex europaea)* Himalaya berry (Rubus discolor)*

Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius)* Spanish heath (Erica lusitanica)* Tamarisk (Tamarix parviflora) Yellow bush lupine (Lupinus arboreus)* Vines

Cape ivy (Delairia odorata)*

English ivy (Hedera helix)* Perennials

Bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare)* Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense)* Capeweed (Arctotheca calendula)† Common mullein (Verbascum thapsus) Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)† Diffuse knapweed (Centaurea diffusa)* Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) Halogeton (Halogeton glomeratus)† Ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis)* Italian thistle (Carduus pycnocephalus)† Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula)† Maltese star-thistle (Centaurea melitensis)†

Ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) Parrot’s feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum) Penneyroyal (Mentha pulegium) Perennial pepperweed (Lepidium latifolium)† Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) Purple star-thistle (Centaurea calcitrapa)† Russian thistle (Cirsium vulgare)*† Spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa)*† Tansy ragwort (Senecio jacobaea)† White top (Cardaria draba)† Yellow star-thistle (Centaurea squarrosa)† Grasses

Medusahead (Elymus caput-medusae)† Blue grass (Poa pratensis) Cheat grass (Bromus tectorum)† Chilean cord grass (Spartina densiflora)* Common reed (Phragmites australis)*

Giant reed (Arundo donax) Harding grass (Phalaris aquatica)† Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana) Purple pampas grass (Cortaderia jubata)* Red brome (Bromus rubens)†

note: * = Plants considered most invasive in coastal wildlands by North Coast Chapter of California Native Plant Society; † = invasive plants also considered weeds. From Bossard et al. (2000).

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in parklands, federal lands, and even wildernesses. In California’s hot deserts, the Bureau of Land Management’s staff fight tamarisk from southeast Europe. This shrub is increasingly abundant in riparian areas where it replaces natives, even in northwest California. Land managers try to control pampas grasses and brooms for the same reason. Until recently, we have viewed disturbed areas, such as overgrazed rangelands, roadsides, and weed lots, as having an ecology that differed from those with native plants. We thought that natural areas were able to resist invasion, unless they were greatly disturbed. Today we do not make this distinction. Instead, disturbance is increasingly seen as part of an area’s ecology, rather than something apart, regardless of whether an area contains only native species, mixtures of natives and exotics, or only nonnative plants. Exotic plants are engulfing northwest California’s wildlands. Eighteen percent of the region’s vascular plants are weeds or exotics, but each one differs in its impact on the natives with which it grows. Some are rarely encountered; others occur in few numbers and mix with natives with little consequence; some reduce native plant populations; others take over the place. The waters of Humboldt Bay are separated from the Pacific Ocean by two sand spits. The North Spit supports a mixture of beach pine forest, dune mat, and seasonal wetland habitats that have interested me since I arrived in Humboldt County in 1966. For years my students began their lessons in ecology with a field trip to what is now the Lanphere Dunes—a place where biotic and environmental processes of growth and disturbance create ever-changing patterns. Other areas of dune mat between Trinidad Head and the Eel River differed from those at Lanphere Dunes, even in the late 1960s. European beach grass and yellow bush lupine covered large areas of the dunes at Clam Beach; both had been planted to stop the sand from drifting across US 101. In 1973, Jerry Parker and I compared the vegetation at Clam Beach with adjacent dunes where the introduced plants existed. The results showed that not only did the structure and species composition differ between the two kinds of areas, but so did the development patterns. In areas lacking the grass and lupine, native perennial plants were losing to the moving sand about as much as the plants were colonizing the sand. In areas where beach grass and lupine were present, they were stabilizing the sand to the point where little or no open sand remained and few natives were present. Lupine plants and their symbionts enrich the sand, allowing long-lived shrubs, such as coyote brush and even trees, such as red alder, to establish. The flora of Clam Beach included 27 nonnatives, many of them agricultural weeds. The area was becoming a sward of European beach grass with shrubs, a habitat that definitely did not favor the groundhugging, sun-requiring plants of the dune mat.

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In 1992, Tony LaBanca and I examined two more decades of change at Clam Beach. Native dune mat species were all but gone. Beach grass and bush lupine were even more extensive. Coyote brush, bee plant, and dune tansy had become common; the dunes were becoming much like the coastal scrub of the bluffs. The number of exotic plants had doubled. In the early 1970s, I noticed that the yellow bush lupine was invading the dune mat at Lanphere Dunes via recent introductions to the north. We simply had to save this special habitat. Our work with The Nature Conservancy, through easement agreements and land purchase, eventually led to the creation of Lanphere-Christensen Dunes Preserve in 1975. This part of the North Spit had been treated as a preserve ever since William and Hortense Lanphere made it their home in the 1930s. In the 1970s, the new preserve seemed safe from the port, pulp mills, pipelines, roads, and towns farther south on the spit, but it was not. Off-road vehicles (ORVs) were leaving scars on Lanphere’s dune mat. Oversight by Humboldt State University, including conscientious patrolling with backup from the county sheriff, worked in time, but the exotic plants required even more diligence. By the 1980s, the spit’s natural landscape was receding. Daniel Brown and I found that even foot traffic reduced plant cover in the dune mat and under maritime forest canopies. Native plant populations were declining, especially those of the endemic Humboldt Bay wallflower. By the end of the decade, the plant was a candidate for federal listing, and we needed a plan for its recovery. In 1987, the Louisiana Pacific Corporation and the Simpson Paper Company were required by the Environmental Protection Agency to fund research leading to protecting and enhancing the Menzies’ Wallflower (as it was known at the time) populations, and to protecting and restoring suitable habitat by using mitigation monies that enabled them to avoid building treatment ponds for mill effluent. We learned a great deal about the plant, its habitat, and how to restore it during the five-year Menzies Wallflower Research Program. James André and I estimated that at least 18,500 wallflowers grew on the spit in 1988. Plants were scattered about seven feet apart in patches totaling just less than 10 acres. Most wallflowers inhabited dune mat rather than patches of beach grass or lupine, and about half the mature plants flowered each spring. Unlike most successful perennial plants on the dunes, most wallflowers die after they flower, as first described by Kenneth Berg in his research on this plant. They set seed with or without being cross-pollinated, with about half the seeds resulting from self-pollination. Seeds remain viable for less than one year, which means they need to germinate during the next rainy season. Seedlings establish in moist sand, a very risky location on the dunes, as Karen Wilson and I learned. We determined that seedlings were lost not only to drying out and being buried but also to snails, mice, and damping

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fungi. Established seedlings grow into rosettes until the plants have sufficient resources to flower. With this lifestyle, it is no wonder the plant is rare in the dune mat habitat. The life for the wallflower is even more risky when it grows near yellow lupine bushes. As lupines grow, they shade the smaller plants and release nitrogen compounds into the soil. Michael Roantree and I found that these conditions favored weedy, annual grasses, such as rattail fescue and soft chess. These grasses created a layer of dead litter, a place for next season’s grass seeds to germinate. After a few seasons, the bare sand habitat is all but gone. Wallflower seedlings are rare in the shady, cool, moist conditions that are conducive to damping-off fungi. With the dunes covered with beach grass and lupine scrub, the wallflower seemed doomed. The way to help the wallflower seemed straightforward, and our “lupine bash” approach was successful in areas were the plants had arrived only recently. We began pulling the “enemy” on Lanphere Dunes in 1973, but more work was needed in areas where shrubs had grown for several years. Restoring wallflower habitat was the second goal of the Menzies Wallflower Research Program. Andrea Pickart and I discuss restoring dune habitat in Ecology and Restoration on Northern California Coastal Dunes, where we conclude that restoring dunes requires a great deal of planning, executing, and monitoring, and that success has been site specific. Among the issues to consider were (1) level of habitat modification, (2) whether to use mechanical or chemical methods for removing plants, (3) whether to use seeds or transplants, (4) which natives to reintroduce, (5) how to stabilize moving sand, (6) whether to use fertilizer or mycorrhizal fungi, and even (7) whether to use irrigation. Removing invasive plants and reintroducing native ones is labor intensive. Our estimates of cost were high, but involving local volunteers reduced the cost and forged a deeper appreciation of the dunes. All of our work has paid off. The Humboldt Bay wallflower population is growing. European beach grass, yellow bush lupine, and other exotics are less extensive. The dune mat habitat is flourishing, but only with continual work on our part. STATUS OF MAMMALS

There are five extirpated mammals in northwest California, and other populations are in decline. The last living grizzly bear was seen in the Sierra Nevada in 1922. The last gray wolf killing was reported in Lassen County in 1924. Museum records tell us that mountain sheep, pronghorn, and wolverines once roamed parts of northwest California. Recent declines in bat populations are most noticeable, but some carnivore populations are on the rise (Table 18).

table 18. Mammals of northwest California. Marsupials Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana)* Insectivores Broad-footed mole (Scapanus latimanus) Coast mole (Scapanus orarius) Marsh shrew (Sorex bendirii)

Shrew-mole (Neurotrichus gibbsii) Townsend’s mole (Scapanus townsendii) Trowbridge’s shrew (Sorex tenellus) Vagrant shrew (Sorex vagrans) Bats

Big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus)† California bat (Myotis californicus) Fringed bat (Myotis thysanodes) Guano bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) Hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) Little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) Long-eared bat (Myotis evotis) Long-legged bat (Myotis volans) Pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus)†

Red bat (Lasiurus blossevillii) Silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagrans) Small-footed bat (Myotis ciliolabrum) Townsend’s long-eared bat (Plecotus townsendii)† Western pipistrelle (Pipistrellus hesperus) Yuma bat (Myotis yumanensis) Carnivores

Black bear (Ursus americanus) Bobcat (Felis rufus) Coyote (Canis latrans) Feral cat (Felis catus)* Gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) Gray wolf (Canis lupus)‡ Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos)‡ Humboldt martin (Martes americana humboldtensis)† Long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata) Martin (Martes americana) Mink (Mustela vison) Mountain lion (Panthera concolor)

Pacific fisher (Martes pennanti pacifica)† Raccoon (Procyon lotor) Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)* Ringtail (Bassariscus astutus)§ River otter (Lutra canadensis) Short-tailed weasel or ermine (Mustela erminea) Sierra Nevada red fox (Vulpes vulpes necator) Spotted skunk (Spilogale gracilis) Striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) Wild dog (Canis familiaris)* Wolverine (Gulo gulo)§ Ungulates

Feral pig (Sus scrofa)* Mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis)‡ Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus)

Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)‡ Roosevelt elk (Cervus elaphus roosevelti) Tule elk (Cervus elaphus nannodes)

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table 18. (continued) Rodents Beaver (Castor canadensis) Beechey ground squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi) Black rat (Rattus rattus)* Botta pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae) Bush mouse (Peromyscus boylii) Brushy-tailed wood rat (Neotoma cinerea) California kangaroo rat (Dipodomys californicus) California meadow vole (Microtus californicus) California red-backed vole (Clethrionomys californicus) Creeping vole (Microtus oregoni) Deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii) Dusky-footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes) Golden-mantled ground squirrel (Sciurus lateralis) Harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys megalotis)

House mouse (Mus musculus)* Long-tailed vole (Microtus longicaudus) Mazama pocket gopher (Thomomys mazama) Mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa) Muskrat (Ondatra zibethinus)* Northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus)* Pacific jumping mouse (Zapus trinotatus) Pinyon mouse (Peromyscus truei) Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) Red tree vole (Arborimus pomo)† Redwood chipmunk (Neotamias ochrogenys) Shadow chipmunk (Neotamias senex) Siskiyou chipmunk (Neotamias siskiyou) Sonoma chipmunk (Neotamias sonomae) Townsend’s vole (Microtus townsendii) Western gray squirrel (Sciurus griseus) White-footed vole (Arborimus albipes)† Yellow pine chipmunk (Neotamias amoenus)

Lagomorphs Blacktail jackrabbit (Lupus californicus) Brush rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani)

Pika (Ochotona princeps) Snowshoe hare (Lupus americanus klamathensis)†

note: * = Pests and invasive mammals; † = species of special concern; ‡ = extirpated in northwest California; § = fully protected, California Department of Fish and Game. From Jameson and Peeters (2004).

Carnivores continue to be an important part of the area’s landscape, although some are rarely seen. Black bears are abundant, especially at trailheads in the Trinity Alps and campsites in the Marble Mountains. Coyotes and raccoons have adapted well to civilization. Gray foxes, fishers, mink, and ermine still lead their more secretive lives in the wildlands, even after years of hunting for pelts and predator control. River otters are enjoyed by

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rafters and kayakers on the Klamath and Trinity rivers. Interestingly, river otters also live along the coast and are easily seen at Trinidad Bay. Even the American martin, represented locally by a distinctive race, the Humboldt martin, has been recently rediscovered in the Siskiyou Mountains. Roosevelt elk live conspicuously in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and Redwood National Park. These massive ungulates give travelers much pleasure and create “elk jams” along US 101. Members of the small race of tule elk once roamed the prairies and oak woodlands of the Eel River country; today a herd occurs in the nearby Cache Creek watershed. Mule deer are abundant, and they enjoy eating roses and other ornamentals in newly created yards at the edges of expanding towns. People who rue the deer often try to “deerproof” their yards with mountain lion urine, sonic alarms, and tall fences. We see bobcats and mountain lions with increasing frequency. Blacktail jackrabbits and brush rabbits are here, too. Even the rare snowshoe hare is encountered occasionally in open country at high elevations, but pikas have never dwelled here. The region’s diversity of rodents is similar to that in the rest of California. Beaver numbers are down from Jedediah Smith’s time. Beechey ground squirrels are commonly seen on coastal bluffs and inland woodlands. Chipmunks and golden-mantled ground squirrels seem to hope that visitors to the parklands and wilderness areas will not comply with “No Feeding” signs. Three of our five species of chipmunks are similar in appearance, but they differ in their calls. Like the chipmunks’ calls, the barks of squirrels announce the hiker’s presence. Pocket gophers use manmade openings and natural meadows. Woodrats and northern flying squirrels at low elevation supply food to the northern spotted owl. Five different voles work the meadows for grass and sedge stems. Mountain beavers live on the coast from Point Reyes north to British Columbia. They live underground and come out mainly at night to create small haystacks of plant parts collected near their burrows. Red tree voles subsist on the needles of Douglas-fir in the coastal forests, while California red-backed voles feed on morels and other fungi at the base of trees. In contrast, jumping mice look for seed in recently logged forest lands. Kangaroo rats, mostly associated with the state’s deserts, live in inland woodlands and low-elevation grasslands. Like the pika, marmots have rebuffed the mountains of northwest California. The red tree vole is a California species of special concern. Fifteen kinds of bats occur here, and their populations are in decline throughout the state. They are sufficiently rare to be state or federal species of special concern. Pesticides are considered an important reason for the decrease. The loss of large, old trees and snags associated with old growth may explain the decline of the long-eared myotis and long-legged myotis. Cavities and crevices in old trees and snags furnish thermal protection.

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High-quality meadow and riparian habitats used by bats for feeding are deteriorating. The fringed myotis and the Townsend’s big-eared bat use caves. Buildings have become important habitats of several bat species. Our nonnative mammals may be divided into groups similar to those used for vascular plants, but with more difficulty. Old World rats, house mice, feral cats, red foxes, and wild dogs, animals associated with agricultural and residential areas, are considered pests. Virginia opossums and feral pigs that have invaded wildlands are considered invasive mammals. However, many mammals cross this line. House mice that live in many buildings, crops, fields, and feedlots also dwell in wildlands. Norway rats, common in crop lands, pastures, and urban habitats, are abundant in some agricultural areas and in dumps. We find black rats in seaports, adjacent towns, and the wild. House cats take live prey, including small native mammals and birds, if let outside. In urban settings, they prey on house mice and rats; but in the wildlands, they influence wild animal populations much more than most of us realize. Feral cats are becoming a major problem in parks, refuges, and other wildlands, especially those in the urban/wildland interface. Wild dogs present less of a problem. They impact mostly livestock but affect wildlife, too. Wild dogs hybridize with coyotes, creating an even more effective predator. Coastal populations of red fox in northwest California probably came from individuals that were released or escaped from fur farms. The native Sierra Nevada red fox might also live in the Klamath Mountains. Feral pigs, an important sport animal in the state, are locally common in northwest California, and they are increasing in numbers and impact. Populations are descended from introductions of the Eurasian boar for sporting purposes and from escaped domestic swine. Individuals from these sources interbreed, creating feral pigs, which revert to wild appearance and habits. Feral pigs live in forests and chaparral with moderate to high canopy closure. Acorns are their most important food, but pigs also till the soil in forests and grasslands, destroying native plants, especially bulbs, and the nests of ground-nesting birds. Compared to feral cats and pigs, the opossum seems less a threat to wildlife, although it does eat bird eggs and nestlings. Introduced into California in 1910, it now occurs widely along our coasts. Muskrats, native to the waters east of the crest of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada, inhabit swamps at Lake Earl. Beavers were introduced (reintroduced?) into the Little and Mad rivers’ waters in the 1940s. STATUS OF FISH

Northwest California’s fish fauna is rich. Good numbers are difficult to compile, because watershed definitions differ among treatments. Peter

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Moyle’s recent Inland Fishes of California is an excellent resource. He lists 107 freshwater, anadromous fish that migrate up rivers from the sea to breed in fresh water and euryhaline species that inhibit coastal bays and estuaries. A little over half (56) are native; the remaining 51 species have been introduced into the state’s streams, lakes, and reservoirs over the last 150 years (Table 19). The Klamath and Sacramento rivers extend to the east beyond the boundaries of northwest California. Fortunately, Moyle’s survey presents tallies at finer watershed levels. He recognizes a lower Klamath River category, including the Trinity River, as distinct from an upper Klamath River one. The fish fauna east of the Klamath Mountains is quite different from that of the region’s streams. A Central Valley category of the Sacramento River has many warm-water fish species. The coast category includes the Eel River and streams other than the Klamath that drain directly into the sea. I will concentrate on three general habitats: (1) waters in upper watershed streams beyond the reach of anadromous fish, including high-elevation lakes; (2) waters in stream sections with anadromous fish; and (3) waters in reservoirs. Upper watershed streams are popular with trout anglers. Water is swift, cold, and oxygen-rich over riffles of cobbles and boulders. Banks are shaded and often undercut. Deep pools, cut into the bedrock, are deep and clear. Resident rainbow trout, sculpins, and speckled dace are joined in the streams by introduced brook, brown, and rainbow trout. Bull trout, often called Dolly Varden, once inhabited the waters of the McCloud River, but it has been extirpated from California. Heavy fishing, hydraulic mining, dams, and the introduction of brook and brown trout led to its demise. Brook, brown, and rainbow trout that we now find in northwest California’s montane and subalpine lakes were introduced since these lakes lacked native fish. As early as the late 1800s, California’s native rainbow trout was introduced into mountain streams worldwide. Since then, many streams have been poisoned before being stocked with game species. The dramatic decline of the Cascade frog populations in the lakes of the Trinity Alps and Marble Mountains is at least partly related to predation by introduced fish. The lower watershed streams are visited by fishermen seeking anadromous fish. Water in the winter and spring is swift, cold, and oxygen-rich, as it rushes through the rapids and canyons and rests in the pools, only to continue merrily over riffles and by sandbars. The result is stretches of sorted or mixed sand, cobbles, and boulders alternating with stretches of rapids and pools over bedrock. Stream banks alternate between shade and sun. In the summer, the water warms in the lower stretches, and oxygen declines.

table 19. Fishes in northwest California. Lampreys Klamath River lamprey (Lampetra similis)* Pacific lamprey (Lampetra tridentata)*

River lamprey (Lampetra ayresi)* Western brook lamprey (Lampetra richardsoni)

Sturgeons Green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris)*

White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) Herrings

American shad (Alosa sapidissima)†

Threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenese)† Minnows

California roach (Lavinia symmetricus)† Common carp (Cyprinus carpio)† Golden shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas)†

Hardhead (Mylopharodon conocephalus) Sacramento pikeminnow (Ptychocheilius grandis)† Speckled dace (Rhinichtys osculus) Tui chub (Siphateles bicolor) Suckers

Klamath smallscale sucker (Catostomus rimiculus)

Sacramento sucker (Catostomus occidentalis) Catfishes

Black bullhead (Ameiurus melas)† Brown bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus)†

Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)† White catfish (Ameiurus catus)† Smelt

Eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus)* Salmon and Trout Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis)† Brown trout (Salmo trutta)† Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus)‡ Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) Chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta)§ Coastal cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki clarki)

Coastal rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)? Kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka)† McCloud redband trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss stonei) Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)‡ Resident rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) (continued)

table 19. (continued) Silversides Topsmelt (Atherinops affinis) Livebearers Western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)† Sticklebacks Brook stickleback (Culaea inconstans)†

Threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Sculpins Coastrange sculpin (Cottus aleuticus) Marbled sculpin (Cottus klamathensis) Pit sculpin (Cottus pitensis)

Prickly sculpin (Cottus asper) Riffle sculpin (Cottus gulosus)

Sunfishes Black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus)† Bluegill (Lepomis mirochirus)† Green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)† Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides)†

Redear sunfish (Lepomis microlophus)† Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu)† Spotted bass (Micropterus punctulatus)† White crappie (Pomoxis annularis)† Perches

Yellow perch (Perca flavescens)† Surfperches Tule perch (Hysterocarpus traski) Gobies Tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi) Flounders Starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus) note: * = Species of special concern; † = introduced fish species; ‡ = extirpated in northwest California; § = endangered in California; ? = federally threatened. From Moyle (2002).

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These tributaries are the temporary home of several once-abundant high-profile salmon species, federally listed or pending federal designation under the Endangered Species Act. Coho salmon is federally listed as threatened in northwest California, with the species declining 90 to 95 percent in abundance over the last 50 years. State and federal agencies have developed recovery plans for the coastal cutthroat trout. Chum salmon, never abundant, is endangered in California but is more abundant in the north. Pink salmon, never abundant and now extinct in the state, is doing well in Alaska and Canada, where it still supports a commercial fishery. The status of Chinook salmon, steelhead, and the anadromous populations of rainbow trout is complicated. Federal and state agencies recognize Evolutionarily Significant Units (ESUs), “a geographic group of populations that share genetic, life history, ecological, and other traits,” within fish species. Different ESUs of a species can be listed separately. For example, populations of naturally spawned coastal spring and fall Chinook salmon between Redwood Creek and the Russian River are federally listed as threatened. Populations of naturally spawned steelhead residing below impassable barriers in coastal basins from Redwood Creek to the Gualala River in Mendocino County are listed as threatened, but the steelhead of the Smith and Klamath rivers, including the Trinity River, are judged not to warrant candidacy. Anadromous species have similar life histories and requirements. Starting their lives upstream, the juveniles prepare physiologically for their time in the sea before returning to fresh water to spawn and possibly die, depending on the species. The dramatic decline in numbers of these important subsistence, sport, and commercial fish is the subject of many newspaper and magazine articles and books. Biologists attribute the dramatic decline of these once-abundant fish to many causes, including water divisions, habitat modification, pollution, introduced species, hatcheries, and exploitation. They consider the massive dams and water diversions as the primary reason for the decline. Reduction in the amount and quality of riparian vegetation and spawning areas below the dams adds to the problem. Overfishing, predation, competition (especially by introduced fish species), diseases, and pollution have taken their toll. Natural droughts, extreme floods, and periods of low productivity in the ocean also decimate salmon populations. Hatcheries, long seen as the way to sustain fish numbers, are now known to have strong negative effects on depleted wild populations. Clearly, the watersheds and fish populations need to be restored, but how? The emphasis on salmon overshadows the general decline of other anadromous fish and lamprey species in northwest California. The predatory Pacific lamprey that lives in the region’s streams spends its first stage in muddy stream bottoms, where the juveniles eat detritus and algae. After a

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few years, they change into adults and migrate downstream to the sea. Adult lampreys attach to the sides of salmon and other large fishes. Using a sucking disk with teethlike plates, they suck blood and body fluids until full and then drop off. After 6 to 18 months, the adults migrate upstream to their home spawning gravels. The small nonpredatory Klamath River lamprey dwells in the Klamath River tributaries, including the Trinity River. The nonpredatory western brook lamprey and river lamprey join the Pacific lamprey in the Eel River and other North Coast streams. Both the green and white sturgeon cruise the deeper waters in the lower tributaries of the Klamath and Trinity rivers. They migrate upstream to spawn and return to estuaries and marine waters. They are long-lived (longer than 100-year-old) fish that mature eating algae, fish, and invertebrates, with their extended mouth acting as a suction hose. Populations of both sturgeon species are small, and the population of the green sturgeon is declining. Populations of the white sturgeon in the Sacramento–San Joaquin river delta are stable or expanding under management. Its meat and roe as caviar are delicious, and it is raised commercially. The status of green sturgeon calls for special management. Runs of eulachon, also called candlefish, were once abundant in the lower Klamath River, Mad River, and Redwood Creek watersheds. The Yurok harvested the tasty eulachon, which they dried, salted, smoked, and fried; they also rendered its golden-colored fat for foods, medicines, and lubricants. Dried fish were used as candles. Large eulachon runs supported Native American subsistence and sport fisheries into the 1970s.

Reservoirs and the Trinity River Reservoirs are a new and major fish habitat in northwest California. They are less productive than lakes of similar size, since they are deep, steepsloped basins with fluctuating levels. The water is mainly cold, clear, and nutrient poor, but surface water supports introduced warm-water fish species. For example, brown and hatchery strains of rainbow trout are caught in Lake Shasta in the spring before they move to deeper water. Spotted and smallmouth bass are fished year-round. Black and white crappie, and channel and white catfish support a seasonal fishing season. Dams block migrations of salmon and other anadromous fishes, and they supply less water downstream. Biologists blamed the large fish kill on the lower Klamath River in September 2002 on low water flows. Warmer water temperatures, pathogens, and an above-average fall run of mainly Chinook salmon were adverse conditions for the returning fish. Too many stakeholders (Indian tribes, farmers, fishermen, towns, and others) claimed the water. September flow releases from Iron Gate Dam on the upper Klamath River were the lowest on record at a time when significant volumes of

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water from Trinity Lake was diverted to the Sacramento River for use in Central Valley agriculture. My graduate students have involved me in all kinds of population-, species-, and community-level research. John Bair’s project, however, sent me in still another direction—thinking about ways to restore the Trinity River and its fisheries. The Trinity River Diversion’s water transport to the Sacramento River is as high as 90 percent of the annual flow. This level was considered adequate to maintain the fishery when the project became operational in 1964, but there were significant fish declines within a decade. After four decades, coho salmon populations were down 95 percent; Chinook salmon, 65 percent; and steelhead, 55 percent. The foothill yellow-legged frog and western pond turtle, which depend on flood-maintained habitats, had also declined. Conspicuous changes in the river geomorphology below Lewiston Dam occurred within a decade of the project’s completion. The dam-regulated river lacked the pools, spawning gravels, and rearing areas necessary for maintaining healthy fish stocks. Other forces were at work. Biologists saw levels of commercial, sport, and tribal fishing; logging practices; and erosion, especially in the Grass Valley Creek watershed, as also causing fish declines. Input from the Institute for Rivers at Humboldt State University, McBain and Trush, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the Trinity River Basin Fish and Wildlife Task Force, a secretary of the interior’s decision, and response to several congressional acts all made it clear that the key to restoring fish populations was to modify the river’s current annual water regime and to change its existing features between Lewiston Dam and the Trinity River’s north fork. Not only did an old unregulated Trinity River carry more water, but its morphology was very different. The unregulated stream had the attributes of an alluvial river before its water entered a steep canyon of the Trinity River gorge. Above the gorge, the river was not constrained by walls of bedrock. Instead, the stream had extensive floodplains, and it meandered across the valley bottoms. Sediments were constantly being scoured, moved, and deposited. In doing so, the shape and character of the stream were changing continually. These fluvial processes created an alternate bar sequence of exposed rocky flats and beaches, pools, riffles, and backwater areas within the stream channel, supplying the water, substrates, and habitat conditions needed for healthy fish populations. To maintain these habitats, the stream needed to experience variable flows throughout the year. Winter floods scoured and moved sediments, changed and reshaped the streambed, and added to the associated terraces and floodplains. Snowmelt was important in preparing gravel deposits used as spawning areas. As the snowmelt subsided to the low summer flows,

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riparian plants, especially willows, began fruiting and seedlings established. Since no two water years were identical in unregulated alluvial streams, conditions were always changing. The dam-regulated Trinity River of today is a smaller, simpler stream. Its active channel is narrower, and riparian plants, especially willows and white alder, have encroached along the edge of the river. Seedlings not killed by winter flows have matured. The larger plants have trapped sediments and in time “fossilized” the alluvial edge of the river, creating leveelike berms between the river channel and the old floodplains. Berms grow as sediments are deposited. The location of the river on its floodplain has changed little over the last 40 years. Today water moves quickly in a narrow, troughlike channel. Maintaining the old water regime of the last decade, removing berms, and creating gravel bars are not enough. Willows and alders will repopulate the cleared sites, and if not removed by winter scouring, they will again fossilize the site. If water flows are increased, the problem remains. What is needed is shaping the volume and timing of the flow during the period from snowmelt to summer to control the pesky, woody plants. Restoration required that they think about the ecology of anadromous fish, the ecology of narrowleaf willow and white alder (the most common riparian woody plants), and the character of water flows needed to transport and sort sand, gravel, and larger rocks. With these points in mind, five different annual water patterns (for extremely wet, wet, normal, dry, and critically dry years) were envisioned by varying the timing and volume of water released from Lewiston Dam (Figure 7). The next step was to create scaled-down channel and riparian vegetation patterns tailored to this new range of water regimes. The Trinity River Restoration Project involves 49 rehabilitation projects along the river from Lewiston Dam to the river’s north fork. The first was completed in October 2005, and the results can be seen along SR 299 at Junction City. At a few of the larger meanders, the plan calls for removal of berms and woody plants, and the creation of alternating point bars to encourage pools, riffles, and backwaters and allow the river to meander. The creation of sloping surfaces from the summer water line to the line above winter flood stage and the creation of alternate river channels for use during floods allow the floodplain to be active. Developing a good habitat for anadromous fish in the Trinity River between Lewiston Dam and the North Fork will go a long way toward restoring the river’s fishery. Having the river, rather than people, do much of the work is practical. The Trinity River Restoration Project, which allows for water diversion, flood control, and hydroelectric power generation, does not restore the Trinity River to its predam condition, but it offers the possibility of creating a better-functioning river for its anadromous fish.

Figure 7. Changes in channel geometry and vegetation in response to regulation of the Trinity River from 1963 to 1990: (a) before water diversion; (b) with a fully developed berm; and (c) with desired future conditions. Figure adapted from McBain and Trush (1997). Trinity River Maintenance Flow Study, Final Report, prepared for the Hoopa Valley Tribe, Arcata.

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status of northwest california today STATUS OF AMPHIBIANS

There are striking parallels between the rich amphibian fauna and vascular plant flora of northwest California and the Appalachians. Both mountain ranges, on opposite sides of the continent, have climbing salamanders, mole salamanders, toads, and woodland salamanders (Table 20). Four of the six climbing salamanders live in northwest California. The Shasta salamander, associated with limestone ledges and caves, is endemic to the middle Sacramento River watershed. As with vascular plants, these salamanders are relicts. Both mountain ranges are ancient and supported moist temperate forest habitats in the Tertiary. Both are centrally located and have heterogeneous environments. The range limits of many salamander species occur here. Northwest California is the hub of the Ensatina eschscholtzi complex. Our three endemic woodland salamanders are barely isolated geographically. The two-phased (aquatic/terrestrial) life cycle of amphibians inclines them toward aquatic or moist habitats: lakes, ponds, streams, and moist forests. Exacting water conditions for the egg and tadpole stages, and features of adult physiology, make amphibians sensitive to agricultural and forest practices, urbanization, water development, livestock grazing, diseases, drought, increased ultraviolet radiation, and the introduction of nonnative bullfrog and fish species. In California, we have especially seen frogs’ density plummet and ranges contract. The red-legged frog has disappeared from 75 percent of its ranges; and the Cascades and foothill yellow-legged frogs, from 50 percent. The Cascades frog, once abundant in subalpine lakes of the Trinity Alps and Trinity Mountains, is rarely heard today. These lakes were stocked with brook, brown, and rainbow trout in the 1950s. These fish actively eat frog eggs and tadpoles. Predation by the introduced bullfrog is implicated in the northern red-legged frog’s decline on coastal areas. Establishing or maintaining lakes and ponds free of introduced predators is critical. Today the foothill yellow-legged frog, once abundant in the Trinity River, lives only in a few shaded backwater pools. Sites in the Trinity River are far from the effects of agriculture and urbanization that have adversely impacted it elsewhere in the state, but the effects of its dams are powerful. A great deal of habitat was destroyed when the reservoirs filled, and the dam regulated water flow patterns for the last 40 years, killing developing eggs and tadpoles. Pools created by high water flows never receive additional water, leaving the eggs high and dry. The Trinity River Restoration Project offers the best possibility of creating a better-functioning river for the yellow-legged frog. Environmental conditions afforded by old-growth forests are needed by many salamander species, and we have seen their numbers decline in

table 20. Amphibians in northwest California. Mole Salamanders Northwestern salamander (Ambystoma gracile) N Long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum) W Giant Salamanders Pacific giant salamander (Dicamptodon tenebrosus) N Torrent Salamanders Southern torrent salamander (Rhyacotriton variegates) Newts Coast Range newt (Taricha torosa torosa) Red-bellied newt (Taricha rivularis) Rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa) Woodland Salamanders Del Norte salamander (Plethodon elongatus)* Dunn’s salamander (Plethodon dunni) N Scott Bar salamander (Plethodon asupak)† Siskiyou Mountains salamander (Plethodon stormi)* Ensatinas Oregon salamander (Ensatina eschscholtzii oregonensis) Painted salamander (Ensatina eschscholtzia picta) Climbing Salamanders Arboreal salamander (Aneides lugubris) S Black salamander (Aneides flavipunctatus) S Clouded salamander (Aneides ferreus) N Wandering salamander (Aneides vagrans) S Slender Salamanders California slender salamander (Batrachoseps attenuatus) S‡ Web-Toed Salamanders Shasta salamander (Hydromantes shastae)§ Tailed Frogs Tailed frog (Ascaphus truei)* (continued)

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table 20. (continued) Toads Boreal toad (Bufo boreas boreas) N Treefrogs Pacific treefrog (Hyla regilla) True Frogs Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana)? Cascades frog (Rana cascadae)* Foothill yellow-legged frog (Rana boylii)* Northern red-legged frog (Rana aurora aurora) N note: Range limits in northwest California are indicated as northern (N), western (W), and southern (S). * = Species of special concern, California Department of Fish and Game; † = species described in 2005; ‡ = federal status endangered; § = state threatened; ? = introduced. From Stebbins (1985).

watersheds that have been logged on a large scale. Not only does the buffered forested habitat change dramatically after logging, but fine sediment collects in the streams, and warmer water temperatures make reproduction almost impossible. The need of old growth to supply these conditions is more important in the inland parts of northwest California than on the coast with its foggy summers. The tailed frog and southern torrent salamander have exacting habitat requirements, and individuals do not roam extensively. These frogs require cold water and clean, coarse streambed substrates, and they often disappear after logging. Even partial removal of the forest canopy along streams makes for unsuitable conditions. The Pacific giant salamander may move between many habitats even when disturbed, but it becomes rare when logging is extensive. The ranges and environmental requirements of the woodland salamanders are narrow, especially those of the Siskiyou Mountains salamander. It frequents stabilized talus below forest canopies of oldgrowth Douglas-fir and hardwoods in the mountainsides surrounding Seiad Valley along the Klamath River. Amphibians are good indicators of landscape health. Preservation of extensive tracts of the original forest throughout northwest California will maintain suitable upland and stream habitat for dispersal and migration with a minimum of barriers. We also need to maintain and restore necessary habitat conditions after logging, by providing riparian buffer strips, limiting ground disturbance, and controlling sediment runoff.

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STATUS OF REPTILES

We are not too surprised at the low number of reptiles in northwest California compared with the rest of the state (Table 21). Reptiles inhabit warmer locales, requiring sunshine and warm ambient temperatures to establish adequate body heat. These conditions are in short supply on our cool, foggy coast and in deep woods. Inland conditions in northwest California are much more to their liking. We mainly see lizards and snakes that occur throughout the West, including the alligator lizard, fence lizard, California kingsnake, rubber boa, and western rattlesnake. The sharp-tailed snake is an exception; it is associated with coastal forests. Intraspecific variation is common in reptiles, especially in wide-ranging species, and it is striking in northwest California’s reptile fauna. In group after group, the species is represented locally by its northern or western race—that is, northwestern pond turtle, western sagebrush lizard, Pacific gopher snake, and northern Pacific rattlesnake. However, the western fence lizard, Skilton’s skink, and rubber boa have ranges that center in northwest California. Garter snakes, the most diverse reptile group in the region, show localized morphological variation with coastal and inland races. The northwestern pond turtle can be seen in basking sites on logs or rocks along the Trinity and other rivers of the region. Once common, it has shown a decline similar to that of the foothill yellow-legged frog. Threats come from hunting, exploitation for the pet trade, predation, and modification of river conditions by dams. The actions of the Trinity River Restoration Project will help the pond turtle’s numbers to grow. STATUS OF BIRDS

Northwest California is a paradise for bird-watchers. The American Ornithologists’ Union’s seventh edition of Checklist of North American Birds catalogues 613 species for California. Don Robertson’s 1999 account in Birds of Northern California contains 567 species for the state north of the Inyo–Kern–San Luis Obispo county line, of which some 450 species are “resident, dropping in during migration or other of regular occurrence.” Of the most commonly encountered 328 birds, or about 80 percent, appear to reside for at least part of the year in northwest California. Stanley Harris’s Northwest California Birds includes 447 species and comments that “a day’s birding at or near Humboldt Bay easily can yield 100–120 species.” Two birds no longer live in the region. We know from museum records that California condors circled inland prairies of the Mad and Van Duzen rivers in 1892 and 1889. Clapper rails frequented the Humboldt Bay marshes until the 1940s; now they live only farther south in the state. As with other animal groups, an explanation for the high bird diversity lies in the region’s great variety of habitats and its central location of the

table 21. Reptiles in northwest California. Turtles Northwestern pond turtle (Clemmys marmorata marmorata)* Lizards spiny lizards Western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) Western sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus graciosus gracilis) skinks Skilton’s skink (Eumeces skiltonianus skiltonianus) whiptails California whiptail (Cnemidophorus tigris mundus) alligator lizards Oregon alligator lizard (Elgaria multicarinata scincicauda) Shasta alligator lizard (Elgaria coerulea shastensis) Snakes boas Rubber boa (Charina bottae) colubrids California kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula califoriniae) California red-sided garter snake (Thamnophis sitalis parietalis) Chaparral whipsnake (Masticophis lateralis lateralis) Coast garter snake (Thamnophis elegans terrestris) Mountain garter snake (Thamnophis elegans elegans) Oregon garter snake (Thamnophis atratus hydrophilus) Pacific gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer catenifer) Racer (Coluber constrictor) Ringneck snake (Diadophis punctatus) Sierra mountain kingsnake (Lampropeltis zonata multicincta) Sharp-tailed snake (Contia tenuis) St. Helena mountain kingsnake (Lampropeltis zonata zonata) Striped whipsnake (Masticophis taeniatus) Valley garter snake (Thamnophis sitalis fitchi) pit vipers Northern Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis oreganus) note: * = Species of special concern, California Department of Fish and Game. From Stebbins (1985).

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Pacific Flyway, which is used by birds as they migrate from South America to Alaska and back. Seabirds and alcids use coastal sea stacks and bluffs, and marbled murrelets inhabit old-growth trees along the coastline (Table 22). Pacific loons stop here as they continue south to coastal Mexico in the winter before returning to their arctic breeding grounds in the spring. The fork-tailed storm-petrel’s southernmost breeding colonies spend time at the “bird rocks” near Trinidad. Shorebirds and waterfowl are attracted to the mud flats and to freshwater and salt marshes near Crescent City and around Humboldt Bay. Tundra swans are common winter visitors to the Eel River delta. Brant fatten on eelgrass beds of Humboldt Bay. Aleutian Canada geese use coastal grasslands along the coast before migrating north. Inland sites offer birds a bounty of habitats as well. Bald eagles and osprey check out the fish populations in the rivers. Blue grouse boom and pileated woodpeckers prey on bark beetle populations in the forests nearby. Rufous hummingbirds breed in the Trinity Alps before migrating to Mexico for the winter. Western bluebirds, year-long residents of the mountains, are joined by mountain bluebirds in the summer. The open country of the eastside foothills of the North Coast Ranges is the home of horned larks and mistletoe-eating phainopepla. At the highest elevations, raucous Clark’s nutcrackers collect seeds from whitebark pine and cache them for later use. Bird populations are in decline throughout California, mainly from habitat reduction. The best known may be the northern spotted owl as a resident of old-growth forests, at least inland. The bald eagle and marbled murrelet are federally listed as threatened, as are coastal populations of snowy plover. The golden eagle is fully protected and may not be “taken” in California without a permit. The California Department of Fish and Game lists 24 species of California birds that warrant special concern. Cutting across taxonomic groups, the list includes water birds, raptors, owls, and passerines. Other birds listed on the Audubon Society’s Watch List, such as the mountain quail and western bluebird, were once common in northern California. The return of larger populations of the bald eagle and brown pelican is promising, as was the delisting of the Aleutian Canada goose and American peregrine falcon, but many other birds are in trouble. We are blessed with few pest birds in northern California. Ring-necked pheasants and wild turkeys were introduced as game species. Rock pigeons, mostly associated with towns, inhibit sea stacks near Trinidad. European starlings are widespread and common, even abundant, gathering in huge flocks in winter. The house sparrow, first seen in Eureka in 1885, is now in decline, probably due to reduced suitable conditions in urban and agricultural habitats. The juxtaposition of urban centers and significant natural areas in the same vicinity offers a set of challenges for birds. Wildfowl, shorebirds, and

table 22. Selected birds in northwest California. Water Birds Ashy storm-petrel (Oceandroma homochroa) N* Black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) N Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)† Common loon (Gavia immer)*

Double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)* Fork-tailed storm-petrel (Oceanodroma furcata) S* Great egret (Ardea alba) N Pacific loon (Gavia pacifica) White-faced ibis (Plegadis chihi)* Waterfowl

Aleutian Canada goose (Branta canadensis leucopareia) Brant (Branta bernicla) Cinnamon teal (Anas cyanoptera) N

Harlequin duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) S* Tundra swan (Cygnus columbianus)

Raptors Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)† California condor (Gymnogyps californianus)†‡§ Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii)* Ferruginous hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) N Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)† Merlin (Falco columbarius)*

Northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) (nesting)* Northern harrier (Circus cyaneus)* Peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus anatum)† Red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) N White-tailed kite (Elanus leucurus) N†

Upland Game Birds Blue grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) California quail (Callipepla californica) Mountain quail (Oreortyx pictus)

Ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)? Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus)* Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)? Shorebirds

California gull (Larus californicus)* Clapper rail (Rallus longirostris)†‡ Long-billed curlew (Numenius americanus)* Glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus) S Marbled godwit (Limosa fedoa) N

Snowy plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) N Short-billed dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus) N Western snowy plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus)* Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus) N

table 22. (continued) Alcids Greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) S Marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus)*§

Rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata)* Rock pigeon (Columba livia)* Tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata)* Owls Short-eared owl (Asio flammeus)*

Long-eared owl (Asio otus)* Northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis cauria)*§

Swifts Vaux’s swift (Chaetura vauxi)* Hummingbirds Rufous hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)

Anna’s hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri) N

Woodpeckers Pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) Passerines Black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)* Black phoebe (Sayornis nigricans) N Californian towhee (Pipilo crissalis) N Clark’s nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)? Gray jay (Perisoreus canadensis) S Hermit warbler (Dendroica occidentalis)* Horned lark (Eremophila alpestris)* House sparrow (Passer domesticus)?

Loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludevicianus)* Lark sparrow (Chondestes grammacus) N Lincoln’s sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii) N Mountain bluebird (Sialia currucoides) Phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens) Plain titmouse (Parus inornatus) N Purple martin (Progne subis)* Say’s phobe (Sayornis saya) N Western bluebird (Sialia mexicana) Yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens)* Yellow warbler (Dendroica petechia)*

note: Northern (N) or southern (S) summer, year-round, or winter range limits occur in northwestern California. * = Species of special concern; † = fully protected, California Department of Fish and Game; ‡ = extirpated in northwest California; § = federal status threatened; ? = introduced. From Fix and Bazener (2000); Stokes and Stokes (1996).

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other birds use the wetlands and dunes near Crescent City and Eureka all or part of the year. Humboldt Bay was originally bordered by a large complex of freshwater, brackish, and salt marshes and swamps, as well as dunes. These wetlands supported lush vegetation for its abundant fish and wildlife. Much of the land has been converted to agricultural and industrial uses over the last 150 years. A railroad berm, with tide gates around the east side of Humboldt Bay, was finished in 1901. Highway 101 was built just east of the railroad tracts in wetlands that were diked, drained, filled, and converted to pasture. Areas in the lower Eel River, west of Arcata, and around Crescent City have similar histories. Salt marshes west of the highway represent most of what is left of this habitat. Salt marshes are an important part of Humboldt Bay’s estuary, along with mud flats, channels, and eel-grass beds. These wetlands provide stopover, wintering, and breeding habitat for waterfowl as part of the Pacific Flyway. These wetlands are also important as nurseries of many fish species. Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1975 to protect waterfowl and wetland habitats around the bay. Much of the refuge involves old farmlands and the South Bay, which has large eel-grass beds used by brant during migration. Tundra swans are a common visitor to the refuge, as are the resident egrets that are often seen on the pastures around Humboldt Bay. Black-bellied plovers, western sandpipers, and other shorebirds fly overhead. New stands of willows and other wetland plants are beginning to restore the complex of marsh and swamp habitats. In the vicinity of Arcata, the tidal mud flats and salt marsh in the northeast corner of the bay were diked in the 1800s. In the early 1900s, the area was transformed into Arcata’s waterfront of wharfs, mills, docks, and log ponds (Pl. 26). By midcentury, this city land supported a sanitary landfill and wastewater treatment facility. In the early 1970s, the landfill and the wastewater treatment plant were closed; the latter was inadequate to conform to new water quality requirements. In response, the Humboldt Bay Wastewater Authority proposed the construction of a large, state-sponsored treatment plant that would serve all of the bay’s communities. Arcata looked for alternate solutions. Many people saw the plan as costly, energy intensive, and environmentally damaging. Would the new technology of “constructed wetland systems” be more cost efficient and more environmentally friendly? After about a decade of hard work, the answer came in the form of the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, more technically an “integrated wetland and wastewater treatment facility” and marsh. Today people walk by the ponds with their binoculars in hand to check the day’s bird life. Godwit Days, a three-day celebration in April with more than 70 birding field trips and workshops, is centered around the sanctuary.

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Visitors may not know of the engineering that has gone into creating the set of ponds that treat the city’s wastewater. The ponds offer a place for shorebirds to roost. You see various gulls over the open water, buffleheads and northern shovelers in the winter, and brown pelicans in the summer. The lakes, filled with treated wastewater, are surrounded by willows and emergent cattails and tules near the shore. In the summer, much of the water surface is covered with duckweed. American widgeons, mallards, and pied-billed grebes are often seen in these more vegetated ponds. Trees surrounding the reclaimed log pond support conspicuous roosting colonies of black-crowned night heron. The Aleutian Canada goose is one of the smaller subspecies of the Canada goose. It stops off at Humboldt Bay, Castle Rock, and environs in Del Norte County on its way to the Aleutian Islands from the Central Valley, where it spends the winter. Once thought extinct, this species is now estimated by wildlife biologists to number more than 40,000 birds. In the 1800s, Russian fur trappers introduced arctic foxes on the Aleutian Islands for the fur trade. They decimated the geese and other wildlife populations on all but a few of the smaller islands. The subspecies was listed as endangered in 1967. After 35 years of work by Paul Springer and others of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game, other cooperating agencies, and local ranchers and farmers, the subspecies was delisted after having been declared fully recovered in 2001. Today the Aleutian Goose Festival is held on the last weekend in March, celebrating the return of spring and the sight of geese once again darkening the sky with flight. During this four-day event, local naturalists extol the plentiful bird and wildlife populations at Redwood National Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Smith River National Recreation Area, Castle Rock Wildlife Refuge, Tolowa Dunes State Park, and Lake Earl Wildlife Area, as they celebrate the success of bringing the Aleutian Canada goose back from the brink of extinction. STATUS OF FOREST PESTS

Northwest California has a vast array of biotic agents that naturally affect the region’s character. Margaret Willits and I found that browsing by deer, for example, strongly inhibits Pacific yew’s recruitment in the western Klamath Mountains. Often these agents work in concert with droughts, windstorms, floods, and fire to set the age distribution and species composition of forests. For instance, epidemics of pine beetles are a natural part of the ecology of many forest types (Table 23). Defoliating insects may control the range of Sitka spruce in northwest California more that climate. Agents of disturbance and regrowth have always been part of the natural order.

table 23. Forest pathogens in northwest California. Insects conifer seeds and cones Cone beetle (Cobophthorus spp.) Ps Douglas-fir cone moth (Barbara colfoxiana) DF Pine seedworm (Cydia miscitata) PP Western conifer seed bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis) Cs conifer needles and shoots Balsam twig aphid (Mindarus abietinus) WF Black pineleaf scale (Nuculaspis californica) DF, Ps California budworm (Choristoneura carnana californica) DF, Fs Cooley spruce gall adelgid (Adelges cooleyi) DF, Ss Douglas-fir tussock moth (Orgyia pseudotsugata) DF, WF Gouty pitch midge (Cecidomyia piniinoosis) PP Lodgepole needleminer (Coleotechnites milleri) LP Pandora moth (Coloradia pandora) PP, JP Pine needle scale (Chionaspis pinifoliae) DF, Ps Pine needle sheathminer (Zelleria haimbachi) Ps Silverspotted tiger moth (Lophocampa argentata) Cs Western pine shoot borer (Eucosma sonomana) Ps Western spruce budworm (Choristoneura occidentalis) DF, Fs conifer boles California five-spined ips (Ips paraconfusus) Ps Douglas-fir beetle (Dendroctonus pseudotsugae) DF Douglas-fir engraver (Scolytus unispinosus) DF, Fs Fir engraver (Scolytus ventralis) Fs Flatheaded fir borer (Melanophila drummondi) Jeffrey pine beetle (Dendroctonus jeffreyi) JP Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) Ps Pine engraver (Ips pini) Ps Red turpentine beetle (Dendroctonus valens) Ps Roundheaded fir borer (Tetropium abietis) Spruce aphid (Elatobium abietinum) Western pine beetle (Dendroctonus brevicomis) PP broadleaved trees Ambrosia beetles (Monarthrum dentiger, M. scutellare) California oakworm (Phryganidia californica) Fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea) Western oak bark beetle (Pseudopityophthorous pibipennis)

table 23. (continued) Fungi and Water Molds of Conifers needles and shoots Cytospora canker (Cytospora abietis) Fs Douglas-fir needle casts (Rhabdocline pseudotsugue) DF Elytroderma disease (Elytroderma deformans) Ps Fir needle cast (Lirula abietis-concolaris) Fs Incense-cedar rust (Gymnosporangium libocedri) IC, Rs Pitch canker (Fusarium circinatum) Ps * Red band needle blight (Mycosphaerella pini) Ps Western gall rust (Peridermium harknessii) HPs White pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) WP, Ribes * boles Brown cubical rot (Laetiporus sulphureus) Cs, HWs Brown stringy rot (Echindontium tinctorium) Fs, Hs Pocket dry rot (Olioporus amarus) IC butt and root rots Aannosus root disease (Heterobasidion annosum) Cs, Fs Armillaria root disease (Armillaria mellea) DF, IC, Fs, HWs Blackstain root disease (Leptographium wageneri) DF, Ps Laminated root rot (Phellinus weirii) Cs Port Orford-cedar root rot (Phytophthora lateralis) POC Red-brown butt rot (Phaeolus schweientzii) Cs White pocket rot (Phellinus pini) Cs Fungi and Water Molds of Hardwoods Arbutus canker (Nattrassia mangiferae) Bacterial maple scorch (Xylella fastidiosa)* Chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica)* Cramp balls (Hypoxylon thouarsianum) Dutch elm disease (Ophiostoma ulmi)* Madrone canker (Fusicoccum aesculi) Oak anthracnose (Apiognomonia quercina) Potato blight (Phytophthora infestans)* Root rot (Phytophthora cactorum)* Sudden oak death (Phytophthora ramorum) Tarspot (Coccomyces arbutifolius, Rhytisna punctatum) note: Hosts follow the pest’s name and are abbreviated as follows: Cs = conifers; DF = Douglas-fir; Fs = firs; Hs = hemlocks; HPs = hard pines; HWs = hardwoods; IC = incense-cedar; JP = Jeffrey pine; LP = lodgepole pine; POC = Port Orford–cedar; PP = ponderosa pine; Rs = roses; Ss = spruces; WF = white fir; WP = white pine. * = introduced pest. From Wood et al. (2003).

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Insects Bark beetles, especially the mountain pine beetle, red turpentine beetle, and western pine beetle, have been important sources of pine mortality, especially as seen with ponderosa and sugar pines after the droughts of the 1980s and early 1990s. The fir engraver and the roundheaded fir borer had similar impacts on white fir and Shasta fir trees. The wind and ice storm of 1996 and the fires of 1999 brought on epidemics of Douglas-fir beetle, Douglas-fir engraver, and flatheaded fir borer to the middle and high elevations of the western Trinity Alps. Defoliators are another set of insects that have an important impact on the forests of northwest California. Douglas-fir needle cast and western budworm are important in Douglas-fir forests. True needle cast on white fir and spruce aphid on Sitka spruce cause local damage. California oakworm larvae defoliate tanoak, canyon live oak, and golden chinquapin trees throughout northwest California. Fungi Many pathogenic fungi play important roles in shaping the character of our forests and woodlands. Various conifers are attached root rots, such as annosum root disease, Armillaria root disease, and laminated root rot. Plantation trees get black stain root disease. Elytroderma disease forms brooms of deformed twigs and branches. Severe infections predispose Jeffrey and ponderosa pine trees to bark beetle attack. Oak anthracnose can cause severe blighting and deformation of oak leaves, leading to premature leaf fall. A leaf disease, whose cause is unknown, affects bigleaf maple trees at low elevations in the region. Similar to the effects of maple scorch on trees in the eastern United States, leaves yellow, turn brown, and curl up in midsummer. The Fate of Madrone The current decline of madrone in northwest California is of great concern to residents of the interior North Coast and western Klamath Mountains. People living here are used to the obvious work of the fall webworm, but this is only one of the diseases associated with madrone. The seasonal darkening, leaf losses, and dying trees were common events during the wet, warm years of the late 1990s. Native and introduced pathogenic fungi, some 21 species in all, including root and wood rots, stem cankers, branch dieback, and diseases of the leaves, attack madrone throughout its range. Several foliage pathogens are included, with the tarspot being the most common. Foliage diseases rarely kill trees, but they weaken trees, especially after several years. Mainly Arbutus canker,

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madrone canker, and root rot kill trees, working in conjunction with the foliage pathogens. Many trees at low elevations in the western Klamath Mountains show the dead black stems from madrone canker. Ecologists suggest that the large number of older madrone trees currently growing in the region’s mature forests predisposed them to this decline.

Fate of Forests Three important, recently introduced diseases have changed or have the potential for dramatically changing the region’s forest patterns. White pine blister rust arrived in northwest California in the 1930s, Port Orford–cedar root rot arrived in northwest California less than 30 years ago, and sudden oak death arrived in 2002. White pine blister rust began changing the ecology of northwest California’s forests about 70 years ago. The early 1900s were a troubling time for lovers of the nation’s forests. Chestnut blight, introduced in 1904, was killing American chestnut trees throughout its range. Dutch elm disease, another introduced fungus, was killing American elms, one of the most prized street trees in the nation. Both trees were important, even dominant, species in the original forests in the eastern United States. Today, we hear little about white pine blister rust or of the great campaigns to eradicate the mountain currants and gooseberries, the pine’s alternate host. The life cycle involves a complicated set of spore types allowing the fungus to alternate between leaves of Ribes shrubs and the white pine trees. The needles are the first to be infected. In time the fungus penetrates stems, where it produces spores types that are dispersed by wind to new populations. White pine blister rust, a disease of Asia, was introduced into a nursery near Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1910. Spreading south to the mountains of southern Washington and northern Oregon, it jumped to the Klamath Mountains and the North Coast Ranges in the 1930s, then on to the Sierra Nevada and eventually to the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico. Susceptible white pines growing in northwest California include foxtail pine, sugar pine, western white pine, and whitebark pine. Most early concerns centered on economically valuable sugar pine in California and western white pine in the Pacific Northwest. Today the new concern focuses on the decline of whitebark pine, an important food source of the grizzly bear in the Rocky Mountains. Trees of all ages and sizes are vulnerable. Seedlings and saplings are killed directly; larger trees are more resistant. If infections are heavy, the weakened trees succumb to drought or bark beetle attacks. Dead trees form mosaics across the landscape, where patches of intense infection mix

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with patches with little disease. Today sugar pine and western white pine are less common in northwest California’s forests and patchier than in the past. White pine blister rust continues at low levels in many locations after the first wave of infection. The drought in the late 1900s brought the rust back to epidemic levels, notably in the northern watersheds of the Smith River. As the stumps decay and other tree species replace sugar pine and western white pine, people forget that these trees were important forest members. Port Orford–cedar root rot has been affecting the ecology of northwest California’s forests for about 25 years. This water mold has a less complicated life cycle than that of white pine blister rust. Motile spores transported in water infect the root hairs of Port Orford–cedar trees. The hyphae grow up the roots into the inner bark of the tree, killing seedlings in a year. Older trees can take up to seven or more years to die. Resting spores develop in spore sacs on the roots and collect in the soil. The spores are transported to new creeks or even to new watersheds in mud or organic materials attached to vehicles, boots, and animals. The resting spores germinate when wet, creating motile spores that can travel to roots of new host trees. As with white pine blister rust, Port Orford–cedar root rot was discovered in the 1920s, killing nursery stock in Seattle, Washington. It infected native Port Orford–cedar trees in southwest Oregon in 1952. Since then, it has spread throughout the natural range of Port Orford–cedar, killing trees of all ages and sizes. The disease also affects Pacific yew, but this tree is less susceptible. Port Orford–cedar inhabits two disjunct areas in the Klamath Mountains and adjacent North Coast Ranges in California and Oregon. In California, the larger western area includes the Smith River watershed, the adjacent parts of the middle, and the lower Klamath River watersheds, and lower Trinity River upstream to Willow Creek. The most extensive stands occur in the Smith River watershed, where it grows below 5,000 feet, typically in soils derived from ultramafics, including serpentine. Trees are associated with water along permanent streams and in fens. The sight of Port Orford–cedar sheltering a patch of Darlingtonia is a common one. The tree is more restricted to concave sheltered slopes and terraces outside the Smith River watershed. The eastern population centers on Mount Eddy in the Trinity Mountains and extends down to the upper reaches of the Sacramento and Trinity rivers. Here trees mark lake- and stream-sides to 7,000 feet on soils derived from gabbro and ultramafic rocks. Both Darlingtonia californica and Port Orford–cedar show this strange, disjunct distribution. Most Port Orford–cedar trees in California grow on Forest Service land, including watersheds that are partially logged and well crossed with roads.

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Unfortunately, these roads offer the most effective way to spread the disease. Roads are sometimes seasonally or permanently closed, logging is confined to the dry season, vehicles are washed, and Port Orford–cedar trees are removed along roadsides. Permanently closing roads is the best way to slow the disease. Enforcement of these practices has not been consistent. The disease has jumped from the Smith River watershed to several locations near Bluff Creek in the lower Trinity River watershed, to the upper Trinity River watershed east of the Trinity Alps, and to the upper Sacramento River watershed on the eastern slopes of the Trinity Mountains. In each case, the initial infection involved few trees, but the potential to spread is great. Sudden oak death is another Phytophthora-caused root rot that does not bode well for the forests of northwest California. Dying tanoak trees in Marin County in 1995 foreshadowed the current epidemic in both urban and rural parts of the coastal mountains from Sonoma to Monterey. In the summer of 2001, the disease made its way to Brookings, Oregon, and the next year to the Eel River watershed near Garberville. Tanoak is the most susceptible of many native host trees and shrubs. This Phytophthora infects black oak, canyon live oak, coast live oak, as well as bigleaf maple, California bay, California buckeye, California coffeeberry, California honeysuckle, common manzanita, Douglas-fir, evergreen huckleberry, grand fir, madrone, Pacific rhododendron, toyon, western azalea, and even redwood. Recently described as Phytophthora ramorum, this water mold has a life cycle similar to the species that infects Port Orford–cedar, but the details are not well-known. The spore sacs are borne on branches and are deciduous, a characteristic seen in late blight of potato (caused by another Phytophthora species), which led to the famine of the mid-1800s in Ireland. This finding suggests that the sporangia may be dispersed by wind as well as by soil, mud, or infected organic material. The first visible signs of disease on oaks appear as oozing sores and cankers on the trunk. As the disease advances, western oak bark beetles, ambrosia beetles, and the fungus Hypoxylon thouarsianu attack just before the tree dies. Symptoms on other plant species are very different, including leaf lesions and discoloring. Several questions remain unanswered. Could this water mold have arrived on nursery plants from Europe? What are the details of its life cycle? How are the trees infected? How many species are involved? What will it do to the ecology of California forests? What is the economic impact, including effects on tourism? On the positive side, not all trees in infected areas die from sudden oak death, but it is expected that the forests will change in important ways.

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Extinctions, population declines, and the impact of nonnative species vary greatly within and among animal groups. Our early concern that northwest California would quickly lose many of its plant and animal species has not happened, but declines are dramatic in some groups. Only three plant species are extinct. The grizzly bear and tule elk no longer roam northwest California, and bat numbers are down. Frogs are faring less well than are salamanders and reptiles. Of all the animal groups, fish are down, especially the once-abundant anadromous salmon groups and lampreys, but the future of northwest California need not be bleak.

Northwest California’s Biological Future

A great biological treasure trove still exists in northwest California, even after nearly two centuries of mining, logging, grazing, changes in fire regimes, and dam building. Many aspects are not greatly different from those at the time of Jedediah Smith. Nearly all of the plant and animal species remain, as do the original patterns. Those that have been degraded can be restored. We can save not only fragments of natural tapestries but make them complete again. SAVING WILDLANDS

By “saving wildlands,” I mean that we can set aside areas where our cultural actions are insignificant and fleeting. Setting aside wildlands is as aggressive a form of management as is logging, attempting type conversions, fighting fires, and constructing dams. Decisions about how we make use of the land influences its state for years to come. Today we view natural systems as subject to ever-shifting forces and influences. In ecological jargon, landscapes vary spatially and temporally. Populations need space to respond to climatic and other environmental changes. The degree to which pre-European landscapes were shaped by Native Americans is highly debated by anthropologists and ecologists. Some argue that all North American landscapes were culturally created and that unmodified wilderness is nowhere to be found. I have emphasized that the landscapes seen by Jedediah Smith were the result of both cultural and natural actions. These views are reviewed by Thomas Vale in his Fire, Native Peoples, and the Natural Landscape. In Yosemite National Park, for example, Vale found that “village sites were substantially humanized by the everyday live of 187

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Indians. . . ; the middle and higher elevation, by contrast, were changed only superficially by native peoples.” The culturally created landscapes were in the vicinity of Hetch Hetchy Valley, Yosemite Valley, and Wawona. Here the Miwok burned meadows and nearby slopes and tended oak groves and other plants. Native American influence varied greatly throughout northwest California. Sites near villages, prairies, groves of tanoak, patches of bear-grass, and similar areas were culturally maintained, but much of the landscape pattern was more a result of environmental influences, including lightning and pathogens. If this is the history of our landscape, then under today’s conditions, it requires little tending, especially where it has not been significantly modified by road building, logging, fire suppression, and other activities during the last century. Maintaining extensive wildlands requires little work, and it is the best way to conserve northwest California’s biological diversity. RESTORING WILDLANDS

Restoration has emerged recently as a new branch of ecological study. In some cases, returning an area to its original condition requires only a little gardening. Apple and cherry plants easily establish among native plants at low elevations along the Trinity. One quick pull to an apple seedling returns the area to its original mix of natives. Bulldozers may be appropriate in beginning to restore some degraded coastal dunes. In the late 1980s, ecologists in the Midwest were looking for ways to restore/re-create patches of grassland with structure and species composition similar to the original prairies that had been plowed for farmland. They demanded that restoration be more than just gardening; it required an understanding of the prairie’s ecology. Some people see restoration as a series of engineering projects. Successful examples, such as Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, are part ecology and part technology. Reestablishing areas where native plants and animals flourish enhances the biological value of northwest California. Consider the lovely oak woodlands and prairies in the Bald Hills section of Redwood National Park, the restored coastal dunes at Humboldt Bay, the increased Aleutian Canada goose populations, and the ongoing work to create a Trinity River with a thriving fishery. We need to continue and encourage this kind of conservation. THERE IS MUCH TO SAVE

The landscapes of the Klamath Mountains are not highly fragmented relative to other parts of California. Maps created by current satellite and geographic information systems (GIS), such as the CERES Information System developed by the California Resources Agency, show large roadless areas.

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This technology allows us to garner a great deal of additional information. For example, I used CERES to describe northwest California’s watersheds in earlier chapters. Using GIS, Reed Noss and others proposed “A Conservation Plan for the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion” in 1999. The Conservation Biology Institute compared forest conditions in northwest California and southwest Oregon in 1972 with those of 1992. The researchers determined the location of lands without roads, vegetation and habitat types in the region, and how well the types were connected. They were especially interested in the occurrence of rare organisms, the presence of serpentine geology, and areas with large stands of Port Orford–cedar lacking root rot disease. Their approach helped to create an important conservation plan for northwest California. Forested land declined by 6 percent during this two-decade period on federal lands and 8 percent on private lands with road building and logging. Forests at middle and high elevations in the Klamath Mountains were disturbed more than those at low elevations. Continuous forest patches were reduced in extent and were more isolated than in 1972, but numerous large tracts of roadless forest land remained in 1992. Unfortunately, these figures blur the very different histories of the Klamath Mountains and the North Coast. The 1972–1992 period was a time of aggressive logging on private timberlands in the Redwood Creek, lower Klamath River, and lower Smith River watersheds. Rates of logging were high, and the clear-cuts were huge. Much of the logging on private land elsewhere, especially in the Eel River watershed, happened before 1972. The lands of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management in the Klamath Mountains and interior North Coast experienced losses similar to those on private lands. Unlike the low elevations of the North Coast, relatively little of the forest on federal lands was “entered” in 1972. At this time the Forest Service quickened the rate of road building that had started after World War II, creating small, staggered clear-cuts with forest patches remaining uncut. The fragmented pattern was at a scale finer than that seen on private timberlands of the North Coast. Clear-cuts scattered across the landscape also meant the creation of an extensive road system that had adverse impacts on water quality and other watershed conditions. Roads acted as a source of sediment that entered the streams. They also served as conduits for exotic plants to enter a watershed. Klamath weed and mullein are conspicuous today along the dirt roads, even at high elevations in the true fir zone. Today’s maps of the Klamath, Shasta-Trinity, and Six Rivers forests are most revealing. Highways are along the rivers, and we only see a few old clear-cuts. Only a limited number of Forest Service roads start along the highways and permit access to the more moderate terrain at middle elevations, where a maze of logging roads pass or intersect old clear-cuts.

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Even in major watersheds that are roaded, many subwatersheds still lack roads because most slopes are very steep, rocks are unstable, and forest cover is sparse. In many cases, only one side of a watershed has roads and clear-cuts, so forested patches lacking roads mix with the roaded ones at a larger scale. Many of these logging roads lead to trailheads that provide access to the region’s wilderness areas (Map 17). We have learned from conservation biology that setting aside lands not fragmented by roads is the best way to preserve a region’s biological diversity. Large areas maximize support for more species and their genetic diversity. They favor animals with large ranges that require little modified habitat. Populations of plants and animals will have room to respond to future climatic change. New diseases, exotic plants, and other plagues will have less of an effect on large areas and will require less management. The emphasis can be on other areas. Our wilderness areas, however, tend to occur on the less productive, high-elevation terrain. The 2002 surveys of northwest California by the World Wildlife Fund and Legacy—The Landscape Connection found that a much higher proportion of the region’s subalpine woodlands were included in the wildernesses than were the mid- and low-elevation forests and grasslands. This bias disappears when roadless areas outside the existing wilderness are included, as is proposed in the pending Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act. The combined area is twice that of the existing wilderness areas alone. The expanded lands join the Trinity Alps to the Russians, the Marbles, and the Siskiyous and Red Buttes along the California-Oregon border. Roadless areas link the Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel to the Trinity Alps by lands along South Fork Mountain and the canyon of the Trinity River’s south fork. Chanchelulla and Castle Crags, although isolated, are surrounded by roadless areas. The proposed Pattison Salmon Restoration Area connects the Chanchelulla to the highlands between the main stem of the Trinity River and its south fork to the proposed South Fork Trinity and Salmon restoration areas, and the proposed Chinquapin and Underwood wilderness areas. Roadless areas join Castle Crags with the northern roadless parts of the Trinity Mountains, including the potential Mount Eddy Wilderness Area. An unappreciated roadless expanse occurs upstream from Lake Shasta, including the proposed Girard Ridge Wilderness Study Area and the potential Backbone/Sugarloaf and Devil’s Rock wilderness areas. Major portions of the Klamath Mountains function today as roadless landscapes, regardless of their designation. Low-elevation vegetation types, not present in the wilderness areas, are well represented in the roadless areas, as are serpentine habitats and old-growth forests, used by northern spotted owls, salamander species, and other organisms that need sheltered conditions. The combined area includes almost 90 percent of the remain-

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Map 17. Roadless areas in the Klamath Mountains. Adapted from Strittholt and DellaSala (2001).

ing range of Port Orford–cedar. Keeping these areas free of roads is the best way to protect this conifer. A recent fire study of Klamath National Forest indicates that natural processes are mainly intact. Conservation Biology Institute researchers asked whether areas with roads and plantations showed different fire patterns than did roadless areas in the spate of fires that occurred in 1987 in the middle Klamath River watershed. They found that fire patterns were similar in both roaded and roadless areas. Most lands were little effected (about 60 percent burned at low severity), and only about 10 percent experienced stand replacement fires. This pattern is similar to that of the major fires at the beginning of the 20th century. In addition, the researchers

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determined that areas that have not burned for 90 years supported more low-severity fires than those burned in the 1966 and 1977 fires. Fuel buildup did not cause more severe fires. Landscapes with roads, brush fields, and young plantations burned more severely than did the original forests. The Klamath Mountains are exceptional in the nation in having a significant part of their land without roads and forests lacking an unnatural buildup of fuels. The Klamath Mountains, one of the largest intact forest habitats in the nation, offer an excellent place for federal agencies, especially the Forest Service, to carry out the overall conservation strategy proposed by the World Wildlife Fund and other groups that would protect the area’s rich biological diversity. The plan would require much less effort than restoration activities. Natural forest growth and disturbance regimes could continue over extensive parts of the region with little active management. Pressures of population growth and the potential for conversion of the land to urban use are low, since most of the land is federally owned. The Forest Service can use the latest forest practices to continue supplying timber, wildlife, and many other commodities, while maintaining healthy ecosystems and biological integrity. The North Coast offers a different set of conservation challenges. While the federal lands have a history similar to those in the Klamath Mountains, much of the property at lower elevations is privately owned, and less of the original forest exists on the North Coast. It is still possible to create large, continuous tracts of wildland with the cooperation of federal agencies and private organizations. In other cases, landscapes need careful management for their restoration. The creation of Redwood National Park in the 1960s and 1970s and the Headwaters Forest in the 1990s received a great deal of attention. Both battles involved industrial timberlands that were the last significant tracts of uncut redwood forest on the North Coast. Now emphasis has shifted. The Save-the-Redwoods League continues its efforts by stressing restoration, a call heard when considering the region’s coastal dunes, prairies, salt marshes, and other wetlands. These habitats were never extensive, and they exist today near the developing urban centers around Humboldt Bay and Crescent City. They are home to a set of plants and animals very different from those living in the area’s grand forests. They have been strongly impacted and will continue to require active management. Forests on federal lands exist in the more mountainous parts of the North Coast, but they are more fragmented than in the Klamath Mountains. Mendocino and Six River national forests still have significant roadless areas. In addition, large blocks of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management exist. There is still an opportunity to commit significant

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holdings to management activities that promote natural populations and processes on the North Coast. Important roadless sections and proposed wilderness additions exist just outside the area’s three wildernesses. Big Butte lies adjacent to the Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel Wilderness. Lands next to the Snow Mountain Wilderness connect its mountaintop forests to low-elevation chaparral. Significant areas on the east side of the North Coast Ranges occur in the Elder, Thomes, and Beegum Creek watersheds and in the potential Beegum and Nomlaki wilderness areas. The small North Fork Wilderness is notable as the only low-elevation wilderness in the massive Eel River watershed. Roadless lands surround it. In the upper Eel River, the proposed Sanhedrin and Yuki wilderness areas are larger and involve private, Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management lands. These proposals are significant because they include oak woodlands and chaparral not often existing in wilderness areas. The proposed Elkhorn Ridge and South Fork Eel wilderness areas include Bureau of Land Management lands on the South Fork. Most of the Mattole River watershed contains nonindustrial timberlands and ranch lands. The Bureau of Land Management has important holdings in King Range Recreation Area and in the Gilham Butte region, which lie between the King Range and Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The proposed King Range Wilderness Area includes the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in the conterminous United States. The Save-theRedwoods League’s “corridor from the redwoods to the sea project” is working to unite and restore the lands between Humboldt Redwoods State Park and the coastline. Another multiagency project with the League, completed in 2002, connects Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park with Redwood National Park through the purchase of the Mill and Rock Creek watersheds. Such projects create the large areas necessary to allow natural processes to work. Active management on federal land should be directed to local problems. We know that fire regimes and forest conditions along the rivers and on low-elevation slopes have changed in the last century in the Klamath Mountains. Here the historical fire regime was one of frequent surface fires, but many of the oak woodlands are near highways and settlements and have not been burned recently. Today they support young or maturing Douglas-fir trees, many overtopping and shading out the oaks. Many people worry that the invasion of woodlands by Douglas-fir will lead to a significant reduction in habitats for plants and animals that require or use these open, sunny expanses in a region of mainly dense forests. The situation here is somewhat different from that in the Bald Hills, where woodlands are associated with extensive prairies.

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Casey Stewman and I wondered why some oak woodlands had abundant Douglas-fir trees and others had few or none. We recognized three levels of invasion, which we called uninvaded, moderately invaded, and heavily invaded. Uninvaded stands had a few Douglas-fir trees and occurred on steep, south-facing slopes with clay-rich soils. They are areas with high runoff during heavy rains. The moderately invaded stands occupy the more modest slopes with deep, fertile, well-drained, even rocky soils. Here water can readily infiltrate the soil. We found the level of the invasion correlated with tree age. In heavily invaded stands, Douglas-fir trees averaged 85 years old, twice that of the moderately invaded stands. In the moderately invaded stands, Douglas-fir grew below a canopy of oaks, unlike the older stands, where Douglas-fir overtopped the oaks. Our findings suggest an orderly way to reintroduce localized fires and to enhance habitat for many organisms. Uninvaded stands would need little or no attention; the heavily invaded stands would require a great deal of work to remove the large Douglas-fir. It would be easy to manage the moderately invaded stands: the small Douglas-fir under the oaks could be easily cut and burned. In this way, a little energy and modest amount of money could go a long way in restoring the region’s oak woodlands. This is also true for low-elevation lands of the North Coast. North Fork Wilderness, its adjacent lands, and those of the proposed Yuki wilderness are areas where controlled burns could enhance oak woodland habitat. Some ecologists feel that no matter how large the wildlands, they are not immune from human influences; they need to be actively managed no matter what their size. But is the human imprint really that great in northwest California? It seems not. For example, some people worry that the impact of climatic change on subalpine pines will cause these trees’ demise. Other conifers will invade and shade out the pines as firs move up in elevation. The pines do not respond directly to elevation but to changing climates at local scales. I suggest they may become more restricted to low-quality sites and not be “chased off the mountaintops” if wildlands are sufficiently large. The subalpine belt involves some of the least impacted wildlands in northwest California. Active management is less needed here than in maintaining oak woodlands at low elevations. FINAL COMMENTS

We are lucky: Much of northwest California has been little modified, and saving its biological heritage can be achieved with relatively little effort. Realizing the aspirations of the California Wilderness Coalition, Legacy– The Landscape Connection, Save-the-Redwood League, and World Wildlife Fund can be achieved by continuing to work with state and federal agency personnel. Saving the heritage of oak woodlands, coastal dunes, salt

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marshes, and other localized habitats starts with restoration and is followed by active monitoring and continued care. Another important approach to preserving our wildlands is to get out the word about their biological richness. Many think that publicity attracts people and results in degradation, but the lack of publicity can lead to the same results. The lands around Mount Eddy are famous among botanists for their special plants; many other people love the lakes and peaks. Consequently, summer use of the area is heavy, but the impacts of trails and hikers are much less than if roads existed and cars could park beside Deadfall Lakes. As the wildlands of northwest California become better known, more people will value them and will want them protected for future generations. A wild Mount Eddy is the best bet for keeping the area’s biological heritage intact. Natural history books are always overflowing with facts. They introduce you to the richness and detail of the area. I hope that my presentation has brought some order and, in doing so, has made the facts more accessible. However, the real natural history of northwest California is in the field. Bring this book along on a visit, and get to know the region firsthand. I am confident that you will be as hooked as I was 40 years ago and that you will come back many times.

selected readings

PROLOGUE

Smith’s Travels Dillon, R. H. 1975. Siskiyou Trail: The Hudson’s Bay Company Route to California. New York: McGraw-Hill. A history of the Hudson’s Bay Company in northern California. Lewis, Oscar, ed. 1943. The Quest for Qual-a-wa-loo [Humboldt Bay]: A Collection of Diaries and Historical Notes Pertaining to the Early Discoveries of the Area Now Known as Humboldt County, California. Edited and published from manuscripts furnished by Clarence E. Pearsall, George D. Murray, A. C. Tibbetts, and Harry L. Neall. San Francisco: N.p. Includes an excellent chapter on the expedition’s trip through northwest California. Smith, A. J. 1965. Men against the Mountains: Jedediah Smith and the South West Expedition of 1826–1829. New York: Day. A useful account of the expedition through northwest California.

Mentioned Literature Bailey, R. G. 1996. Ecosystem Geography. New York: Springer. Hunt, C. B. 1967. Physiography of the United States. New York: Freeman. Merriam, C. H. 1989. Life Zones and Crop Zones of the United States. Biological Survey Bulletin 10. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture.

Regional Guides The following books offer a popular account of the region’s natural and human history along with tours in different parts of northwest California. Bennion, L., and J. Rohde. 2000. Traveling the Trinity Highway. McKinleyville, CA: MountainHome Books. Emphasizes the history of the last 150 years. Rohde, J., and G. Rohde. 1992. Humboldt Redwoods State Park: The Complete Guide. Eureka, CA: Miles & Miles. Stresses the history of the Eel River area, including descriptions of hiking trails and auto tours. 197

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———. 1994. Redwood National and State Parks: Tales, Trails, and Auto Tours. McKinleyville, CA: MountainHome Books. Highlights the history of the Klamath and Smith river areas, including descriptions of hiking trails and auto tours. Weisbrod, M. W. 2002. Scenic Byways of Northwestern California, from the Siskiyous to the Cascades. Happy Camp, CA: Naturegraph. Traveling, in this case, includes the roads of the middle Klamath River as well as the Trinity River.

THE KLAMATH: LAND OF MOUNTAINS AND CANYONS THE NORTH COAST: LAND OF TOWERING TREES

Northwest California’s Geology Popular Books Alt, D., and D. W. Hyndman. 2000. Roadside Geology of Northern and Central California. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press. Describes the changing geology along I 5, SR 299, US 199, and US 101 from San Francisco to Eureka. McPhee, J. A. 1993. Assembling California. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. An easily understood book to plate tectonics.

General Geology Texts Ehlers, L. 1996. Quaternary and Glacial Geology. New York: Wiley. Plummer, C. C., D. McGeary, and D. H. Carlson. 1999. Physical Geology. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Sharp, R. P. 1988. Living Ice: Understanding Glaciers and Glaciation. New York: Cambridge University Press. Skinner, B. J., and S. C. Porter. The Dynamic Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology. 4th ed. New York: Wiley.

Texts on California’s Geology Harden, D. R. 1997. California Geology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Norris, R. M., and R. W. Webb. 1990. Geology of California. 2d ed. New York: Wiley.

THE VEGETATION OF NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA

General Books Barbour, M. G., and W. D. Billings. 2000. North American Terrestrial Vegetation. 2d ed. New York: Cambridge University Press. Barbour, M., B. Pavlik, F. Drysdale, and S. Linstrom. 1994. California’s Changing Landscapes: Diversity and Conservation of California Vegetation. Sacramento: California Native Plant Society. Holland, V. L., and D. J. Keil. 1995. California Vegetation. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt. Johnston, V. R. 1994. California Forests and Woodlands: A Natural History. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ornduff, R., P. M. Faber, and T. Keeler-Wolf. 2003. Introduction to California Plant Life. Rev. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.

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Sawyer, J. O., and T. Keeler-Wolf. 1995. A Manual of California Vegetation. Sacramento: California Native Plant Society.

Redwood Ecology Ellyson, W. J. T., and S. C. Sillett. 2003. “Epiphytic Communities on Sitka Spruce in an Old-growth Redwood Forest.” The Bryologist 106:197–211. Tree crowns are mossy. Evarts, J., and M. Popper, ed. 2001. Coast Redwood: A Natural and Cultural History. Olivos, CA: Cachuma. Noss, R. F. 2000. The Redwood Forest: History, Ecology, and Conservation of the Coast Redwoods. Covelo, CA: Island.

Ecology on Serpentine and Sandy Substrates Anderson, R. C., J. S. Fralish, and J. M. Baskin. 1999. Savannas, Barrens, and Rock Outcrop Plant Communities of North America. New York: Cambridge University Press. Includes a chapter on serpentine barrens. Kruckerberg, A. R. 2002. Geology and Plant Life: The Effects of Land and Rocks on Plants. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Includes limestone and serpentine ecology. Pickart, A. J., and J. O. Sawyer. 1998. Ecology and Restoration of Northern California Coastal Dunes. Sacramento: California Native Plant Society. Dune ecology. Whittaker, R. H. 1954. “The Ecology of Serpentine.” Ecology 35:258–88. ———. 1960. “Vegetation of the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon and California.” Ecological Monographs 30:279–338. Includes serpentine ecology.

BEYOND THE ANCIENT MEETING GROUND

Literature Mentioned in the Section on the Vegetation Basgall, M. E., and W. R. Hildebrant. 1989. Prehistory of the Sacramento River Canyon, Shasta County, California. Publication Number 9. Davis, CA: Center for Archaeological Research at Davis. Describes the packrat midden record from the Potter Creek Cave locality. Daniels, M. L. 2001. “Fire and Vegetation History since the Late Pleistocene from the Trinity Mountains of California.” Master’s thesis, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. Describes the fossil pollen record from the Cedar Lake locality. Graham, A. 1999. Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic History of Northern American Vegetation. New York: Oxford University Press. An excellent introduction to contemporary paleobotanical thinking. Hildebrandt, W. R., and J. F. Hayes. 1993. Settlement Pattern Change in the Mountains of Northwest California: A View from Pilot Ridge, California. Publication Number 11. Davis, CA: Center for Archaeological Research at Davis. Describes fossil records at Pilot Ridge localities. MacGinitie, H. D. 1937. “The Flora of the Weaverville Beds of Trinity County, California, with Descriptions of the Plant-bearing Beds.” Carnegie Institution of Washington Publications 465, no. 3:131. Describes the Weaverville fossil localities.

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Millar, C. I. 1996. “Tertiary Vegetation History.” In Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Final Report to Congress. Vol. 2, Assessments and Scientific Basis of Management Options. Davis: Center of Water and Wildland Resources, University of California. Describes fossil records at the Bunker Lake, Kern River, Kings Canyon, Tahoe Basin, Tulelake Basin, Upper Cederville, and Yosemite National Park localities. Mohr, J. A., C. Whitlock, and C. N. Skinner. 2000. “Postglacial Vegetation and Fire History, Eastern Klamath Mountains, California.” The Holocene 10:587–601. Describes fossil pollen records for Bluff Lake, Crater Lake, and Mumbo Lake localities. Noss, R. F. 2000. The Redwood Forest: History, Ecology, and Conservation of the Coast Redwoods. Covelo, CA: Island. Chapter 2 describes the Santa Rosa fossil locality and Pleistocene records. Sawyer, J. O. 2004. “Conifers in the Klamath Mountains.” Pages 119–27 in Proceedings of the Second Conference on Klamath-Siskiyou Ecology, ed. K. L. Mergenthaler, J. E. Williams, and E. S. Jules. Cave Junction, OR: Siskiyou Field Institute. West, G. J. 1993. The Last Pleistocene-Holocene Pollen Record and Prehistory of California’s North Coast Ranges. Publication Number 11. Davis, CA: Center for Archaeological Research at Davis. Describes fossil records for the Upper Eel River drainage. Wilken, D. H. 1993. “California’s Changing Climates and Flora.” Pages 59–88 in The Jepson Manual, ed. J. C. Hickman. Berkeley: University of California Press. Winket, J. 2002. “Late Quaternary Vegetation and Climate of the Klamath Mountains.” Ph.D. diss., University of California at Berkeley. The results at Twin Lake study in the Siskiyou Mountains are available at http://www.csus.edu/indiv/w/ wanketj/Research/research.html.

Literature Mentioned in the Section on the Flora Cope, E. A. 1983. “Chemosystematic Affinities of a California Population of Abies lasiocarpa.” Madroño 30:110–15. A report on the monoterpene study. Echert, A. J., and J. O. Sawyer. 2002. “Foxtail Pine Importance and Conifer Diversity in the Klamath Mountains and Southern Sierra Nevada.” Madroño 49:33–45. Graham, A. 1972. Floristics and Paleofloristics on Asia and Eastern North America. Symposia at XI International Botanical Congress and the Japan–United States Cooperative Science Program 1969. New York: Elsevier. Introduces Asa Gray’s papers to today’s readers. Noss, R. F. 2000. The Redwood Forest: History, Ecology, and Conservation of the Coast Redwoods. Covelo, CA: Island. Chapter 2 reviews the geological history of redwood. Raven, P. H., and D. L. Axelrod. 1978. “Oregon and Relationships of the California Flora.” University of California Publications in Botany 71:1–134. Smith, J. P., and J. O. Sawyer. 1988. “Endemic Vascular Plants of Northwestern California and Southwestern Oregon.” Madroño 35:54–69. Emphasizes the high number of neoendemic plants in the Klamath Mountains. ———. 2006. A Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Northwestern California. 21st ed. Miscellaneous Publication No. 2. Arcata, CA: Humboldt State University Herbarium. The list is available at the Humboldt State Herbarium Web site. Stebbins, G. L., and J. Major. 1965. “Endemism in the California Flora.” Ecological Monographs 35:1–35. The classic statement on the topic.

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Stuckey, R. L. 1978. Essays on North American Plant Geography from the Nineteenth Century. New York: Arno. A reprint of nine essays from 1840 to 1879 on temperate forest geography by Asa Gray. Ticketts, T. H., E. Dinerstein, D. M. Oldon, C. J. Loucks, and others. 1999. Terrestrial Ecoregions of North America: A Conservation Assessment. Washington, DC: Island. A report on the region’s high biodiversity. Wallace, D. W. 1983. The Klamath Knot, Explorations of Myth and Evolution. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. A 20-year anniversary edition published in 2003 by California University Press. Whittaker, R. H. 1961. “Vegetation of the Pacific Coast States and the Central Significance of the Klamath Region.” Madroño 16:5–23. Wolfe, J. A. 1969. “Neogene Floristic and Vegetation History of the Pacific Northwest.” Madroño 20:83–110. The list of Neogene taxa is extensive.

FIRE REGIMES IN NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA

Fire Ecology Texts Agee, J. K. 1993. Fire Ecology of Pacific Northwest Forests. Covelo, CA: Island. Arno, S. F., and S. Allison-Bunnell. 2002. Flames in Our Forest. Covelo, CA: Island. Barrows, C. J. 1990. Process of Vegetation Change. Boston: Unwin Hyman. Biswell, H. H. 1989. Prescribed Burning in California Wildlands Vegetation Management. Berkeley: University of California Press. Whelan, R. J. 1995. The Ecology of Fire. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Native Peoples Anderson, K. K. 2005. Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources. Berkeley: University of California Press. An excellent review of land use by native Californians. Anderson, M. K. 1990. “Californian Indian Horticulture.” Fremontia 18:7–14. Arnold, M. E., and M. Reed. 1957. In the Land of the Grasshopper Song: Two Women in the Klamath River Country in 1908–09. Lincoln: University of Nebraska. The authors worked with the Karuk. Barbour, M., B. Pavlik, F. Drysdale, and S. Linstrom. 1994. California’s Changing Landscapes, Diversity and Conservation of California Vegetation. Sacramento California Native Plant Society. Chapter 7 discusses land use by the native Californians. Baumhoff, M. A. 1958. “California Athabascan Groups.” Anthropological Records 16:5. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bell, M. 1991. Karuk: the Upriver People. Happy Camp, CA: Naturegraph. Fagan, B. M. 2003. Before California, an Archaeologist Looks at our Earliest Inhabitants. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Excellent review of changing land use by native Californians. Heizer. R. F., ed. 1978. California: Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 8. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. An authoritarian survey of aboriginal peoples of California.

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Heizer. R. G., and A. F. Almquist. 1971. The Other Californians: Prejudice and Discrimination under Spain, Mexico, and the United States to 1920. Berkeley: University of California Press. Helps to alter your view of conditions in the 1800s. Heizer R. F., and A. B. Elasasser. 1980. The Natural World of the California Indians. Berkeley: University of California Press. Knudtson, P. M. 1977. The Wintun Indians of California and Their Neighbors. Happy Camp, CA: Naturegraph. Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of America Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution Bulletin 78. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Reprint: New York: Dover, 1976. Nelson, B. 1978. Our Home Forever: A Hupa Tribal History. Hoopa, CA: Hoopa Valley Tribal Council. Norton, J. 1979. Genocide in Northwestern California: When Our Worlds Cried. San Francisco: Indian Historian Press. Further alters your view of conditions in the 1800s. Powers, S. 1877. Tribes of California: Contributions to North American Ethnology. Vol. 3. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Reprint: Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. Raphael, R. 1974. An Everyday History of Somewhere. New York: Knopf. “Somewhere” is southern Humboldt County, land of the Sinkyone people. Steen, H. K. 1976. The U.S. Forest Service: A History. Seattle: University of Washington Press. His contemporary comment is quoted here. Thompson, L. 1991. To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books. The author lived in both worlds.

How Forests Work Hunter, M. L., ed. 1999. Maintaining Biodiversity in Forest Ecosystems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kimmins, J. P. 1996. Forest Ecology. 2d ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Lindenmayer, D. B., and J. F. Franklin. 2002. Conserving Forest Biodiversity: A Comprehensive Multiscaled Approach. Covelo, CA: Island. Oliver, C. D., and B. C. Larson. 1996. Forest Stand Dynamics. New York: Wiley.

Past Fire Regimes in Northwestern California A General View Agee, J. K. 1993. Fire Ecology of Pacific Northwest Forests. Covelo, CA: Island. Reviews fire regimes by forest type. Bicknell, S. H., C. A. Hansen, and E. M. Mackey 1988. “Patrick’s Point State Park Presettlement Vegetation Mapping and Soils Classification.” Unpublished report prepared for the Department of Parks and Recreation. Sacramento, CA. Available at Humboldt State University Library. Bonnicksen, T. M. 2000. American’s Ancient Forests: From the Ice Age to the Age of Discovery. New York: Wiley. Pyre, S. J. 1982. Fire in America: a Cultural History of Wildland Fire and Rural Fire. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Vale, T. R. 2002. Fire, Native Peoples, and the Natural Landscape. Covelo, CA: Island.

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A Local View Frost, E. J., and R. Sweeney. 2000. “Fire Regimes, Fire History and Forest Conditions in the Klamath-Siskiyou Region: An Overview and Synthesis of Knowledge.” Unpublished report prepared for the World Wildlife Fund, Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion Program, Ashland, OR. Available at Humboldt State University Library. Reviews fire regimes by forest type. Lalande, J. 1991. The Indians of Southwest Oregon: An Enthnohistorical History. Anthropology Northwest No. 6. Corvallis: Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University. Lewis, H. T. 1993. “Patterns of Indian Burning in California: Ecology and Ethnohistory.” Pages 56–116 in Before the Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians, ed. T. C. Blackburn and K. Anderson. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena. Marryat, F. 1855. Mountains and Molehills, or Recollections of a Burnt Journal. London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans. Reprint: Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1982. Noss, R. F. 2000. The Redwood Forest: History, Ecology, and Conservation of the Coast Redwoods. Covelo, CA: Island. Chapter 3 includes Roland Raymond’s comments on Yurok burning practices. Odion, D. C., J. R. Strittholt, H. Jiang, E. J. Frost, D. A. DellaSala, and M. A. Moritz. 2004. “Patterns of Fire Severity and Forest Conditions in the Western Klamath Mountains, California.” Conservation Biology 18:927–36. Results of World Wildlife Fund study are reported here.

AGENTS OF CHANGE

Coastal Histories after 1828 Coy, O. C. 1929. The Humboldt Bay Region 1850–1875. Los Angeles: California State Historical Association. Reprint: Eureka, CA: Humboldt County Historical Society, 1982. Chronicles settlement times, the oil boom, early agriculture and lumber practices, and the coming of roads and railroads. Gates, J. H. 1983. Falk’s Claim: The Life and Death of a Redwood Lumber Town. Seattle: Moonstone. The town of Falk is now in the Headwaters Reserve. Lewis, O., ed. 1943. The Quest for Qual-a-wa-loo [Humboldt Bay]: A Collection of Diaries and Historical Notes Pertaining to the Early Discoveries of the Area Now Known as Humboldt County, California. Edited and published from manuscripts furnished by Clarence E. Pearsall, George D. Murray, A. C. Tibbetts, and Harry L. Neall. San Francisco: N.p. Introduces 16 explorers, including Jedediah Smith. Noss, R. F. 2000. The Redwood Forest: History, Ecology, and Conservation of the Coast Redwoods. Covelo, CA: Island. Dale Thornburgh surveys varying logging practices in Chapter 4. Underwood, S., L. Arguello, and N. Siefkin. 2003. “Restoring Ethnographic Landscapes and Natural Elements in Redwood National Park.” Ecological Restoration 21, no. 4:278–83.

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Interior Histories after 1828 Daggett, S. 1966. Chapters in the History of the Southern Pacific. New York: Kelley. Reprint of a 1922 book published by Ronald Press, New York. Unlike most histories of the Southern Pacific, which tell of building the railroad over the Sierra Nevada, this book also discusses the Shasta Line. French, H. 1915. “Siskiyou County, California: The Board of Supervisors and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition Commission of Siskiyou County, California.” A copy of this pamphlet is available at Humboldt State University Library. Jones, A. G. 1981. Trinity County Historic Sites. Weaverville, CA: Trinity County Historical Society. Catalogs 471 historic sites with lively descriptions and many (272) photographs. ———. 2000. From the Known to the Unknown: Memoirs of Baroness De La Grange. Weaverville, CA: Trinity County Historical Society. State Route 299 traverses the land that was the La Grange Mine. Lawson, J. D. 1986. Redding and Shasta County: Gateway to the Cascades. Northridge, CA: Windsor. This history centers on the eastern Klamath Mountains. Palmer, H. K., ed. 1992. The Origins of the National Forest: A Centennial Symposium. Durham, NC: Forest History. Discusses mining practices as they apply to northwest California.

History of the Conservation Movement Bennion, L., and J. Rohde. 2000. Traveling the Trinity Highway. McKinleyville, CA: MountainHome. Describes the building of SR 299. Boerker, R. H. 1918. Our National Forests: A Short Popular Account of the Work of the United States Forest Service on the National Forests. New York: Macmillan. An interesting early 20th-century account. Burcham, L. T. 1957. California Range Land: An Historico-ecological Study of the Range Resource of California. Sacramento, CA: Division of Forestry, Department of National Resources. Burtt-Davy, J. 1902. Stock Ranges of Northwestern California: Notes on Grasses and Forage Plants and Range Conditions. Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin 12. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture. Dana, S. T., and S. K. Fairfax. 1980. Forest and Range Policy: Its Development in the United States. New York: McGraw-Hill. Surveys changing federal land policies. Debach P., and D. Rosen. 1991. Biological Control by Natural Enemies. New York: Cambridge University Press. A good introduction to Klamath weed control. Egbeck, J. H. 1980. State Parks of California from 1864 to the Present. Portland, OR: Graphic Arts Center. A history of California’s state parks. Frome, M. 1962. Whose Woods These Are: The Story of the National Forests. New York: Doubleday. One of several books by Michael Frome on the history of the Forest Service. Gates, J. H. 1983. Falk’s Claim: The Life and Death of a Redwood Lumber Town. Seattle: Moonstone. Now part of the Headwaters Preserve.

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Hirt, P. W. 1994. A Conspiracy of Optimism: Management of the National Forests since World War Two. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. The first two chapters nicely survey the years before World War II. Huffaker, C. B., and C. E. Kennett. 1959. “A Ten-year Study of Vegetation Change Associated with Biological Control of Klamath Weed.” Journal of Range Management 12:69–82. Describes work done at Blocksburg in the Eel River watershed. Hunter, M. L. 1999. Maintaining Biodiversity in Forest Ecosystems. New York: Cambridge University Press. Reviews current and past forest logging practices. Ise, J. 1961. Our National Park Policy: A Critical History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. An account of the agency’s changing policies over the years. Keter, T. S. 1995. Ecological History and Cultural Ecology of the North Fork of the Eel River Basin, California. Pacific Southwest Region Report R5-EM-TP-002. San Francisco: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. A very detailed account. Lawson, J. D. 1986. Redding and Shasta County: Gateway to the Cascades. Northridge, CA: Windsor. Describes early logging practices in the eastern Klamath Mountains. Marsh, G. P. 1864. Man and Nature, or The Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. The book is still current more than 140 years after publication. Nash, R. 1967. Wilderness and the American Mind. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. A history of the conservation movement. Raphael, R. 1974. An Everyday History of Somewhere. New York: Knopf. Discusses tanoak harvest for tannin. Reiger, J. F. 1975. American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation. New York: Winchester. Let’s not forget the role of sportsmen in the conservation movement. Robbins, R. M. 1976. Our Landed Heritage: The Public Domain1776–1976. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Chronicles the nation divesting itself of its public domain. Ruggierro, L. F., K. B. Audry, A. B. Cary, and M. H. Huff, technical coordinators. 1991. Wildlife and Vegetation of Unmanaged Douglas fir Forests. PNW-GTR-285 Report. Portland, OR: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. Forest descriptions of Angelo Coast Range Reserve are in Part 7.

STATUS OF NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA TODAY

Rare and Nonnative Vascular Plants Bossard, C. C., J. M. Randall, and M. C. Hoshovsky. 2000. Invasive Plants of California’s Wildlands. Berkeley: University of California Press. Descriptions include useful photos of these bad guys. California Native Plant Society, Rare Plant Scientific Advisory Committee. 2001. Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants. D. T. Tibor, convening editor. Sacramento: California Native Plant Society. The inventory is available at http://www .cnps.org/.

206

selected readings

Nakamura, G., and J. Kiersteand. 2001. Illustrated Field Guide to Selected Rare Plants of Northern California. University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Publication 3395. Oakland: University of California. A selection of 149 plants with descriptions, range maps, and habit and habitat photos. Randall, J. M., M. Rejmanek, and J. C. Hunter. 1998. “Characteristics of the Exotic Flora of California.” Fremontia 26:3–12. One of several articles in this special Fremontia issue on weeds. Smith, J. P., and J. O. Sawyer 2006. A Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Northwestern California. 21st ed. Miscellaneous Publication No. 2. Arcata, CA: Humboldt State University Herbarium.

Mammals Burt, W. H., and R. P. Grossenheider. 1998. Mammals. Petersen Field Guides. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Hall, E. R., and K. R. Kelson. 1959. The Mammals of North America. New York: Ronald. Jameson, E. W., and H. J. Peeters. 2004. Mammals of California. Berkeley: University of California Press. Story, T. I., and L. P. Tevis. 1955. California Grizzly. Berkeley: University of California Press. Whitaker, J. O. 1996. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals. New York: Knopf.

Amphibians and Reptiles Behler, J. L. 1979. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. New York: Knopf. Collins, J. P., and A. Storfer. 2003. “Amphibian Declines: Untangling the Complexity.” Diversity and Distributions 9:81–164. A special issue in this online publication of Blackwell Publishers. Reviews the many causes of the population declines. Corkran, C. C., and C. Thomas. 1996. Amphibians of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Edmonton, Canada: Lone Pine. Stebbins, R. C. 1985. Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 2d ed. Petersen Field Guides. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Birds Fix, D., and A. Bazener. 2000. Birds of Northern California. Edmonton, Canada: Lone Pine. Northern California is the area north of the Inyo–Kern–San Luis Obispo county line. Harris, S. W. 1996. Northwestern California Birds: A Guide to the Status, Distribution, and Habitats of Birds in Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity, Northern Mendocino, and Western Siskiyou Counties. 2d ed. Arcata, CA: Humboldt State University Press. A guide to coastal areas. Kemper, J. 1999. Birding in Northern California. Helena, MT: Falcon. A guide to the best birding areas. Petersen, R. T. 1990. A Field Guide to Western Birds. 3d ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

selected readings

207

Sibley, D. A. 2000. National Audubon Society the Sibley Guide to Birds. New York: Knopf. Stokes, D. W., and L. Q. Stokes. 1996. Field Guide to Birds Western Region. New York: Little, Brown.

Fish Claudi, R., and J. H. Leach. 2000. Non-Indigenous Freshwater Organisms. Boca Raton, FL: Lewis. Fritzsche, R. A., and J. W. Cavanagh. 1995. A Guide to the Fishes of Humboldt Bay. Arcata, CA: Humboldt State University Press. Moyle, P. B. 2002. Inland Fishes of California. Berkeley: University of California Press. Do not miss the beautiful fish paintings. Simon, T. 1994. The River Stops Here: Saving Round Valley, a Pivotal Chapter in California’s Water Wars. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Forest Pathogens Powell, J. A. 2002. “Lipidopteran Caterpillars Feeding on California Native Plants.” Fremontia 30:5–14. Schowalter, T. D., and G. M. Filip, eds. 1993. Beetle-Pathogen Interactions in Conifer Forests. New York: Academic Press. Sharpf, R. F. 1993. Diseases of Pacific Coast Conifers. 1993. Agriculture Handbook 521. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Sunkiewicz, C. A., and E. S. Jules. 2003. “Port Orford–Cedar and the Nonnative Pathogen, Phytophthora lateralis.” Fremontia 31: 14–20. Swain, S. 2002. “Deconstructing Sudden Oak Death.” Fremontia 30:3–11. Wood, D. L., T. W. Koerber, R. F. Scharpf, and A. J. Storer. 2003. Pests of the Native California Conifers. Berkeley: University of California Press. Wood, D. L., and A. J. Storer. 2002. “Bark Beetles Infesting California Conifers.” Fremontia 30:19–25.

NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA’S BIOLOGICAL FUTURE

Mentioned Literature Botkin, D. B. 1990. Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-first Century. New York: Oxford University Press. Nature is in flux, not in equilibrium. Frost, E. J., and R. Sweeney. 2000. “Fire Regimes, Fire History and Forest Conditions in the Klamath-Siskiyou Region: An Overview and Synthesis of Knowledge.” Unpublished report prepared for the World Wildlife Fund, KlamathSiskiyou Ecoregion Program, Ashland, OR. Jordan, W. R., M. E. Gilpin, and J. D. Aber. 1988. Restoration Ecology: A Synthetic Approach to Ecological Research. New York: Cambridge University Press. An influential text in the emerging area of restoration ecology. Lanphere, H. M. 1990. Bedlam on the Slew. Lawrence, KS: Allen. A history of Lanphere Dunes. Noss, R. F., J. R. Strittholt, K. Vance Borland, C. Carroll, and P. Frost. 1999. “A Conservation Plan for the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion.” Natural Areas Journal 19:392–411.

208

selected readings

Odion, D. C., E. J. Frost, D. DellaSala, J. R. Strittholt, H. Hiang, and M. A. Moritz. 2004. “Fire and Vegetation Dynamics in the Western Klamath Mountains.” Pages 71–80 in Proceedings of the Second Conference on Klamath-Siskiyou Ecology, ed. K. L. Mergenthaler, J. E. Williams, and E. S. Jules. Cave Junction, OR: Siskiyou Field Institute. Pickart, A. J., and J. O. Sawyer. 1998. Ecology and Restoration on Northern California Coastal Dunes. Sacramento: California Native Plant Society. Includes information on the Menzies Wallflower Research Program. Available at the Humboldt State University Library. Rees, T. 1999. Trinity River Flow Evaluation: Final Report. Arcata and Hoopa, CA: US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Hoopa Valley Tribe. A proposal for restoring the Trinity River. Richard, B., and R. B. Primack. 2002. Essentials of Conservation Biology. 3d ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer. Useful conservation biology text. Schrepfer, S. R. 1983. The Fight to Save Redwoods: A History of Environmental Reform, 1917–1978. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. A history through the creation of Redwood National Park. Strittholt, J. R., and D. A. DellaSala. 2002. “Importance of Roadless Areas in Biodiversity Conservation in Forests’ Ecosystems: Case Study of the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion of the United States.” Conservation Biology 15:1742–54. Trudel, C., C. Jacoby, K. Riley-Thron, and P. Tillisch. 1998. Ecological Assessment of Potential Wilderness Areas in the Klamath-Siskiyou Region of North Western California. Arcata, CA: Legacy—The Landscape Connection. Trush, W. J., S. M. McBain, and L. B. Leopold. 2000. “Attributes of an Alluvial River and Their Relation to Water Policy and Management.” PNAS [Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America] 97:11858–63. The Trinity River restoration story. Vale, T. R. 1998. “The Myth of Humanized Landscape: An Example from Yosemite National Park.” Natural Areas Journal 18:231–36. ———. 2002. Fire, Native Peoples, and the Natural Landscape. Covelo, CA: Island. INTERNET SOURCES

Aleutian Goose Festival: http://www.redwoodlink.com/soar/ Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary: http://www.humboldt.edu/~ere_dept/marsh/ California Environmental Resources Evaluation System (CERES): http://ceres.ca .gov/ California Invasive Plant Council: http://www.cal-ipc.org California Native Plant Society: http://www.cnps.org/ California Wilderness Coalition: http://www.calwild.org/campaigns/cwp.php Directory of California Tribes (reported by the Office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer): http://boxer.senate.gov/nah/tribe_listing.cfm Klamath Resource Information System (KRIS): http://www.krisweb.com/index.htm Klamath-Salmon Natural Library: http://www.klamathsalmonlibrary.org/index.html Legacy—The Landscape Connection: http://www.legacytlc.org Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act of 2003: http://www .calwild.org/

selected readings

209

Salmon River Restoration Council: http://www.srrc.org/ Save-the-Redwoods League: http://www.savetheredwoods.org/ Siskiyou Field Institute: http://www.siskiyou.org/sfi/ The Nature Conservancy: http://nature.org/ World Wildlife Fund: http://www.panda.org/

UNPUBLISHED WORKS

I mention many of my graduate students throughout the book to acknowledge their contributions to my understanding of the natural history of northwest California. The theses and dissertations cited here are available in the Humboldt State University Library. Bair, J. H. 2001. “Riparian Woody Plant Initiation, Establishment, and Morality on Rehabilitated Banks of the Trinity River, California.” Baker, L. M. 1978. “A Flora of the Old Gasquet Toll Road, Del Norte, California.” Belsher, J. B. 1999. “Coastal Shrublands of Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, California.” Berg, K. S. 1986. “Population Ecology of Menzies’ Wallflower, Erysimum menziesii (Hook.) Wetts., an Endangered California Mustard.” Bingham, B. B. 1984. “Decaying Logs as a Substrate Conifer Regeneration in an Upland Old-growth Redwood Forest.” Bingham, P. B. 1993. “Structure and Dynamics of Brewer Spruce Enriched Mixed Conifer Forests of the Klamath Mountain Province, Northern California.” Bivin, M. M. 1986. “A Fifth Subspecies of Lodgepole in Northwest California and Southwest Oregon.” Brown, D. R. 1990. “Disturbance and Recovery of Trampled Vegetation at the Lanphere-Christensen Dunes Preserve, Humboldt County, California.” Chambers, J. J. 2003. “Riparian Forest Types of Southern Shasta-Trinity National Forest, California.” Constantine-Shull, H. M. 2000. “Floristic Affinities of the San Joaquin Roadless Area, Inyo National forest, Mono County, California.” Cooper, P. V. 1972. “Soil Moisture Relations of Selected Soils in the Mixed Evergreen Type, Northern California.” Cope, E. A. 1978. “Phytogeographic Implications of Monoterpene Variation in Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.” De Clerck, F. A. 2004. “The Effect of Conifer Richness on Stand Biomass, Stability and Resource Use Efficiency of Upper Montane Conifer Forests in Northern Sierra Nevada.” Ph.D. diss., University of California at Davis. de Rijke, E. A. 2001. “Current Status of the Vegetation in Historic Karuk Cultural Use Sites.” Duebendorfer, T. E. 1987. “Vegetation-Soil Relations on Ultramafic Parent Material, Pine Flat Mountain, Del Norte County, California.” Frost, E. J. 1992. “The Effects of Forest-Clear-cut Edges on the Structure and Composition of Old-growth Mixed Conifers Stands in the Western Klamath Mountains.”

210

selected readings

Green, S. 1999. “Structure and Dynamics of a Coastal Dune Forest at Humboldt Bay, California.” Jones, M. G. 2004. “The Potential Effect of Timber Harvest on Understory Plants: A 420-Year Chronosequence Study in a Temperate Coniferous Forest.” LaBanca, T. 1993. “Vegetation Changes at Coastal Dunes Between Mad River and Little River, Humboldt County, California.” Leppig, G. T. 2002. “A Phytogeographic Study of Northern California Peatlands.” Mahony, T. M. 1999. “Old-growth Forest Associations in the Northern Range of Redwood.” Michaels, C. L. 2004. “Vegetation of Northern Coastal Prairies, Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, California.” Murray, M. P. 1991. “Meadow Vegetation Change in the Subalpine Zone of the Marble Mountain Wilderness.” Nelson, T. W. 1979. “A Flora of the Lassics Humboldt and Trinity Counties, California.” Oliphant, J. M. 1992. “Geographic Variation of Lodgepole Pine in Northern California.” Palmer, J. S. 1979. “Vegetation on Quartz Diorite in the Bear Lakes Area, Trinity County, California.” Parker, J. 1974. “Coastal Dune Systems Between Mad River and Little River Humboldt County, California.” Pickart, A. J. 1988. “The Biology of Selected Coastal Dune Species at Humboldt County, California.” Porter, D. J. 2002. “Conifer Establishment Patterns on Logs and Forest Substrates in Two Northern, Upland Old-growth Redwood Forests, Northwestern California.” Ross, R. 1983. “Elevational Effects on Vegetational Diversity of Ultramafic and Granitic Substrata in the Trinity Alps of Northern California.” Rountree, M. L. 1991. “A Study of the Seed Bank of Sand Dune Vegetation on the Samoa Peninsula, Humboldt County, California.” Saenz, L. 1983. “Quercus garryana Woodland/Grassland Mosaic Dynamics in Northern California.” Stewman, C. J. 2001. “Encroachment patterns of Douglas-fir into Oak Woodlands in the Central Klamath Region.” Stillman, K. T. 1980. “Meadow Vegetation on Metasedimentary and Metavolcanic Parent Materials in the North Central Marbles Mountains California.” Whipple, J. 1981. “A Flora of Mount Eddy, Klamath Mountains, California.” Willits, M. L. 1995. “The Regeneration of Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia) in Douglasfir Forests in Northwestern California.” Wilson, K. D. 1991. “Emergence, Survivorship, and Causes of Death in Five Species from the Coastal Dunes of Humboldt County, California.”

index of plant names

Boldface numbers refer to tables. Abies amabilis, 51, 52, 101, 103, 179, 184 concolor, 53, 62, 68, 71, 74, 78, 103, 119, 124, 182 fossil locations, 90 grandis, 74, 79, 102, 185 lasiocarpa, 52, 94, 103 procera, 52, 62, 63, 68, 69, 71, 102 x shastensis, 52, 62, 63, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74, 78, 103, 105, 117, 119, 182 Abronia latifolia, 82 umbellata ssp. breviflora, 152 Acer circinatum, 57 fossil locations, 90 glabrum var. torreyi, 55, 76 macrophyllum, 53, 67, 74, 75, 79, 182, 185 Achillea millefolium, 58, 65, 82 Adenostoma fasciculatum, 34, 54, 67, 73, 75, 79, 120 adobe lily, 152 Aesculus californica, 53, 67, 72, 74, 185 fossil locations, 90 Ageratina shastense, 100, 150, 152 Agrostis capillaris, 72, 81, 135 diegoensis, 58 stolonifera, 81

Ailanthus altissima, 154 fossil locations, 90 Aira caryophyllea, 81 Alangium, 90 Alaska yellow-cedar, 14, 52, 102 Albizia, 90 alder mountain, 56, 68, 76, 101 red, 53, 71, 75, 79, 80, 116, 122, 123, 138, 155 Sitka, 57 white, 53, 67, 71, 75, 79 Alectoria vancouverensis, 82 alfalfa, 17, 131, 136 Allium cratericola, 81 Alnus fossil locations, 90 incana ssp. tenuifolia, 56, 68, 76, 101 rhombifolia, 53, 67, 71, 75, 79 rubra, 53, 71, 75, 79, 80, 116, 122, 123, 138, 155 viridis ssp. sinuata, 57 Alopecurus aequalis, 81 alpine knotweed, 58 alpine lady fern, 59, 70 alpine laurel, 59 alpine saxifrage, 59, 70 alsike clover, 81

211

212

index of plant names

alta fescue, 81 Ambrosia chamissonis, 82 Amelanchier alnifolia, 56, 77 fossil locations, 90 American vetch, 58 Ammophila arenaria, 82, 83, 155, 156, 157 Amsinckia menziesii, 81 Anemone drummondii, 59 anemones, 70 Angelica tomentosa, 58 Antennaria suffrutescens, 60 Anthoxanthum odoratum, 80, 81 Antirrhinum subcordatum, 100, 153 Applegate’s stonecrop, 99 Arabis koehleri var. koehleri, 97, 151 koehleri var. stipitata, 97, 151 macdonaldiana, 26, 38, 60, 99, 151 Arbutus fossil locations, 90 menziesii, 53, 75, 78, 101, 130, 182–183, 185 Arctotheca calendula, 154 Arctostaphylos x cinerea, 54 glandulosa, 76 hispidula, 54 klamathensis, 98 manzanita, 54, 76, 185 nevadensis, 55, 77 x parvifolia, 55, 60 patula, 54, 68, 71, 76, 101, 117 stanfordiana, 77 urva-ursi, 75 viscida, 56, 69, 73, 77 Aristolochia, 90 arrow-grass, 83, 84 arrowhead butterweed, 58, 59 Artemisia arbuscula, 55, 58, 70 pycnocephala, 82 tridentata, 54, 67, 69, 75 Arundo donax, 154 Asclepias solanoana, 81 aspen, 93 Aspidotis densa, 82 Astragalus agnicidus, 100, 153 rattanii var. jepsonianus, 153 Athyrium filix-femina ssp. cyclosorum, 82

Avena barbata, 81 fatua, 81 avocado, 86 azalea, western, 57, 60, 76, 185 Baccharis pilularis, 76, 80, 83, 155, 156 Baker’s navarretia, 152 bald cypress, 86 Balsamorhiza hookeri var. lanata, 151 macrolepis var. macrolepis, 153 balsamroot, California, 153 barley, 133, 136 bay, California, 53, 54, 74, 86, 94, 114, 130, 185 beach bursage, 82 beach layia, 152 beach morning glory, 82 beach pea, 82 beach pine, 122, 123 beaded tube lichen, 82 beaked sedge, 58, 59 beaked tracyina, 153 bearberry, 75 bear-grass, 60 bee plant, 82, 156 Bensoniella oregona, 153 bent grass, 81 Berry’s penstemon, 96, 97 Betula fossil locations, 90 occidentalis, 53, 67 bigleaf maple, 53, 67, 74, 75, 79, 182, 185 big sagebrush, 54, 67, 69, 75 birchleaf mahogany, 54, 73, 75 bird’s eye, 81 bishop pine, 102 bistort, western, 59 bitter cherry, 54, 75 blackberry, California, 54, 75 black cottonwood, 53, 67, 75, 80 black-fruited dogwood, 56 black laurel, 56, 68 black locust, 154 black oak, 53, 68, 72, 73, 74, 78, 79, 112, 130, 185 Blechnum spicant, 82 blue blossom, 138 blue dicks, 81 blue elderberry, 56, 75 blue oak, 53, 67, 73, 74, 79

index of plant names blue wild rye, 58, 81 bog asphodel, 60 bog bilberry, 56, 59 bog violet, western, 60, 151 Bolander’s hawkweed, 60 bracken, 58, 69, 82 Brandegee’s eriastrum, 153 Brewer oak, 54, 73, 75 Brewer’s lupine, 58, 70 Brewer spruce, 52, 71, 72, 94, 95, 102 Brewer’s rush, 82 Brewer willow, 75 Briza maxima, 81 Bromus catharticus, 81 diandrus, 81 hordeaceus, 81 inermis, 81 marginatus, 58 rubens, 81, 154 tectorum, 81, 154 brook wake robin, 99 brown-headed rush, 60 buckeye, California, 53, 67, 72, 74, 185 buckwheat, 70, 96 bugle hedge-nettle, 58 bull thistle, 154 burning bush, western, 94 bush chinquapin, 54 bush tanoak, 54, 68 butterwort, 60 Calamagrostis keolerioides, 60 nutkaensis, 80, 81, 83 California balsamroot, 153 California barley, 133 California bay, 53, 54, 74, 94, 114, 130, 185 California blackberry, 54, 75 California brome, 72, 81, 135 California buckeye, 53, 67, 72, 74, 185 California coffeeberry, 60, 75, 185 California fescue, 60, 73, 81, 135 California hazel, 54, 56, 75 California honeysuckle, 75, 185 California juniper, 52, 74, 102 California ligusticum, 58 California lily-slipper, 60 California melic, 133 California needlegrass, 133 California nutmeg, 52, 94, 102

213

California oat grass, 60, 81, 114, 133, 134, 135 California pitcher plan, 26 California polypody, 82 California poppy, 81, 101 California Spanish moss, 79, 82 California sycamore, 94 Calocedrus decurrens, 52, 68, 74, 79, 87, 102 fossil locations, 90 Calochortus greenei, 153 luteus, 82 monanthus, 150, 151 nudus, 59 persistens, 99 tolmiei, 60 Caltha leptosepala, 59, 70 Calycanthus occidentalis, 57, 77, 86, 93, 95 Calyptridium monosperma, 58, 59 Calystegia soldanella, 82 Campanula shetleri, 99, 152 wilkinsiana, 152 Canada thistle, 154 canyon live oak, 53, 67, 68, 72, 73, 74, 79, 87, 101, 117, 119, 120, 182, 185 Canyon Creek stonecrop, 98 cape ivy, 154 caper-flowered tropidocarpum, 150, 151 capeweed, 154 Cardamine nuttallii var. gemmata, 96, 97, 151 Cardaria draba, 154 Carduus pycnocephalus, 154 Carex gigas, 59 integra, 59 interior, 58 lenticularis, 59 livida, 150, 151 multicostata, 58 obnupta, 83 percentage in northwest California, 101 rostrata, 58, 59 scopulorum, 58, 59 spectabilis, 58 Carpobrotus edulis, 154 Carya, 90 Cascade heather, 56, 59, 70 Cascade lousewort, 59 cascara, 54, 56 Cassiope mertensiana, 57, 59, 70

214

index of plant names

Castanea, 90 Castilleja ambigua ssp. humboldtiensis, 152 applegatei, 58 mendocinensis, 100, 153 miniata, 58, 97 schizotrichia, 58 Castle Crags harebell, 99, 152 Castle Crags ivesia, 99, 152 cattail, 83, 85, 86 cattail moss, 82 Ceanothus cordulatus, 76 cuneatus, 34, 55, 67, 68, 69, 72, 73, 77, 79 fossil locations, 90 incanus, 76 integerrimus, 54, 67, 71, 76, 116 jepsonii, 73, 76 prostratus, 55, 76 pumila, 55, 60 velutinus, 55, 68, 71, 101, 117 cedar Alaska yellow-, 14, 52, 102 Incense-, 52, 68, 74, 79, 87, 102 Port Orford-, 14, 52, 60, 71, 72, 74, 80, 87, 103, 119, 184–185 western red-, 74, 80, 103 white-, 86 Celtis, 90 Centaurea calcitrapa, 154 diffusa, 154 maculosa, 154 melitensis, 154 solstitialis, 82, 154 Cephalotaxus, 90 Cercidiphyllum, 90 Cercis canadensis var. orbiculata, 55, 77, 86, 86 fossil locations, 90 Cercocarpus fossil locations, 90 ledifolius, 54, 69, 76 montanus, 54, 73, 75 Chaenactis suffrutescens, 151 Chamaecyparis fossil locations, 90 lawsoniana, 14, 52, 60, 71, 72, 74, 80, 87, 103, 119, 184–185 chamise, 34, 54, 67, 73, 75, 79, 120

chaparral, xi, xiii, 8, 31, 33, 66, 67, 68, 71, 72, 73, 87, 114–115 cheat grass, 81, 154 Cheilanthes gracillima, 82 chestnut trees, 85, 86 Chilean cordgrass, 84, 154 chinquapin, 53, 92, 182 Chlorogalum pomeridianum var. minus, 152 Chrysolepis chrysophylla, 53, 92, 182 sempervirens, 54 cinquefoil, 58 Cirsium arvense, 154 vulgare, 81, 154 Cladrastis, 90 Clarkia amoena ssp. whitneyi, 97 Claytonia umbellata, 151 Clematis, 90 Clerodendrum, 90 Clethra, 91 clover alsike, 81 Humboldt Bay owl’s clover, 152 ranchers’ plantings, 134 red, 81, 136 Shasta owl’s clover, 151 Siskiyou Mountains owl’s clover, 59 suckling, 81 white, 82 coast checkerbloom, 153 coast live oak, 185 coast silk tassel, 75 coast whitethorn, 76 Cocculus, 91 coffeeberry, 54, 60, 75, 185 Columbia needle grass, 58 Colusa layia, 152 common juniper, 52, 102 common manzanita, 54, 72, 76, 185 common mullein, 154 common reed, 154 common thistle, 81 Comptonia, 91 Congdon’s bulrush, 59 conifers, 52–53, 74, 102–103, 180, 181 Conium maculatum, 154 Copeland’s speedwell, 98 cordgrass Chilean, 84, 154 dense-flowered, 83 Cordylanthus maritimus ssp. palustris, 152

index of plant names corn-lily, 58, 69 Cornus fossil locations, 91 nuttallii, 53, 68 sericea, 56, 77 sessilis, 56 Cortaderia jubata, 81, 154 Corylus cornuta ssp. californica, 54, 56, 75 Cotton-grass, 70 cottonwood black, 53, 67, 75, 80 Fremont, 53, 67, 75 cow-parsnip, 58, 81 coyote brush, 76, 80, 83, 155, 156 Crataegus, 91 cream cups, 81 creeping bent, 81 creeping snowberry, 76 Crepis pleurocarpa, 59 crested potentilla, 151 Crypantha crinita, 153 Cryptogramma acrostichoides, 59, 82 Cunninghamia, 90 Cupressus bakeri ssp. matthewsii, 52, 103 macnabiana, 31, 52, 73, 74, 102 nootkatensis, 14, 52, 102 curly bluegrass, 58, 81 cushion buckwheat, 58, 70 cut-leaf stork’s beak, 81 cycads, 86 cypress bald, 86 McNab, 31, 52, 73, 74, 102 Sargent, 31, 73, 74, 79, 103 Siskiyou, 52, 103 Cytisus scoparius, 77, 154 Dactylis glomerata, 81 dandelion, 81, 153, 154 Danthonia unispicata, 58 Darlingtonia, 60, 95, 184 Davis’ knotweed, 58 deer brush, 54, 67, 71, 76, 116 deer fern, 82 Delairia odorata, 154 Del Norte manzanita, 54 Del Norte willow, 56, 60, 99 Delphinium glaucum, 58 dense-flowered cordgrass, 83 Deschampsia caespitosa, 59, 70 desert mountain mahogany, 54, 69, 76

215

Dicentra formosa ssp. oregana, 96, 97 Diervilla, 91 diffuse knapweed, 154 Digitalis purpurea, 154 dimorphic snapdragon, 100, 153 Diospyros, 91 Dirca occidentalis, 95 Distichlis spicata, 83, 84 Dodecatheon alpinum, 59 jeffreyi, 58, 59, 69 dogtail, 81 dogwood black-fruited, 56 mountain, 53, 68 Douglas-fir canopy created by, 115 diseases and pests, 182, 185 fire impact, 120, 129–130 fire return intervals, 119 fossil record, 87 fuel loads, 123 growing and distribution patterns, 51, 52, 61, 62, 66, 67, 68, 71, 72, 73, 74, 78, 79, 80, 102 invasion of woodlands, 135, 194 Klamath Mountains forest patterns, 52 logging impact, 124, 137, 139, 142 maximum age, 88 North Coast forest patterns, 74 old-growth forests, 140 stand dynamics, 116 Draba aureola, 151 carnosula, 98 Drosera rotundifolia, 60 Drummond’s anemone, 59 Dubakella Mountain buckwheat, 24, 99, 151 duckweeds, 83 dune buckwheat, 82 dune grass, 82, 83 dune mat, 83 dune sagebrush, 82 dune tansy, 82, 156 dusky willow, 56 dwarf bilberry, 59, 70 dwarf huckleberry, 56 dwarf onion, 81 dwarf silk tassel, 54 dwarf soaproot, 152

216

index of plant names

eastern white pine, 93 eastwood manzanita, 76 eel-grass, 83, 84, 152 Eleutherococcus, 91 elm, 86 Elmer’s lupine, 99 Elymus caput-medusae, 81, 154 elymoides, 58, 81 Engelmann spruce, 52, 94, 102 English ivy, 154 Epilobium nivium, 153 siskiyouense, 98, 151 Equisetum arvense, 82 hyemale ssp. affine, 82 Eriastrum brandegeae, 153 Erica lusitanica, 154 Ericameria greenei, 55 nauseous, 55, 67, 77 ophitidis, 98 Erigeron peregrinus, 59 Eriodictyon californicum, 76 Eriogonum alpinum, 98, 151 hirtellum, 99, 151 kelloggii, 99 latifolium, 82 libertini, 24, 99, 151 nervulosum, 31, 81 nudum, 58 ovalifolium, 58, 70 siskiyouense, 98 umbellatum, 58, 59 Eriophorum crinigerum, 59, 60 Eriophyllum staechadifolium, 77 Erodium botrys, 81 cicutarium, 81 Erysimum menziesii var. eurekense, 82, 97, 52, 156–157 Erythronium citrinum var. roderickii, 98, 151 Eschscholzia californica, 81, 101 Euphorbia esula, 154 European beach grass, 82, 83, 155, 156, 157 evergreen huckleberry, 54, 76, 185 evergreen oak, 73 Exbucklandia, 91

Fagus, 91 false bugbane, 93 fennel, 154 fern alpine lady, 59, 70 deer, 82 lace, 82 lady, 82 leather, 82 licorice, 82 narrow-leaved sword, 82 parsley, 59, 82 sword, 82 tree, 86 western chain, 82 Festuca arundinacea, 81 californica, 60, 73, 81, 114, 133, 134, 135 myuros, 81, 157 roemeri, 58, 60, 70, 71, 81, 114 rubra, 81, 83, 122 few-flower oat grass, 58 Ficus-like fig, 86 fiddleneck, 81 field horsetail, 82 fir Douglas (See Douglas-fir) fossil record, 86 grand, 74, 79, 102, 185 noble, 52, 62, 63, 68, 69, 71, 102 Pacific silver, 51, 52, 103 red, 62–63, 105, 124 red-like, 86 Shasta, 52, 62, 63, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74, 78, 103, 105, 117, 119, 182 subalpine, 52, 94, 103 white, 53, 62, 68, 71, 74, 78, 103, 119, 124, 182 Foeniculum vulgare, 154 Fokienia, 90 Fothergilla, 91 foxglove, 154 foxtail pine, 52, 70, 102, 105, 183 Frangula californica ssp. crassifolia, 76 californica ssp.. occidentalis, 54 purshiana, 54, 56 Fraxinus fossil locations, 91 latifolia, 53, 75, 94 Fremont cottonwood, 53, 67, 75 Fremont silk tassel, 54, 76

index of plant names French broom, 76, 154 fringed cotton-grass, 59, 60 Fritillaria pluriflora, 152 Frullania niquallensis, 82 fungi, 180, 182 Galium serpenticum ssp. scotticum, 97, 151 Garrya buxifolia, 54 elliptica, 75 fremontii, 54, 76 Gasquet manzanita, 54 Gaultheria shallon, 55, 77 Genista monspesulana, 76, 154 Gentiana setigera, 151 Geranium dissectum, 81 ghost pine, 52, 62, 66, 67, 73, 74, 78, 79, 87, 102, 117, 120 giant reed, 154 Gilia tricolor, 81 ginger, wild, 101 Ginkgo, 85, 86, 90 Glyptostrobus, 90 golden chinquapin, 182 golden draba, 151 goldfields, 81 gooseberries, 101 Gordonia, 91 gorse, 154 grand fir, 74, 79, 102, 185 grasses, 81, 154, 157 See also names of specific grasses grass-of-Parnassus, 58 Great Basin claytonia, 151 great red Indian paintbrush, 58, 97 green false hellebore, 59 greenleaf manzanita, 54, 68, 71, 76, 101, 117 Greene’s mariposa lily, 153 ground-pine, 82 Gymnocladus, 91 Hackelia micrantha, 58 Halesia, 91 Halogeton glomeratus, 154 hanging millipede liverwort, 82 Harding grass, 33, 81, 154 Harmonia doris-nilesiae, 99, 151 stebbinsii, 99, 155 Hastingsia alba, 58 hazel, California, 54, 56, 75

217

hazel, subspecies of, 93 heather Cascade, 56, 59, 70 mountain, 59 white mountain, 57, 70 Hedera helix, 154 hedge-nettle, 69 Helenium bigelovii, 59 Heller’s lupine, 100 Hemizonia congesta ssp. calyculata, 97 congesta ssp. tracyi, 97 hemlock fossil locations, 86 large-coned mountain, 102 mountain, 51, 52, 63, 69, 87, 102, 119 poison hemlock, 154 stand dynamics, 116 western, 53, 74, 80, 87, 103, 119 Henderson’s horkelia, 96 Heracleum lanatum, 58, 81 herbs, 65, 68, 69, 70, 81–82, 144 Hesperolinon tehamense, 152 Heteromeles arbutifolia, 55, 67, 72, 77, 185 hickory trees, 86, 86 Himalayan berry, 55, 76, 154 hoary coffeeberry, 76 hoary manzanita, 79 Holcus lanatus, 80, 81 holly, 86 hollyleaf redberry, 54, 67, 76 Holodiscus discolor, 55, 76 fossil locations, 91 honeysuckle, California, 75, 185 Hooker willow, 75 Hordeum brachyantherum, 58 Horkelia sericata, 60 Howellia aquatilis, 152 Howell’s alkali grass, 100, 150, 152 Howell’s horkelia, 60 Howell’s jewel-flower, 151 Howell’s lewisia, 98 Howell’s montia, 153 huckleberry oak, 55, 68, 76, 114 Humboldt Bay owl’s clover, 152 Humboldt Bay wallflower, 82, 97, 152, 156–157 Humboldt milk-vetch, 100, 153 Hupa gooseberry, 56 Hydrangea, 91

218

index of plant names

Hydrocotyle ranunculoides, 83 Hypericum perforatum, 79, 81, 134 Hypogymnia apinnata, 82 ice plant, 154 Idesia, 91 Ilex, 91 Incense-cedar, 52, 68, 74, 79, 87, 102 Indian paintbrush. See paintbrush Indian’s dream, 82 interior live oak, 53, 74, 79 interior sedge, 58 Ipomopsis aggregata, 59, 70 Isatis tinctoria, 82 Isothecium myosuroides, 82 Italian thistle, 154 Itea, 91 Ithuriel’s spear, 81 Ivesia longibracteata, 99, 152 pickeringii, 98, 151 Jeffrey pine fire impact, 120, 124 fire return intervals, 119 fungi, 182 in Greenhorn Mountains, 15 growth and distribution patterns, 51, 52, 60, 67, 69, 70, 71, 72, 74, 78, 102, 123 Klamath Mountains forest pattern, 52 North Coast forest pattern, 74 Smith River country, 26, 114 stand dynamics, 117 Jepson’s milk-vetch, 153 Jessica’s stickweed, 58 Juglans, 91 Juncus breweri, 82 leiospermus var. leiospermus, 153 leseurii, 83 mertensianus, 59 nevadensis, 59 parryi, 59 Juniperus californica, 52, 74, 102 communis var. jackii, 52, 60, 103 communis var. montana, 52, 102 occidentalis var. australis, 31, 73, 74, 78, 79, 102, 103 occidentalis var. occidentalis, 53, 67, 87, 103

Kalmia microphylla, 59 Kellogg’s buckwheat, 99 Kentucky bluegrass, 81, 154 Keteleeria, 90 Klamath manzanita, 98 Klamath Mountain buckwheat, 99, 151 Klamath plum, 56 Klamath weed, 79, 81, 134 Kneeland pennycress, 65, 96, 97, 152 Knight’s pinemat, 55, 60 knobcone pine, 26, 51, 52, 66, 67, 68, 73, 74, 78, 102, 109, 120 Koehler’s rock cress, 97, 151 Kruckeberg’s jewel flower, 31, 81 Labrador-tea, 56, 60 lace fern, 82 lady fern, 82 lakeshore sedge, 59 large-coned mountain hemlock, 102 Lassics lupine, 81, 99, 152 Lassics sandwort, 81, 99, 152 Lasthenia californica, 81 Lathyrus biflorus, 82, 94, 99, 152 lanszwertii var. tracyi, 97 littoralis, 82 number in northwest California, 101 laurel alpine, 59 black, 56, 68 Layia carnosa, 152 septentrionalis, 152 leafy aster, 58 leafy spurge, 154 leather fern, 82 leather oak, 73, 79 Ledum glandulosum, 56, 60 Lemmon’s needle grass, 81 Lemmon’s willow, 56 Lemna minor, 83 Lepidium latifolium, 154 Letharia vulpina, 68, 82 Leucanthemum vulgare, 154 Leucothoe davisiae, 56, 68 fossil locations, 91 Leutkea pectinata, 59 Lewisia cantelovii, 151 cotyledon var. howellii, 98

index of plant names oppositifolia, 151 stebbinsii, 100 Leymus mollis, 82, 83 lichens, 68, 82 licorice fern, 82 Ligusticum californicum, 58 grayi, 58, 69 Lilium occidentale, 82, 136, 153 pardalinum, 59 pardalinum ssp. vollmeri, 97 pardalinum ssp. wigginsii, 97 lady-slipper, California, 60 Limnanthes douglasii, 81 Linanthus nuttallii ssp. howellii, 97, 151 Liquidambar, 91 Liriodendron, 91 Lithocarpus densiflorus var. densiflorus, 53, 61, 62, 71, 75, 78, 79, 80, 87, 112, 114, 119, 120, 124, 138, 139, 140, 182, 185 densiflorus var. echinoides, 54, 68 littleleaf huckleberry, 55 livid sedge, 150, 151 Lobaria pulmonaria, 82 lodgepole pine, 27, 52, 96, 102, 105 Lolium perenne, 81, 135 long-beak filaree, 81 Lonicera hispidula, 75, 185 involucrata, 77 Lotus yollabolliensis, 99 low sagebrush, 55, 58, 70 lungwort, 82 Lupinus albicaulis, 59 arboreous, 82, 83, 154, 155, 156, 157 bicolor, 81 breweri, 58, 70 constancei, 81, 99, 152 croceus, 98 elmeri, 99 lapidicola, 100 tracyi, 100 Lycopodium clavatum, 82 Lythrum salicaria, 154 madrone, 53, 75, 78, 101, 130, 182–183, 185 Magnolia, 91

Mahala mat, 55, 76 mahogany birchleaf, 54, 73, 75 desert mountain, 54, 69, 76 Maltese star-thistle, 154 Malus, 91 many-stemmed sedge, 58 manzanita common, 54, 72, 76, 185 Del Norte, 54 of eastern Klamath, 67 eastwood, 76 Gasquet, 54 greenleaf, 54, 68, 71, 76, 101, 117 hoary, 79 Klamath, 98 pinemat, 55, 77 Stanford, 77 whiteleaf, 56, 69, 73, 77 maple bigleaf, 53, 67, 74, 75, 79, 182, 185 fossil locations, 86, 86 mountain, 55, 76 vine, 57 maple-leaved checkerbloom, 153 Marble Mountain campion, 153 Marble Mountains, 99 mariposa lily Greene’s, 153 single-flowered, 150, 151 Siskiyou, 99 yellow, 82 marsh-marigold, 59, 70 marsh-pennywort, 83 marsh plants, 83 Mason’s sky pilot, 151 McDonald’s rock cress, 26, 38, 60, 99, 151 McNab cypress, 31, 52, 73, 74, 102 meadow barley, 58 meadow-form, 81 meadow foxtail, 81 medusahead, 81, 154 melic, California, 133 Melica geyeri, 81 Mendocino coast paintbrush, 100, 153 Mendocino gentian, 151 Mendocino tarweed, 97 Mentha pulegium, 154 Menzies’ wallflower, 156 Mertens’ rush, 59 Metasequoia, 90

219

220

index of plant names

miniature lupine, 81 mint mountain, 58 Siskiyou Mountain, 99 Minuartia decumbens, 81, 99, 152 nuttallii, 59 stolonifera, 98, 151 mock orange, wild, 56, 77 Monardella odoratissima, 58 siskiyouensis, 99 villosa ssp. globosa, 153 Montia howellii, 153 Morella californica, 77 moss California Spanish, 79, 82 cattail, 82 mountain alder, 56, 68, 76, 101 mountain bald, 76 mountain brome, 58 mountain dogwood, 53, 68 mountain hair grass, 59, 70 mountain heather, 59 mountain hemlock, 51, 52, 63, 69, 87, 102, 119 mountain jewel flower, 59 mountain juniper, 74, 78, 102 mountain larkspur, 58 mountain maple, 55, 76 mountain mint, 58 mountain sorrel, 70 mountain whitethorn, 76 Mount Eddy draba, 98 Mount Eddy lupine, 98 Mount Tedoc bush-gilia, 97 Mount Tedoc linanthus, 151 mullein, 81 musk bush, 73, 76 mustards, 96 Myrica hartwegii, 95 Myriophyllum aquaticum, 154 naked buckwheat, 58 naked-stemmed hawkbeard, 59 narrow false oat, 59 narrowleaf willow, 53, 67, 75 narrow-leaved sword fern, 82 Narthecium californicum, 60 Navarretia leucocephala ssp. bakeri, 152 Needle grass Columbia, 58

Lemmon’s, 81 western, 58, 59 Nelson’s sandwort, 98 Neviusia cliftonii, 11, 57, 100, 150, 152 Niles’ media, 151 Niles’ tarweed, 99 ninebark, 56, 76 noble fir, 52, 62, 63, 68, 69, 71, 102 Noccaea fendleri ssp. californica, 65, 96, 97, 152 northern adder’s-tongue, 152 Nuttall’s sandwort, 59 nutmeg, 52, 86, 94, 102 Nyssa, 91 oak black oak, 53, 68, 72, 73, 74, 78, 79, 112, 130, 185 blue, 53, 67, 73, 74, 79 Brewer, 54, 73, 75 canyon live, 53, 67, 68, 72, 73, 74, 79, 87, 101, 117, 119, 120, 182, 185 coast live, 185 decline in, 135 fossil locations, 87 huckleberry, 55, 68, 75, 114 interior live, 53, 74, 79 montane forests, 71 Oregon white, 38, 53, 67, 72, 75, 78, 79, 80, 87, 119, 124, 135 Sadler, 55, 68, 71, 94 Scott River country, 15 scrub, 73, 77 valley, 67, 75, 79, 94 oat grass, California, 60, 81, 114, 133, 134, 135 ocean spray, 55, 76 Oenothera wolfii, 153 old beard, 82 onion grass, 81 Ophioglossum pusillum, 152 opposite-leaved lewisia, 151 orchard grass, 81 Oregon ash, 53, 75, 94 Oregon bleeding heart, 96, 97 Oregon white oak, 38, 53, 67, 72, 75, 78, 79, 80, 87, 119, 124, 135 Orthocarpus cuspidatus, 59 pachystachyus, 151 Oryzopsis miliacea, 81 Ostrya, 91

index of plant names Ostryopsis, 91 ox-eye daisy, 154 Pacific reed grass, 80, 81, 83 Pacific rhododendron, 55, 56, 76, 114, 185 Pacific silver fir, 51, 52, 103 Pacific wax-myrtle, 77 Pacific yew, 52, 101, 103, 179, 184 paintbrush eastern Marble Mountains, 70 great red Indian, 58, 97 Mendocino Coast, 100, 153 split-hair Indian, 58 wavyleaf Indian, 58 pale-yellow stonecrop, 97 palms, 86 pampas grass, 81, 154 parrot’s feather, 154 Parry’s rush, 59 parsley fern, 59, 82 parsleys, 96 partridge foot, 59 Pedicularis atollens, 59 penneyroyal, 154 Penstemon endemic to N. America, 94 filiformis, 98, 151 newberryi var. berryi, 59, 96, 97 perennial pepperweed, 154 Perideridia gairdneri, 58, 69 Persea-like avocado, 86 Phacelia argentea, 152 dalesiana, 98, 151 greenei, 98, 151 leonis, 98, 151 mutabilis, 58 Phalaris aquatica, 33, 81, 154 Philadelphus lewisii, 56, 77 Phlox diffusa, 59 hisuta, 99 Phragmites australis, 154 Phyllodoce empetriformis, 56, 59, 70 Physocarpus capitatus, 56, 76 Picea breweriana, 52, 71, 72, 94, 95, 102 engelmannii, 52, 94, 102 fossil locations, 90 sitchensis, 74, 79, 80, 94, 103, 116, 122, 123, 182 Pickering’s ivesia, 151

221

pickleweed, 83, 84 pine beach, 122, 123 bishop, 102 eastern white, 93 fossil locations, 87 foxtail, 52, 70, 102, 105, 183 ghost, 52, 62, 66, 67, 73, 74, 78, 79, 87, 102, 117, 120 ground, 82 Jeffrey (See Jeffrey pine) knobcone, 26, 51, 52, 66, 67, 68, 73, 74, 78, 102, 109, 120 lodgepole, 27, 52, 96, 102, 105 percent in northwest CA, 100 pests, 182 ponderosa, 52, 62, 66, 67, 68, 69, 73, 74, 78, 101, 103, 116, 119, 120, 124, 182 shore, 74, 103 sugar, 52, 68, 74, 79, 101, 103, 137, 182, 183, 184 western white, 26, 53, 60, 71, 72, 93, 103, 115, 183, 184 whitebark, 53, 103, 183 pine lupine, 59 pinemat manzanita, 55, 77 pink-flowered currant, 56, 77 pink-flowering currant 56 pink sand-verbena, 152 Pinus albicaulis, 53, 103, 183 attenuata, 26, 51, 52, 66, 67, 68, 73, 74, 78, 102, 109, 120 balfouriana var. balfouriana, 52, 70, 102, 105, 183 contorta ssp. contorta, 74, 103 contorta ssp. murrayana, 27, 52, 96, 102, 105 jeffreyi, 15, 26, 51, 52, 60, 67, 69, 70, 71, 72, 74, 78, 102, 114, 117, 119, 120, 123, 124, 182 lambertiana, 52, 68, 74, 79, 101, 103, 137, 182, 183, 184 monticola, 26, 53, 60, 71, 72, 93, 103, 115, 183, 184 percent in northwest CA, 100 ponderosa, 52, 62, 66, 67, 68, 69, 73, 74, 78, 101, 103, 116, 119, 120, 124, 182 sabiniana, 52, 62, 66, 67, 73, 74, 78, 79, 87, 102, 117, 120 strobus, 93 pipsissewa, 70

222

index of plant names

Pistacia, 91 pitcher plant, California, 26 Plagiobothrys nothofulvus, 81 Platanus, 91, 93 Platystemon californicus, 81 Poa douglasii, 82 pratensis, 81, 154 secunda, 58, 81 Point Reyes bird’s-beak, 152 poison hemlock, 154 poison-oak, 55, 77 Polemonium chartaceum, 151 Polygonum bistortoides, 59 davisiae, 58 phytolaccifolium, 58 Polypodium californicum, 82 glycyrrhiza, 82 scouleri, 82 polypody, California, 82 Polystichum imbricans ssp. imbricans, 82 munitum, 82 ponderosa pine, 52, 62, 66, 67, 68, 69, 73, 74, 78, 101, 103, 116, 119, 120, 124, 182 popcorn flower, 81 poppy, California, 81, 101 Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa, 53, 67, 75, 80 fossil locations, 91 fremontii, 53, 67, 75 Porella navicularis, 82 Port Orford-cedar, 14, 52, 60, 71, 72, 74, 80, 87, 103, 119, 184–185 Potentilla cristae, 151 flabellifolia, 58 prairie grass, 80, 81 pride-of-the-mountains, 59 prostrate milkweed, 81 Prunus emarginata, 54, 75 fossil locations, 91 subcordata, 56 Pseudotrillium rivale, 99 Pseudotsuga fossil locations, 90 menziesii (See Douglas-fir) range of, 93–94

Ptelea, 91 Pteridium aquilinum, 58, 69, 82 Pterocarya, 91 Puccinellia howellii, 100, 150, 152 purple loosestrife, 154 purple pampas grass, 154 purple star-thistle, 154 pussy ears, 60 pussy paws, 58, 59 Quercus berberidifolia, 73, 77 chrysolepis, 53, 67, 68, 72, 73, 74, 79, 87, 101, 117, 119, 120, 182, 185 douglasii, 53, 67, 73, 74, 79 fossil locations, 91 garryana var. breweri, 54, 73, 75 garryana var. garryana, 38, 53, 67, 72, 75, 78, 79, 80, 87, 119, 124, 135 kelloggii, 53, 68, 72, 73, 74, 78, 79, 112, 130, 185 lobata, 67, 75, 79, 94 sadleriana, 55, 68, 71, 94 vacciniifolia, 55, 68, 76, 114 wislizeni, 53, 74, 79 rabbit brush, 55 Raillardella pringlei, 98, 151 Ramalina menziesii, 79, 82 rattail fescue, 81, 157 rattlesnake grass, 81 red alder, 53, 71, 75, 79, 80, 116, 122, 123, 138, 155 Red Bluff dwarf rush, 153 red brome, 81, 154 redbud, 55, 77, 86, 86 red clover, 81, 136 red fescue, 81, 83, 122 red fir, 62–63, 105, 124 red-flowered currant, 55 red huckleberry, 55, 77, 114 red-like fir, 86 Red Mountain catchfly, 97 Red Mountain stonecrop, 99 red osier, 56, 77 red-stem filaree, 81 red willow, 75 redwood along Bull Creek, 38 along French Hill Road, 27 Arcata Redwood Park, 45, 138 Big Basin Redwoods State Park, 147

index of plant names California Redwood Park, 147 Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, 50, 80, 147 diseases and pests, 185 as endemic species, 94 fire history, 121–122 fire return intervals, 119 fossil locations, 86, 87, 90 on Grasshopper Peak, 38 growth and distribution patterns, 52, 61, 74, 79–80, 103 Headwaters Forest Ecological Reserve, 42, 45 history of, 93 Humboldt Redwoods State Park, 38, 147, 193 Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, 50, 80, 147, 179, 193 Klamath Mountains forest patterns, 52 logging, 138 maximum age, 88 national/state parks, 38, 48 North Coast forest patterns, 74 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, 46, 47, 48, 80, 122, 147, 160 preservation of, 147 Redwood National Park, 45, 46, 48, 50, 80, 121, 133, 134, 135, 146, 160, 179, 188, 192, 193 in Rockefeller forest, 38 during Smith’s travels, xiii stand dynamics, 116–117 redwood sorrel, 80 rescue grass, 81 Rhamnus ilicifolia, 54, 67, 76 Rhododendron around Preston Peak, 14 fossil locations, 91 macrophyllum, 55, 56, 76, 114, 185 occidentale, 57, 60, 77, 185 Rhus, 91 Ribes lacustre, 57 marshallii, 56 nevadensis, 56 sanguineum var. glutinosum, 76, 77 sanguineum var. sanguineum, 55 ripgut brome, 81 Robinia pseudoacacia, 154 robust false lupine, 153 robust monardella, 153

rock cress Koehler’s, 97, 151 McDonald’s, 26, 38, 60, 99, 151 stipitate, 97 yellow-tubered, 97 Rocky Mountain sedge, 59 rocky sedge, 58 Roemer’s fescue, 58, 60, 70, 71, 81, 114 Rosa fossil locations, 91 gymnocarpa, 56, 77 rubber rabbit brush, 55, 67, 77 Rubus discolor, 55, 76, 154 fossil locations, 91 parviflorus, 55, 77 spectabilis, 77 ursinus, 54, 75 Rumex acetosella, 81 running juniper, 52, 60, 103 rush-lily, 58 Russian thistle, 154 rye grass, 81 Sadler oak, 55, 68, 71, 94 sagebrush, 15, 87 Sageretia, 91 Sagittaria sanfordii, 152 salal, 55, 77 Salicornia depressa, 83, 84 Salix breweri, 75 delnortensis, 56, 60, 99 eastwoodiae, 57 exigua, 53, 67, 75 fossil locations, 91 hookeriana, 75 laevigata, 75 lemmonii, 56 melanopsis, 56 sitchensis, 75 salmonberry, 77 Salmon Mountain wake robin, 97 Salt grass, 83, 84 salt marsh plants, 83 salt rush, 83 Sambucus caerulea, 56, 75 fossil locations, 92 sand dune phacelia, 152 Sandford’s arrowhead, 152

223

224

index of plant names

sandwort Lassics, 81, 99, 152 of Mount Eddy meadows, 70 Nelson’s, 98 Nutall’s, 59 Scott Mountain, 151 Sanguisorba officinalis, 60 Sanicula tracyi, 100, 153 Sargent cypress, 31, 73, 74, 79, 103 Sassafras, 92 Saxifraga tolmiei, 59, 70 scarlet-gilia, 59, 70 Schoenoplectus acutus, 83 Scirpus congdonii, 59 sclerophyllous shrubs, 71, 72 Scotch broom, 77, 154 Scott Mountain bedstraw, 97, 151 Scott Mountain fawn lily, 98, 151 Scott Mountain phacelia, 151 Scott Mountain sandwort, 151 Scott Valley phacelia, 98, 151 scouring-rush, 82 Scrophularia californica, 82, 156 scrub oak, 73, 77 seashore blue grass, 82 seaside woolly sunflower, 77 sedge beaked, 58, 59 interior, 58 lakeshore, 59 livid, 150, 151 many-stemmed, 58 Mount Eddy meadows, 70 rocky, 58 Rocky Mountain, 59 showy, 58 Siskiyou, 59 slough, 83 smooth-beaked, 59 Sedum eastwoodiae, 99 laxum, 97 oblanceolatum, 99 obtusatum, 59 paradisum, 98 Senecio jacobaea, 154 triangularis, 58, 59, 81 Sequoia sempervirens (See redwood) age of, 85 fossil locations, 90 older literature references, 88

serpentine haplopappus, 98 serpentine pink, 98 serviceberry, western, 56, 77 Shasta ageratina, 100, 150, 152 Shasta chaenactis, 151 Shasta eupatorium, 96 Shasta fir, 52, 62, 63, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74, 78, 103, 105, 117, 119, 182 Shasta owl’s clover, 151 Shasta snow-wreath, 11, 57, 100, 150, 152 sheep-lovage, 58, 69 sheep sorrel, 81 Shepherdia, 92 shooting star, 59 shore pine, 74, 103 showy raillardella, 98, 151 showy sedge, 58 shrub tanoak, 114 Sidalcea malachroides, 153 malvaeflora ssp. patula, 153 oregana ssp. eximia, 153 Sierra bladdernut, 95 Sierran star tulip, 59 Sierra rush, 59 Sierra sailor caps, 58, 59, 69 Sierra stonecrop, 59 Sierra sweet-bay, 95 Sierra willow, 57 Silene campanulata ssp. campanulata, 97 marmorensis, 99, 153 sepentinicola, 98 silk ivesia, 98 silky cryptantha, 153 silver hair grass, 81 single-flowered mariposa lily, 150, 151 Siskiyou buckwheat, 98 Siskiyou checkerbloom, 153 Siskiyou cypress, 52, 103 Siskiyou fireweed, 98, 151 Siskiyou inside-out flower, 99 Siskiyou mariposa lily, 99 Siskiyou mat, 55, 60 Siskiyou mountain mint, 99 Siskiyou Mountains owl’s clover, 59 Siskiyou phacelia, 98, 151 Siskiyou pussytoes, 60 Siskiyou sedge, 59 Sitka alder, 57 Sitka spruce, 74, 79, 80, 94, 103, 116, 122, 123, 182

index of plant names Sitka willow, 75 slender oat, 81 slough sedge, 83 smilo, 81 smooth-beaked sedge, 59 smooth brome, 81 sneezeweed, 59 Snow Mountain buckwheat, 31, 81 Snow Mountain willowherb, 153 snow-wreath, 94 soft brome, 81 soft chess, 157 Sorbus, 92 Spanish heath, 154 Spartina densiflora, 83, 154 Sphagnum, 26 spice bush, 57, 77, 86, 93, 95 Spiraea douglasii, 57 fossil locations, 92 split-hair Indian paintbrush, 58 spotted knapweed, 154 spreading phlox, 59 spruce Brewer, 52, 71, 72, 94, 95, 102 Engelmann, 52, 94, 102 fossil record and location, 86, 87 Sitka, 74, 79, 80, 94, 103, 116, 122, 123, 182 squirreltail, 58, 81 Stachys ajugoides, 58 Stanford manzanita, 77 star-thistle, 34, 79, 82, 154 star zigadene, 81 Stebbins’ lewisia, 100 Stebbins’ madia, 151 Stebbins’ tarweed, 99 stickweed, 69 Stipa lemmonii, 81 nelsonii, 58 occidentalis, 58, 59, 70 stipitate rock cress, 97 storax, 94 Streptanthus howellii, 151 morrisonii ssp. kruckebergii, 31, 81, 99, 152 tortuosus, 59 Styrax officinalis, 55 subalpine fir, 52, 94, 103 suckling clover, 81

225

sugar pine, 52, 68, 74, 79, 101, 103, 137, 182, 183, 184 sulfur-flower buckwheat, 58, 59 sundew, 60 swamp currant, 57 sword fern, 82 sycamore, 85, 86, 93, 94 Symphoricarpos fossil locations, 92 mollis, 76 Symphyotrichum hendersonii, 58 tall buckwheat, 58 tall oat grass, 81, 135 tamarisk, 154, 155 Tamarix parviflora, 154, 155 Tanacetum camphoratum, 82, 156 tanoak, 53, 61, 62, 71, 75, 78, 79, 80, 87, 112, 114, 119, 120, 124, 138, 139, 140, 182, 185 tansy ragwort, 154 Taraxacum officinale, 81, 153, 154 tarweed, 97, 99 Taxodium, 90 Tehama County western flax, 152 Thermopsis robusta, 153 thimbleberry, 55, 77 thin bent grass, 58 thinleaf huckleberry, 57 thistle bull, 154 Canada, 154 common, 81 Italian, 154 Maltese star, 154 purple star, 154 Russian, 154 yellow star, 82, 154 thread-leaved beardtongue, 151 thread-leaved penstemon, 98 Thuja fossil locations, 90 plicata, 74, 80, 103 tiger lily, 59 Tilia, 92 Timothy, 81 tobacco brush, 55, 68, 71, 101, 117 toothwort, yellow-tubered, 96, 97, 151 Torreya californica, 52, 94, 102 Toxicodendron diversilobum, 55, 77 fossil locations, 92

226

index of plant names

Toxicoscordion fremontii, 81 toyon, 55, 67, 72, 77, 185 Tracyina rostrata, 100, 153 Tracy’s lupine, 100 Tracy’s pea, 97 Tracy’s penstemon, 98, 151 Tracy’s sanicle, 100, 153 Tracy’s tarweed, 97 Trautvetteria carolinensis, 93 tree ferns, 86 tree-of-heaven, 154 tree ruffle liverwort, 82 trefoil, Yolly Bolly Mountains, 99 Trifolium dubium, 81 pratense, 81, 136 repens, 82 Triglochin maritima, 83, 84 Trillium ovatum var. oettingeri, 97 Trinity buckwheat, 98, 151 Trinity Mountain triteleia, 98 Trinity phacelia, 98 Trisetum spicatum, 59 Triteleia crocea var. modesta, 98 laxa, 81 Tropidocarpum capparideum, 150, 151 Tsuga fossil locations, 90 heterophylla, 53, 74, 80, 87, 103, 119 mertensiana, 51, 52, 63, 69, 87, 102, 119 tufted pine grass, 60 tule, 83 tupelo, 86 twinberry, 77 two-flowered pea, 82, 94, 99, 152 Typha latifolia, 83, 85, 86 Ulex europaea, 154 Ulmus, 92 Umbellularia californica, 53, 54, 74, 94, 114, 130, 185 Usnea cornuta, 82 Vaccinium caespitosum, 56 membranaceum, 57 ovatum, 54, 76, 185 parviflorum, 55, 77, 114 scoparium, 55 uliginosum, 56, 59 valley oak, 67, 75, 79, 94

Vancouveria chrysantha, 99 velvet grass, 80, 81 Veratrum californicum, 58, 69 viride, 59 Verbascum thapsus, 81, 154 vernal grass, 80, 81 Veronica copelandii, 98 vetch, 58, 69 Viburnum, 92 Vicia americana, 58 vine maple, 57 Viola primulifolia ssp. occidentalis, 60, 151 Virgin’s-bower, 101 Vitis, 92 Vollmer’s lily, 97 walnut trees, 85, 86 wandering daisy, 59 water birch, 53, 67 waterleaves, 96 wavyleaf Indian paintbrush, 58 wedgeleaf ceanothus, 34, 55, 67, 68, 69, 72, 73, 77, 79 weeds, 150, 153, 154 western azalea, 57, 60, 77, 185 western bistort, 59 western bog violet, 60, 151 western burning bush, 94 western chain fern, 82 western great burnet, 60 western hemlock, 53, 74, 80, 87, 103, 119 western howellia, 152 western juniper, 53, 67, 87, 103 western leatherwood, 95 western lily, 82, 136, 153 western needle grass, 58, 59 western redbud, 67 western red-cedar, 74, 80, 103 western serviceberry, 56, 77 western white pine, 26, 53, 60, 71, 72, 93, 103, 115, 183, 184 wet cliff lewisia, 151 white alder, 53, 67, 71, 75, 79 whitebark pine, 53, 103, 183 white-cedar, 86 white clover, 82 white fir, 53, 62, 68, 71, 74, 78, 103, 119, 124, 182 whiteleaf manzanita, 56, 69, 73, 77 white marsh-marigold, 59 white mountain heather, 57, 70

index of plant names white pine, eastern, 93 white pine, western, 26, 53, 60, 71, 72, 93, 103, 115, 183, 184 whitethorn, 76 white top, 154 white-veined shinleaf, 70 Whitney’s farewell to spring, 97 Wiggins’ lily, 97 wild blue rye, 114 wild ginger, 101 wild mock orange, 56, 77 wild oat, 81 Wilkins’ harebell, 152 willow Brewer, 75 Del Norte, 56, 60, 99 dusky, 56 eastern Klamath, 67 fossil record and locations, 85, 86 Hooker, 75 Lemmon’s, 56 narrowleaf, 53, 67, 75 red, 75 Sierra, 57 Sitka, 75 wintersweet, 93

witch’s hair, 82 woad, 82 wolf lichen, 68, 82 wolf’s evening-primrose, 153 woodlands, xi wood rose, 56, 77 Woodwardia fimbriata, 82 woolly balsamroot, 151 Xerophyllum tenax, 60 yampah, 58, 69 yarrow, 58, 65, 82 yellow bush lupine, 82, 83, 154, 155, 156, 157 yellow mariposa lily, 82 yellow pond-lily, 101 yellow sand-verbena, 82 yellow star-thistle, 82, 154 yellow-tubered toothwort, 96, 97, 151 Yolly Bolly Mountains trefoil, 99 Yreka phlox, 99 Zelkova, 92 Zostera marina, 83, 84, 152

227

general index

Boldface numbers refer to maps, figures, and tables. aannosus root disease, 181 accreted terrane, 2 Admiral William Standley State Recreation Area, 38 Agate Beach, 44 agriculture, 130–131 Alaskan earthquake (1964), 41 alcids, 177 Alderpoint, 29 Aleutian Canada goose, 175, 176, 179, 188 alien plants, 153–155 alligator lizard, 173, 174 Altaville, 26, 115 ambrosia beetles, 180, 185 American Ornithologists’ Union, 173 American peregrine falcon, 175 American shad, 163 American widgeon, 179 Ammon Ridge, 5 amphibians, 170–172 andesite, 6 André, James, 156 Anna’s hummingbird, 177 Anthony Peak, 33 Applegate, Lindsay, 21–22, 125 arboreal salamander, 171 arbutus canker, 181, 182 Arcata, 7, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 125, 131, 178 Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, 178, 188

Arcata Redwood Company, 138 Arcata Redwood Park, 45, 138 argillite, 37 Arguello, Leonel, 135 armillaria root disease, 181, 182 arrastra, 127 Ashland, 5 ashy storm-petrel, 176 Audubon Society’s Watch List, 175 Azalea State Reserve, 45 Backbone/Sugarloaf potential wilderness, 190 bacterial maple scorch, 181 Bailey, Robert, xiv Bair, John, 167 bald eagle, 175, 176 Bald Hills, 78–79, 109, 121, 123, 132, 133–135, 139, 188 balsam twig aphid, 180 bark beetle, 175, 182, 183 Barker, Linda, 114 barred owl, 149 Barry Summit, 46 basalt, 5, 6 bass, 164, 166 batholith, 2 bats, 158, 160–161 Battery Point Lighthouse, 50 beaches, 44, 45, 50

229

230

general index

Bear Basin Butte Botanical Area, 27, 72 Bear Lake, 23 Bear Mountain, 5 Bear Ridge, 40 Bear River, 30, 39–42, 79, 80, 133, 136 bears black, 158, 159 grizzly, 140–141, 157, 158 beaver, 158, 160, 161 Beechey ground squirrel, 158, 160 Beegum Campground, 33 Beegum Creek, 193 Beegum potential wilderness, 193 beetles, 180, 182, 185 Belsher, James, 83 belt systems, 2, 4–5 Bennion, Ben, 142 Berg, Kenneth, 156 Berrill Peak, 13 Bicknell, Susan, 122 Big Bar, 10 Big Basin Redwoods State Park, 147 big brown bat, 158 Big Butte, 193 Bigfoot sighting, 13 Big Lagoon, 45 Bingham, Bruce, 122, 140 Bingham, Petra, 72 biologists, 143 birds, 45, 146–147, 173, 175–179 Biscuit fire, 25, 72, 107 bison, 140 Bivin, Mignonne, 96 black bear, 158, 159 black-bellied plover, 178 black bullhead, 163 black crappie, 164, 166 black-crowned night-heron, 176, 179 blacked-capped chickadee, 177 black phoebe, 177 black pineleaf scale, 180 black rat, 158, 161 black salamander, 171 blackstain root disease, 181, 182 blacktail jackrabbit, 158, 160 bluebirds, 175, 177 bluechist, 37 Blue Creek, 46 bluegill, 164 blue grouse, 175, 176 Blue Lake, 43, 135 Bluff Creek, 13, 185

Bluff Lake, 87, 115 Board Camp Mountain, 42, 46, 78 bobcat, 158, 160 Boerker, Richard, 140 bogs, 26 Bonanza King gabbro, 4 boreal toad, 172 botta pocket gopher, 158 Boulder Lake, 23 Boulder Peak, 13 Boy Scouts Trail, 50 brant, 175, 176 Bridge Creek, 14 Bridgeville, 35 broad-footed mole, 158 Broken Rib Mountain Botanical Area, 27, 72 brook stickleback, 164 brook trout, 162, 163, 170 Brown, Daniel, 156 brown bullhead, 163 brown cubical rot, 181 brown pelican, 175, 176 brown stingy rot, 181 brown trout, 162, 163, 170 brush mouse, 158 brush rabbit, 158, 160 Buckhorn Toll Road, 142 Buck Rock, 33 Buckskin Peak, 5 Bucksport, 128 Bull Creek, 38, 112 bullfrog, 170, 172 bull trout, 162, 163 Bully Choop, 9 Bureau of Land Management, 17, 31, 38, 41, 45, 140, 146, 155, 192, 193 Burney Mountain, 7 Burnt Ranch, 66, 68, 71 Burtt-Davy, Joseph, 133, 136 bushy-tailed wood rat, 158 Cache Creek, xvi, 160 cadmium, 127 Cadra, Juan Francisco Bodega y, xi Caesalpino, Andrea, 64 Cahto Indians, 111 Cahto Peak, 35 California bat, 158 California budworm, 180 California condor, 173, 176

general index California Department of Fish and Game, 38, 42, 45, 48, 175, 179 California Department of Parks and Recreation, 50 California five-spined ips, 180 California Floristic Province, 94, 95, 100 California gull, 176 California kangaroo rat, 158, 160 California kingsnake, 173, 174 California meadow vole, 158 California National Forest, 141 California Native Plant Society, 150 California oakworm, 180, 182 California-Oregon border, xiv, xvi, 30, 190 California quail, 176 California red-backed vole, 158, 160 California red-sided garter snake, 174 California Redwood Park, 147 California roach, 163 California slender salamander, 171 California State Park System, 147–148 California towhee, 177 California whiptail, 174 California Wilderness Act (1984), 145 California Wilderness Coalition, 194 Callahan, 17 candlefish, 166 Canyon Creek, 4, 22, 23 Cape Mendocino, 30, 40, 44, 80, 131 Cape Vizcaino, xvi, 40 Carhart, Arthur, 145 Caribou Mountain, 4 Caribou Peak, 19 carnivores, 158, 159–160 Carson, Rachel, 143 Carson Mansion, 46 Cascade frog, 162, 170, 172 Cascades, xiv, xvi, 6, 63, 101, 104 Cascadia Subduction Zone, 40 Castle Crags, 4, 9, 11, 94, 99, 190 Castle Crags Wilderness, 145 Castle Lake, 11 Castle Rock, 50, 179 Castle Rock Wildlife Refuge, 179 catfishes, 163 Catlin, George, 141 cattle, 69, 130, 132–133, 134, 135, 136 Cecilville, 66, 71 Cedar Basin Research Natural Area, 11 Cedar Lake, 87 Cenozoic, 85, 104 Central Valley Project, 7, 20, 131

231

CERES Information System, 188–189 Cesar Peak, 18 Chambers, Jennifer, 67 Chanchelulla Wilderness, 145, 190 channel catfish, 163 chaparral whipsnake, 174 Chappie-Shasta OHV Area, 146 chert, 24, 37 chestnut blight, 181, 183 Chilula Indians, xiii, 111, 121 Chimariko Indians, 111 China Creek, 4 China Mountain, 15 China Mountain gabbro, 4 China Peak, 15 China Point, 13 Chinook salmon, 24, 139, 149, 163, 165, 166, 167 Chinquapin proposed wilderness, 190 chipmunks, 159, 160 Chrysolina beetles, 134 chum salmon, 163, 165 cinnamon teal, 176 Civilian Conservation Corps, 142 Clam Beach, 44, 155–156 Clam Beach County Park, 45 clapper rail, 173, 176 Clark’s nutcracker, 175, 177 Clean Water Act (1977), 143 Clear Creek, 7, 128 clear-cutting, 142–144, 189, 190 Clear Lake, 87, 104, 109 Cliff Lake, 6, 11, 72 climate of coastal vs. inland areas, xv and fires, 107 geographic variation, 104 middle Klamath River country, 13 middle Sacramento River country, 9 North Coast, 28–30, 42, 48 Salmon River country, 19 Scott River country, 15 Trinity River country, 24 clouded salamander, 171 coastal cutthroat trout, 139, 163, 165 coastal rainbow trout, 163 Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, 190 coast garter snake, 174 coast mole, 158 Coast Range newt, 171 coastrange sculpin, 164 Coast Redwood Company, 138

232

general index

Coffee Creek, 23 coho salmon, 24, 50, 139, 149, 163, 165, 167 College Cove, 44 Columbia River, xi Colusa County, xvi, 31 common carp, 163 common loon, 176 condor, California, 173, 176 cone beetle, 180 conservation, of wildlands, 188–194 Conservation Biology Institute, 189, 191 Constantine-Shull, Helen, 104 Cook and Green Pass, 14 Cooley spruce gall adelgid, 180 Cooper, Pete, 135 Cooper’s hawk, 176 Cope, Ed, 94 copper mining, 8, 26, 127 cordillera, western, 101 Cory Peak, 15 Cottonwood Creek, 31, 73 Counts Prairie, 134 Covelo, 29, 35, 79 coyote, 158, 159, 161 Craggy Peak, 4 Craig’s Creek Research Natural Area, 26 cramp balls, 181 crappie, 164, 166 Crater Lake, 87, 115 creeping vole, 158 Crescent City, xiv, xvi, 29, 41, 47, 48, 49, 50, 83, 128, 175 Crystal Peak, 73 cytospora canker, 181 Damnation Trail, 50 dams and reservoirs Dos Rios Dam project, 132 East Park Reservoir, 31, 132 impact on fish, 166–169 impact on land, 131–132 Indian Canyon Reservoir, 7 Iron Canyon Reservoir, 131 Iron Gate Dam, 166 Keswick Reservoir, 131 Lake Shasta, 6, 7, 8, 9, 87, 131, 166, 190 Lewiston Dam, 67, 167, 168 Morris Reservoir, 132 Ruth Dam, 44 Shasta Dam, 7, 8, 127, 131, 132

Stony Gorge Reservoir, 29, 31, 132 Sweeney Dam, 44 Trinity Dam, 132 Whiskeytown Reservoir, 10 Darlingtonia Trail, 26 Davis Creek, 132 Deadfall Basin Botanical Area, 23 Deadman Peak, 4 Deadwood Baldy Peak, 16 De Clerck, Fabrice, 105 deer, mule, 158, 160 Deer Creek, 127 deer hunting, 33 deer mouse, 158 deforestation, 140–141 Dekkas Rock, 9 Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, 50, 80, 147 Del Norte County, xvi Del Norte salamander, 171 dendrochronology, 89 Denny, 146 Devils Basin Research Natural Area, 33 Devil’s Punch Bowl, 14 Devil’s Rock potential wilderness, 190 dikes, 2 diorite, 6, 63 disease (human), 129 diseases and pests (plant), 161, 179–185 disturbances, 117 Dolason Prairie, 134 Doll Basin Research Natural Area, 33 Dolly Varden, 162 Donner party, 147 Dos Rios Dam project, 132 double-crested cormorant, 176 Douglas-fir beetle, 180, 182 Douglas-fir cone moth, 180 Douglas-fir engraver, 180, 182 Douglas-fir needle cast, 181, 182 Douglas-fir tussock moth, 180 Douglas squirrel, 158 drought, 109, 110, 182 Dubakella Mountain, 24 duck, harlequin, 176 Duck Lake Creek, 15, 72 Duck Lakes Botanical Area, 15 Duebendorfer, Tom, 114 dunes, 44, 82, 83, 152, 155–157, 178, 188 dunite, 6 Dunn’s salamander, 171

general index Dunsmuir, 7, 10 dusky-rooted woodrat, 158 Dutch elm disease, 181, 183 Duzel Rock, 17 eagles, 175, 176 earthquakes, 40–41 East Park Reservoir, 31, 132 Eckert, Andrew, 105 Eddies, 8 Eden Valley, 79 Eel River/Eel River watershed black cottonwood, 80 blue oak, 79 canyon, 138 climate impact, 30 dairy ranches along, 132 description of, 34–39 dunes at mouth of, 83, 84 farming along, 130 federal protection of, 147 forest makeup, 135, 136 Hayes Delight, 33 lampreys, 166 Native American settlements along, 112 as North Coast boundary, xvi, 28 North Fork, 35, 36, as northwest CA boundary, xiv plants, 78 ranches, 132, 133 redwood, 61 South Fork, 35, 38 Eel River Wildlife Area, 45, 136 egret, great, 176 Elasasser, A. B., 111 Elder Creek, 31, 73, 193 Elder Creek Watershed Area of Critical Environmental Concern, 38, 140 electricity, 131 elk replacement with cattle, 132 Roosevelt, 47, 48, 135, 158, 160 tule, 158, 160 Elk Creek, 31 Elk Hole Geological Area, 14 Elkhorn Ridge proposed wilderness, 193 Elk River, 42 Elk River Marsh, 45 Elk River Wildlife Area, 45 Ellyson, William, 80 elytroderma disease, 181, 182 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 141

233

endangered birds, 149, 175 endangered fish, 149, 165–166 endangered plants, 150–153 Endangered Species Act (1973), 143, 165 endemic plants, 94–95 English Peak, 4, 19 environmental impact of logging, 67, 124, 167, 172 of mining, 8, 13, 19, 34–35 environmentalism biologists’ role, 143 Save-the-Redwoods League, 50, 147, 192, 193, 194 Environmental Protection Act (1970), 143 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 156 Eocene, 34, 88, 89 ermine, 158, 159 erosion and deforestation, 141 Klamath Mountains, 8, 12–13 Lewiston Dam, 167 and mining, 127 North Coast, 44 Etna, 17 eulachon, 163, 166 Eureka, xvi, 3, 7, 29, 34, 42, 43, 45, 46, 128, 129, 138, 139, 147 Eureka Slough, 45 European starling, 175, 177 Evolutionary Significant Units (ESUs), 65 exotic plants, 153–155 extinct plants, 150, 151 extirpated fish, 162 extirpated mammals, 157 extirpated plants, 151 Fagan, Brian, 112 falcon, peregrine, 176 Falk, 125 fall webworm, 180, 182 False Klamath Cove, xiv, 47 farming, 130–131 fault systems, 2 Fay Slough, 45 fence lizard, 173, 174 feral cat, 158, 161 feral pig, 134, 135, 158, 161 Fern Canyon, 47, 48 Ferndale, 39, 41, 46 Fickle Hill, 42

234

general index

fire and fires Biscuit fire, 25, 72, 107 and climate, 107 dendochronology to recreate, 89 frequency of, 106 intensity of, 106 in Klamath Mountains, 13, 19, 25, 109, 115, 118–120, 124, 191–192 Native Americans’ use of, 112, 114, 120–121, 123, 124, 138 in North Coast, 109, 119, 120–123, 124 and plants, 109, 110 prescribed burns, 124, 135 recent, 13, 19, 25, 72 regrowth after, 114–115 severity of, 106 suppression of, 123–124 and terrain, 108–109 fir engraver, 180, 182 fir needle cast, 181 fish, 149, 161–168 Fish and Game, California Department of, 38, 42, 45, 48, 175, 179 Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S., 45, 146–147, 167, 179 fishing, 9, 24–25, 167 flatheaded fir borer, 180, 182 flooding, 35 flounder, 164 foothill yellow-legged frog, 167, 170, 172 Forest Glen, 10 forest management practices, 137–148 forests age of, 85–88 broad pattern, 51, 57, 60–61 conservation, 188–194 diversity of, 101, 104–105 invasive plants, 154 of Klamath Mountains, 52–57, 66–73 low-elevation belt, 61–62, 66–67, 71–72, 78–80, 119–120 montane belt, 57, 61, 62–63, 68–69, 71, 73, 78, 118–119 of North Coast, 73–84 old growth, 38, 50, 80, 116, 117, 139, 140, 143, 144, 170, 175, 190 and parent material, 63–66 pests, 179–185 stand dynamics model, 116–117 See also subalpine belt Forest Service, 140, 141, 145–146, 189, 192, 193

fork-tailed storm-petrel, 175, 176 Fort Bragg, 129 Fort Gaston, 23 Fort Humboldt State Historic Park, 46 Fort Jones, 10, 17 Fortuna, 34, 35 fossils, 85, 86, 87, 88–89, 90–92 fox gray, 158, 159 red, 158, 161 Sierra Nevada red, 158, 161 Franciscan rock and substrate, xvi, 32, 33, 37, 38, 40, 41, 44, 63, 70, 78 French Gulch, 7, 128 Frenzel Creek Research Natural Area, 31 Freshwater Creek, 42 Freshwater Lagoon, 45 freshwater marshes, 152 fringed bat, 158, 161 frogs, 170, 171, 172 Frost, Evan, 144 fungi, 180, 182 fur trade, xi gabbro, 6, 24, 63, 66 Gaberville, 185 Gans Prairie, xiii, 133 Garberville, 34, 35 garter snakes, 173, 174 Gasquet, 26, 49 Gasquet Mountain, 26–27 General Grant National Park, 146 Gila Wilderness, 145 Gilham Butte, 40, 193 Girard Outlook, 11 Girard Ridge Wilderness Study Area, 190 glaciation definition of, 20 Klamath Mountains, 13, 16, 17–18, 19, 20 subalpine belt, 70 Yolla Bolly Mountains, 33 glaciers, 17, 104 glaucous gull, 176 Glenn County, xvi, 31 Glenn Creek, 5 goby, 164 Goda Plate, 3 godwit, marbled, 176 gold and gold mining and agriculture, 130–131 current projects, 22

general index discovery of, 7, 17, 21–22, 125 dredging for, 17, 22 environmental impact of, 8, 19, 34–35 Fern Canyon, 47 and growth of towns, 127–129 and Native Americans, 129–130 process of, 126–127 Gold Bluffs, 47 golden eagle, 175, 176 golden-mantled ground squirrel, 158, 160 golden shiner, 163 goose, Aleutian Canada, 175, 176, 179, 188 Goose Lake, 6 gophers, 158, 160 Gorda plate, 40 Gottville, 13 gouty pitch midge, 180 granite, 6, 23, 63 Granite Peak, 4 granitic rocks, 2, 63, 69, 70, 152 granodiorite, 63 Grant, Ulysses S., 46 graphic information systems (GIS), 188, 189 Grasshopper Peak, 38 Gray, Asa, 92–93 Grayback, 5 gray fox, 158, 159 gray jay, 177 graywacke, 37, 66, 78 gray wolf, 157, 158 great egret, 176 great horned owl, 149 Great Ice Age, 20–21 Great Indian Trail, xi, 127 great roadrunner, 177 Great Valley, xvi Green, Shayne, 117 Green Diamond Resource Company, 138 Greenhorn Creek, 125 Greenhorn Mountains, 11, 15, 16–17, 87, 99 greenstone, 5, 37 green sturgeon, 163, 166 green sunfish, 164 Grenier, Jeffrey, 135 Grenier, Katie, 134 Grindstone Canyon, 33 Grindstone Creek, 31, 73 Grinnell, George Bird, 141 grizzly bear, 140–141, 157, 158 Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, 38

235

Grizzly Peak, 9 Gualala River, 165 Guano bat, 158 gulls, 176 Hamburg, 68, 71 Happy Camp, 6, 10, 11, 13, 128 Hapress Meadows, 14 hardhead, 163 hard rock mining, 127 harlequin duck, 176 Harris, Stanley, 173 Harrison Gulch Ranger Station, 10 Harry A. Merlo State Recreation Area, 45 Harte, Bret, 46 harvest mouse, 158 Hayes Delight, 33 Hayfork, 85, 129 Hayfork Creek, xiii, 24 Hayfork Valley, xii, 67 Headwaters Forest Reserve, 42, 45, 139, 146, 192 Heath and Marjorie Angelo Coast Range Reserve, 38, 140 Heather Lake, 5 Heceta, Bruno, xi Heizer, R. F., 111 Hell’s Half-acre Creek, 24 hermit warbler, 177 herring, 163 Hetch Hetchy Valley, 188 High Divide, 48 High Plateau, 26 hiking Klamath Mountains, 11, 23 North Coast, 31, 33 hoary bat, 158 Holocene, 87, 93, 109, 110, 115 Honeydew, 39 Hoopa (town), 10, 23 Hoopa Valley, xiii, 23 Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, 107 Hoopa Valley Tribe, 167 horned lark, 175, 177 Horse Mountain Botanical Area, 24, 48 Horse Range Creek, 15, 72 Hosselkus limestone, 11, 105 House Creek Botanical Area, 14 house mouse, 158, 161 house sparrow, 175, 177 Huchnom Indians, 111 Hull Peak, 33

236

general index

Humboldt Bay Aleutian Canada goose, 179 birding, 173, 175, 178 boundary of, 34 coastal prairies, 83, 136 description of, 42–46 dunes, 97, 155, 188 farming around, 130 Indian Island, 129 north of, 80 port, 128, 138 ranching around, 132 rivers draining into, 30 sand spits, 155 Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, 44, 45, 83, 178 Humboldt Bay Wastewater Authority, 178–179 Humboldt City, 128 Humboldt County, xvi, 129 Humboldt Lagoons State Park, 45 Humboldt martin, 158, 160 Humboldt Redwoods State Park, 38, 147, 193 Humboldt State University, 156, 167 hummingbirds, 177 Hunt, Charles, xiv hunting deer, 33 by Native Americans, 112 Hupa Indians, xiii, 111, 112 Hyampom, xiii, 66, 68, 71, 85 Hyampom Valley, 24, 67 hydraulic mining, 21, 126–127 hyperaccumulators, 65 Hypoxylon thouarsianu, 185 Hypsithermal, 87, 93 Ice Age, 20–21 ice storms, 117 Ides Cove Loop Trail, 31 igneous rock, 6 Imper, David, 136 incense-cedar rust, 181 Indian Canyon Reservoir, 7 Indian Island, 129 Indian Peak Baldy, 16 insectivores, 158 insect pests, 180, 182 Institute of Rivers, 167 Interstate 5, xvi, 6, 7, 11 invasive mammals, 161

invasive plants, 153–155 Iron Canyon Creek, 131 Iron Canyon Reservoir, 131 Iron Gate Dam, 166 Iron Mountain Mine, 8, 127 Ironside Mountain, 4, 23 irrigation, 131 Jacoby Creek, 42 Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, 50, 80, 147, 179, 193 Jeffrey pine beetle, 180 Jones, Maureen, 144 Josephine ophiolite, 26, 63, 64, 96, 97, 98, 99, 115, 151 Joss House, 22 jumping mouse, 158, 160 Junction City, 168 Kangaroo Lake, 15 kangaroo rat, 158, 160 Kanick, xiii Karuk Indians, 14, 111, 112, 129–130 Keeler-Wolf, Todd, 11, 72 Kelsey Peaks, 42 Kenick, xiii Keswick, 127 Keswick Reservoir, 131 Keter, Thomas, 133, 134, 135 King Peak, 41, 42, 78 King Range, 79 King Range National Recreation Area, 39, 41, 42, 146, 193 King Range proposed wilderness, 193 Klamath (town) 29 Klamath Mountains annual temperature and precipitation, 10 boundaries of, xvi conservation challenges, 188–192 fires, 13, 19, 25, 109, 115, 118–120, 124, 191–192 geological history, 1–2, 12–13, 20–21, 34 logging, 142, 144 meadow plants, 58–60 middle Klamath River country, 11–14 middle Sacramento River country, 7–11 plants, 95, 98–99, 150 public ownership, 141 roadless areas in, 191 Salmon River country, 17–19 Scott River country, 15–17

general index Smith River country, 24–27 Smith’s exploration of, xii trees and shrubs, 51, 52–57, 60–62, 66–73, 94, 105, 184 Trinity River country, 20–24 watersheds of, 6–7 within western cordillera, 101 in winter, 35 Klamath National Forest, 17, 129, 141 Klamath River/Klamath River watershed convergence with Salmon River, 18 convergence with Trinity River, 24 description of, 11–14, 46–48 eulachon, 166 federal protection of, 147 fish kill (2002), 166 forest patterns, 61, 62, 66, 67, 68, 71, 136 Native American settlements on, 112 in North Coast, 28 precipitation, 13 rock outcrops, 1 route of, 6–7 Smith’s travels, xi, xiii steelhead trout, 165 sturgeon, 166 Klamath River lamprey, 163, 166 Klamath smallscale sucker, 163 Kneeland Prairie, 97 kokanee, 163 Kroeber, Alfred, 112 Kruckeberg, Arthur, 64 L. W. Horton Research Natural Area, 26 LaBanca, Tony, 156 Lacey Act (1900), 146 Lady Bird Johnson Grove, 48 lagomorphs, 159 lagoons, 49 La Grange Mine, 21, 126 Lake Earl, 161 Lake Earl Wildlife Area, 49, 179 Lakehead, 7 Lake McCloud, 7, 131 Lake Mountain Botanical Area, 14 Lake Pillsbury, 38, 132 Lake Shasta, 6, 7, 8, 9, 87, 131, 166, 190 laminated root rot, 181, 182 lampreys, 163, 166 Land and Resource Management Plan, 129 landslides, 35, 37, 47 Lanphere-Christensen Dunes Preserve, 156

237

Lanphere Dunes, 155, 156, 157 largemouth bass, 164 lark sparrow, 177 Lassen County, 157 Lassen Peak, 7 Lassics, 36, 78, 94, 99 Lassik Indians, 111, 134 Laytonville, 34, 35, 79, 133 lead, 127 leading edge coast, 44 Legacy- The Landscape Connection, 190, 194 Legget, 38 Leopold, Aldo, 145 Leppig, Gordon, 105 Lewiston Dam, 67, 167, 168 Lewiston Lake, 20 lightning, 107–108 limestone, 9, 11, 17, 24, 66, 67, 100, 127, 152 Lincoln, Abraham, 137 Lincoln’s sparrow, 177 little brown bat, 158 Little Darby Environmental Education Area, 146 Little Grayback, 13 Little River, 161 Little River State Park, 45 livebearers, 164 livestock, 69, 130, 132–133, 134, 135, 136 lizards, 173, 174 lode, definition of, 126 lodgepole needleminer, 180 loggerhead shrike, 177 logging clear-cutting, 142–144, 189, 190 early, 129 environmental impact, 67, 124, 167, 172 practices, 137–143, 145 of redwoods, 147 long-billed curlew, 176 long-eared owl, 177 longed-eared bat, 158, 160 longed-legged bat, 158, 160 long-tailed vole, 158 long-tailed weasel, 158 long-toed salamander, 171 Lord Ellis Summit, 46 Lost Coast, 39 Louisiana Pacific Corporation, 138, 156 low-elevation belt, 61–62, 66–67, 71–72, 78–80, 119–120

238

general index

Luffenholz, 45 lumber companies, 38, 42, 138–139, 140, 156 See also logging Lyon Ranch, 134 Mad River, 30, 42–46, 61, 79, 130, 132, 133, 161, 166 Mad River Buttes potential wilderness, 45 Mad River Slough, 45 madrone canker, 181, 182 mafic rock, 63 magma, 2, 5 Mahony, Thomas, 50 mallards, 179 mammals, 157–161 Mammoth, 104 Man Eaten Lake, 19 Manila Dunes Recreation Area, 45 Maple Creek, 42 marbled godwit, 176 marbled murrelets, 50, 80, 139, 175, 177 marbled sculpin, 164 Marble Mountains black bears, 159 as boundary for Scott Valley country, 15 Cascade frog, 162 description, 13 fires, 107 forest pattern, 61, 68, 144 glaciation, 13 Klamath River as separation from Siskiyou Mountains, 104 limestone caves, 14 meadows, 70 plants, 98 plutons, 5 trees and shrubs, 69 Marble Mountains Primitive Area, 145 Marble Mountain Wilderness, 14, 145 march shrew, 158 marijuana, 140 marmots, 160 Marryat, Frank, 120, 121 Marsh, George Perkins, 141 Marshall, Robert, 145 Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, 45 marshes, 152, 175 marsupials, 158 martin, 158 Mary Blaine Mountain, 18 massacres, 129

Mattole Indians, 111, 112, 136 Mattole River, xvi, 30, 39–42, 79, 80, 133, 136, 193 Mattole Sanctuary Forest and River Reserve, 79 mature forests, 116 Maxxam Corporation, 138–139 Mazama pocket gopher, 158 McBain and Trush, 167 McCloud Lake, 7, 131 McCloud redband trout, 163 McCloud River, 7, 9, 147, 162 McCloud River Preserve, 9 McCloud (town), 9 McKinleyville, 42 meadows, 58–60, 68–69, 70, 72 Medicine Peak, 19 Medieval Warm Period, 109, 110, 115 megafossils, 88 Megram fire, 107, 123 mélange, 37 Mendocino National Forest, 38, 141, 192 Mendocino Redwood Company, 38, 139 Mendocino Triple Junction, 40 merlin, 176 Merriam, C. Hart, xiv metasedimentary rocks, 5 metavolcanic rocks, 5 mice, 158, 161 Michaels, Catherine, 83 microfossils, 88 Migratory Bird Treaty Act (1918), 146 Mill Creek, 48, 50, 193 mining copper, 8, 26, 127 environmental impact of, 13 hard rock mining, 127 placer mining, 126–127 strip-mining proposal, 27 See also gold and gold mining mink, 158, 159 minnows, 163 Miocene, 85, 86 Miwok Indians, 188 moles, 158 mole salamanders, 171 monitors, 126–127 montane belt, 57, 61, 62–63, 68–69, 71, 73, 78, 118–119 Monterey, xi Monument Peak, 4 Morris Reservoir, 132

general index mosquitofish, western, 164 moths, 180 mountain beaver, 158, 160 mountain bluebird, 175, 177 mountain garter snake, 174 mountain lion, 158, 160 mountain pine beetle, 180, 182 mountain quail, 175, 176 mountain sheep, 157, 158 Mount Ashland, 13 Mount Eddy, 1, 6, 8–9, 23, 70, 87, 184, 195 Mount Eddy potential wilderness, 190 Mount Lassen, 40 Mount Linn, 31, 69, 70 Mount Meager, 40 Mount Rainier National Park, 73 Mount Saint Helens, 40 Mount Shasta, 3, 6, 7, 11, 127 Mount Shasta City, xvi Moyle, Peter, 161–162 mud flats, 152, 175, 178 mudstone, 37, 66 Muir, John, 146 mule deer, 158, 160 Mule Mountain, 4 Mumbo Lake, 87, 115 Murderers Bar, 11 Murray, Michael, 68, 70 muskrat, 158, 161 Myrtle Creek Botanical Area, 26 Nash, Roderick, 141 National Environmental Policy Act (1969), 143 National Forest Service, 140, 141, 145–146, 189, 192, 193 national parks, creation of, 141 National Park Service, 146 Native Americans and fire, 112, 114, 120–121, 123, 124, 138 history of, 109–112 impact of gold rush on, 129–130 impact on landscape, 187–188 See also specific groups Nature Conservancy, The, 38, 140, 156 Nelson, Byron, 129 neoendemics, 95–96, 95–100 Neogene, 34, 86, 93 New River, 23 Newton Drury Scenic Highway, 48 newts, 171

239

Niles, Doris, 136 Nomlaki potential wilderness, 193 Nongatl Indiands, 111 nonnative plants and animals, 149, 153–155, 161 Nor-El-Muk Wintu Indians, xii North American Plate, 3 North Coast boundaries of, xvi climate, 28–30 conservation challenges, 192–193 east side country, 30–34 Eel River country, 34–39 fires, 109, 119, 120–123, 124 geological history, 28 Humboldt Bay and Mad River country, 42–46 logging, 142 lower Smith River country, 48–50 Mattole and Bear River country, 39–42 plants, 96, 99, 150, 152–153 precipitation, 28–30 public ownership, 141 Redwood Creek and Lower Klamath River country, 46–48 trees and shrubs, 57, 60–62, 69, 70, 73–84 Northern California Coast Ranges, xiv northern flying squirrel, 158, 160 northern goshawk, 176 northern harrier, 176 northern Pacific rattlesnake, 173, 174 northern red-legged frog, 170, 172 Northern Redwood Company, 138 northern spotted owl, 139, 143, 149, 160, 175, 177 North Fork Smith River Botanical Area, 26 North Fork Wilderness, 145, 193, 194 North Trinity Mountain Research Natural Area, 23 Northwest California boundaries of, xiv watersheds of, xv Northwestern Pacific Railroad, 139 northwestern pond turtle, 173, 174 northwestern salamander, 171 Northwest Forest Plan (1998), 143, 144 North Yolla Bolly Mountains, xvi, 24, 28, 30, 99 Norton, Jack, 129 Norway rat, 158, 161 Noss, Reed, 189

240

general index

oak anthracnose, 181, 182 oak bark beetle, western, 180, 185 off-road vehicles (ORVs), 45, 156 oil, 125, 131 old growth, 38, 50, 80, 116, 117, 139, 140, 143, 144, 170, 175, 190 Old World rats, 161 Oligocene, 85, 86 Oliphant, Jim, 96 Olmsted, Frederick Law, 147 ophiolite formation of, 2 Josephine, 26, 63, 64, 96, 97, 98, 115, 151 opossum, 158, 161 Oregon, travel to, 128 Oregon alligator lizard, 174 Oregon-California border, xiv, xvi, 30, 190 Oregon garter snake, 174 Oregon Mountain, 127 Oregon salamander, 171 Organic Act (1897), 141 Orick, 46, 47, 48 Orleans (mining town), 13 Orleans Mountain, 4 osprey, 175 Ottitewa, 17 owls barred owl, 149 great horned owl, 149 long-eared owl, 177 northern spotted owl, 139, 143, 149, 160, 175, 177 short-eared owl, 177 Pacific fisher, 158, 159 Pacific Flyway, 175, 178 Pacific giant salamander, 171, 172 Pacific gopher snake, 174 Pacific jumping mouse, 158 Pacific lamprey, 163, 165–166 Pacific loon, 175, 176 Pacific Lumber Company, 38, 42, 138–139 Pacific Ocean, xiii Pacific Railroad, 137 Pacific Railroad Act (1862), 137 Pacific treefrog, 172 painted salamander, 171 Palco marsh, 45 paleobotany, 88–89 Paleocene, 93 paleoendemics, 94–96

Paleogene, 34, 37, 86 pallid bat, 158 Palmer, John, 69 pandora moth, 180 Parker, Jerry, 155 Parks and Recreation, California Department of, 50 Paskenta, 31, 33 passenger pigeon, 140, 143 passerines, 177 Patrick’s Point, 44, 45, 136 Patrick’s Point State Park, 45, 122, 125 Pattison Salmon Restoration Area, 190 Pecwan, xiii pelican, brown, 175, 176 Pelican Island Federal Bird Reservation, 146 Pelican State Beach, 50 peneplain stage, 13 perch, 164 peregrine falcon, 176 peridotite, 5–6, 63, 64 pesticides, 160 pests, 161, 179–185 Petrolia, 39, 40, 125, 131 Petrolia earthquake, 41 Peyette, François, xi phainopepla, 175, 177 Phytophthora ramorum, 185 Pickart, Andrea, 157 pied-billed grebe, 179 pigeons, 140, 143, 175, 177 pigs, feral, 134, 135, 158 pika, 158, 160 pileated woodpecker, 175, 177 Pillsbury, Lake, 38, 132 Pilot Creek, 42 Pilot Ridge, 42, 87 Pinchot, Gifford, 146 pine beetle, western, 180, 182 pine beetles, 179 pine engraver, 180 pine needle scale, 180, 182 pine needle sheathminer, 180 pine seedworm, 180 pine shoot borer, western, 180 pink salmon, 163, 165 pinyon mouse, 158 pipistrelle, western, 158 pitch canker, 181 Pit River, 6, 7, 9, 131, 132 pit sculpin, 164 placer, definition of, 126

general index placer mining, 126–127 plain titmouse, 177 plants age of, 89, 92–94 diversity of, 101, 104–105 endemics, 94–100 and fire resistance and response, 109, 110 Klamath Mountains, 58–60 mutualism, 117 Native Americans’ use of, 112 North Coast, 81–83 Serpentine, 65 vascular plants, current status of, 150–157 widespread species, 100–101 plate tectonics, 1–2, 3 Pleistocene, 19, 20–21, 34, 87, 93 Pliocene, 34, 86 plutons, 2, 4–5 pocket dry rot, 181 pocket gophers, 158, 160 Point Delgada, 40 Point George, 83 Point George County Park, 50 Point George Reef Lighthouse, 50 Pomo Indians, 111 Pony Peak, 5 porcupine, 158 Porcupine Lake gabbro, 4 Porter, Dan, 122 Port Orford-cedar root rot, 181, 184–185 ports, 128 potato blight, 181 Potem Falls, 11 Potter Creek Cave, 87 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, 46, 47, 48, 80, 122, 147, 160 prairies, 80, 122–123, 132, 133–135, 136, 152–153, 188 Preachers Meadow, 23 precipitation geographic variation, 104 Klamath Mountains, 10 middle Klamath River country, 13 middle Sacramento River country, 9 North Coast, 28–30, 31, 35–36, 41–42, 43, 48 Salmon River country, 19 Scott River country, 15 upper Smith River country, 25 prescribed burns, 124, 135

241

Presidio, xi Preston Peak, 14, 27 prickly sculpin, 164 private land, 31, 38, 41–42, 137, 142, 189 pronghorn, 157, 158 public domain, 141 purple martin, 177 quail, 175, 176 Quaternary, 86–87, 93 rabbit, 158, 160 raccoon, 158, 159 racer, 174 rafting on Smith River, 24 on Trinity River, 23 railroad, 128, 137–138, 139 rainbow trout, 162, 163, 165, 166, 170 rainfall. See precipitation ranches and ranching, 38, 42, 132–133, 135, 140, 148 Raphael, Ray, 129 raptors, 176 rats, 158, 160 Rattlesnake Terrane, 48, 63, 97, 99, 151 Raymond, Roland, 112 Reading, Pierson B., xii, 7, 22, 125 Readings Bar, 125 red band needle blight, 181 red bat, 158 red-bellied newt, 171 Red Bluff, xi, 31, 128 red-brown butt rot, 181 Red Buttes Wilderness, 14, 145 Redding, xvi, 7, 127, 128, 137, 142 redear sunfish, 164 red fox, 158, 161 red-legged frog, 170 Red Mountain, 38, 78, 97, 99 red-shouldered hawk, 176 red tree vole, 158, 160 red turpentine beetle, 180, 182 Redwood chipmunk, 158 Redwood Creek, 30, 42, 45, 46–48, 61, 78, 79, 133, 134, 135, 136, 165, 166 Redwood Highway, 139 Redwood National Park, 45, 46, 48, 50, 80, 121, 133, 134, 135, 146, 160, 179, 188, 192, 193 relicts, 89, 92, 93, 94, 170 reptiles, 173, 174

242

general index

Requa, 46 Requa Timber Company, 138 reservations, 129 reservoirs. See dams and reservoirs restoration, of wildlands, 188 rhinoceros auklet, 177 rhyolite, 6 Richardson Grove State Park, 29, 38 Richter scale, 41 Ridgeway Summit, 34 riffle sculpin, 164 Rijke, Ellen de, 129 ring-necked pheasant, 175, 176 ringneck snake, 174 ringtail, 158 Rio Dell, 34 river lamprey, 163, 166 river otter, 158, 159–160 roach, California, 163 roadless areas, 190, 191, 193 roadrunner, 177 roads, 141–142, 147, 189–190 See also specific road Roantree, Michael, 157 Robertson, Don, 173 rock and forest patterns, 63–66 Franciscan, xvi, 32, 33, 37, 38, 40, 41, 44, 63, 70, 78 granitic, 2, 63, 69, 70, 152 Klamath Mountains, 1, 2, 5–6, 11–12, 16–17, 24, 26, 63, 64, 66, 69–70 North Coast, 32–33, 37, 43–44, 63, 64, 65 San Andreas Fault, 40 Trinity Alps, 69 Trinity Mountains, 1, 69 See also serpentine Rock Creek, 15, 193 Rock Creek Butte Research Natural Area, 14, 27, 72 Rockefeller Forest, 38 rock pigeon, 175, 177 Rocky Mountains, 94, 101, 107, 183 rodents, 159, 160 Rogers, Harrison, xii, 121–122 Rohde, Jerry, 142 Roosevelt, Theodore, 141 Roosevelt elk, 47, 48, 135, 158, 160 root rot, 181, 182 Ross, Ryan, 69 Rough Ridge, 24

rough-skinned newt, 171 roundheaded fir borer, 180, 182 Round Valley, 132 rubber boa, 173, 174 ruffled grouse, 176 Rufous hummingbird, 175, 177 Russian Peak, 4, 15, 19, 105 Russian River, xiv, xvi, 34, 132, 165 Russian Wilderness, 145 Ruth Dam, 44 Ruth Lake, 132 Ruth Research Natural Area, 48 Sacramento pikeminnow, 163 Sacramento River/Sacramento River watershed copper mining, 127 description of, 7–11 forest patterns, 62, 66, 67, 68 fossils, 87 Keswick Reservoir, 131 limestone, 96, 105 precipitation, 9 rock outcrops, 1 salamanders, 170 Shasta Dam, 132 Smith’s travels, xii source and route of, 6 water diverted from Trinity Lake, 167 Sacramento sucker, 163 Sacramento Valley, xi Saenz, Loretta, 134 salamanders, 80, 170, 171, 172 salmon Chinook, 24, 139, 149, 163, 165, 166, 167 chum, 163, 165 coho, 24, 50, 139, 149, 163, 165, 167 pink, 163, 165 Salmon Creek, 112 Salmon Mountains as boundary for Scott Valley country, 15 endemic plants, 97 fires, 107 meadows, 70 plutons, 4 trees and shrubs, 69, 70, 72 Salmon Peak, 18 Salmon River/Salmon River watershed description of, 17–19 federal protection of, 147

general index forest patterns, 61, 66, 67, 71 gold mining, 22, 125 as Klamath River tributary, 11 lightning in, 108 Native American settlements, 112 precipitation, 19 South Fork 67 Salmon-Trinity Alps Primitive Area, 145 salt marshes, 83–84, 152, 175, 178 Salyer, xiii, 24 Samoa Dunes Recreation Area, 45, 146 San Andreas Fault, 40 sandpiper, western, 178 sand spits, 155 sandstone, 66 San Francisco, 138, 139, 147 San Francisco Bay, 6 San Francisco earthquake, 41 Sanhedrin Mountain, 38 Sanhedrin proposed wilderness, 193 San Joaquin Roadless Area, 104 Santa Rosa, 86 Save-the-Redwoods League, 50, 147, 192, 193, 194 Sawmel Cave, 9 Sawyers Bar, 66, 71 Sawyers Bar Road, 15 Say’s phobe, 177 schist, 37 Schoolhouse Peak, 46, 134 Scotia, 112 Scott Bar Mountains, 13, 16 Scott Bar salamander, 171 Scott Mountains climate and precipitation, 15 convergence with Trinity Mountains, 23, 104 endemic plants, 97, 98 features, 15 plants, 98 plutons, 4 trails over, 128 trees and shrubs, 69 Scott River, 6, 11, 15–17, 22, 66, 125, 147 precipitation, 15 Scottsburg, 17 Scott Valley, 15, 67, 68, 87, 128 sculpins, 162, 164 sea stacks, 39, 44, 45, 50, 175 Seiad Valley, 13, 172 Sequoia National Park, 146

243

serpentine description of, 5–6 endemic plants on, 96, 99–100 and forest patterns, 63, 64–65 Klamath Mountains, 67, 70, 72 North Coast, 73, 78 in Scott Bar Mountains, 16 Smith River watershed, 26 soil, 115 Trinity River watershed, 24 serpentine indicators, 65 serpentine plants, 65, 151–152 settlement, of land, 140 shad, 163 shadow chipmunk, 158 sharp-tailed snake, 173, 174 Shasta alligator lizard, 174 Shasta Bolly, 4, 9 Shasta Caverns, 9 Shasta County, xvi, 7, 31, 128 Shasta Dam, 7, 8, 127, 131, 132 Shasta Indians, 111, 112 Shasta Lake, 6, 7, 8, 9, 87, 131, 166, 190 Shasta Lake City, 7 Shasta National Forest, 141 Shasta River, 11, 150 Shasta salamander, 170, 171 Shasta (town), 128, 129, 142 Shasta-Trinity National Forest, 9, 141, 189 Shasta Valley, 11, 127 sheep, 133–134 Shelley Lake, 5 Shelter Cove, 29, 39, 40, 131 short-billed dowitcher, 176 short-eared owl, 177 short-tailed weasel or ermine, 158 shrew-mole, 158 shrews, 158 Sierra mountain kingsnake, 174 Sierra Nevada, 51, 57, 63, 95, 101, 104–105 Sierra Nevada red fox, 158, 161 Silent Spring (Carson), 143 silver-haired bat, 158 silversides, 164 silverspotted tiger moth, 180 Simon, Ted, 132 Simpson Paper Company, 156 Simpson Timber Company, 42, 48, 138 Sinkyone Indians, 111, 112, 113 Sinkyone Wilderness State Park, 39, 42, 146 Siskiyou chipmunk, 158 Siskiyou County, xvi, 130

244

general index

Siskiyou Lake, 6 Siskiyou Mountains as boundary for Klamath Mountains, xvi climate and precipitation, 13 endemic plants, 96, 97 fires, 107 forest pattern, 61, 62 Great Indian Trail, 127 Humboldt martin, 160 Klamath River, 11, 104 plants, 98, 99 plutons, 5 Redwood Creek, 46 strip-mining controversy, 27 trails to, 127–128 trees and shrubs, 68, 69 Siskiyou Mountain salamander, 171, 172 Siskiyou Wilderness, 14, 48, 79, 145 Six Rivers National Forest, 38, 42, 45–46, 46, 107, 129, 141, 189, 192 Skilton’s skink, 173, 174 skink, 173, 174 skunk, 158 slavery, 129 Slinkard, 5 Slinkard Ridge, 5 small-footed bat, 158 smallmouth bass, 164, 166 smelt, 163 Smith, James P., 94 Smith, Jedediah Strong, xi–xiv, 24, 133 Smithe Redwoods State Reserve, 38 Smith River National Recreation Area, 14, 24, 27, 50, 146, 179 Smith River/Smith River watershed coastal prairies, 83, 136 description of, 24–27, 48–50 federal protection of, 147 forest pattern, 61, 71 lodgepole pine, 96 North Fork chaparral, 114–115 Port Orford-cedar trees, 184 precipitation, 25 source and route of, 7 steelhead trout, 165 Tolowa massacre, 129 Smokey Creek, 24 snakes, 173, 174 Snow Mountain, xiv, 30–31, 33, 35 Snow Mountain Wilderness, 146, 193

snowshoe hare, 158, 160 snowy plover, 175, 176 soil, 63, 66, 115, 130, 136 See also erosion Soldier Research Natural Area, 38 Soldier Ridge, 78 Somes Bar, 11, 13, 128 Sonoma chipmunk, 158 Sonoma County, 132 South Bay, 84, 178 Southern Pacific Railroad, 7, 137 southern torrent salamander, 171, 172 South Fork, 35, 38, 67 South Fork Eel proposed wilderness, 193 South Fork Lakes, 15, 23 South Fork Mountain, xvi, 24, 30, 36, 42, 46, 78, 87, 99, 104 South Fork Trail, xiii South Yolla Bolly Mountains, 30, 33, 63, 69 sparrows, 175, 177 speckled dace, 162, 163 spotted bass, 164, 166 spotted skunk, 158 Springer, Paul, 179 spruce aphid, 180, 182 spruce budworm, western, 180 Squaw Creek, 9, 67 squirrels, 158, 160 St. Helena mountain kingsnake, 174 St. John Mountain, 78 stand, definition of, 116 stand dynamics, 116–117 stand modifying or partial stand replacement fires, 106, 116 stand replacing or replacement fires, 106 starry flounder, 164 State Route 3, 23, 128 State Route 36, 23, 35, 141–142 State Route 96, 23 State Route 162, 33, 35 State Route 299, xvi, 7, 23, 126, 135, 142 steelhead trout, 139, 165, 167 Steen, Harold, 129 Stewman, Casey, 194 sticklebacks, 164 Stillman, Ken, 68, 70 Stony Creek Trail, 26 Stony Creek, xiv, xvi, 31, 73 Stony Creek National Forest, 141 Stony Creek Reserve, 141 Stonyford, 31 Stony Gorge Reservoir, 29, 31, 132

general index striped skunk, 158 striped whipsnake, 174 strip-mining, 27 structure, of forests, 116 Stuart Fork, 23 sturgeon, 163, 166 subalpine belt climate, 107 conservation, 194 description of, 63 fires in, 115, 118 Klamath Mountains, 57, 61, 63, 69–70 meadow plants, 58–59 in wilderness areas, 190 subduction, 2 suckers, 163 sudden oak death, 181, 185 Sugar Creek, 72 Sugar Creek Research Natural Area, 15 Sugar Pine Lake, 4 sulfur, 127 Summit Valley, 5 sunfish, 164 Supply Creek, xiii surface fires, 106 surfperch, 164 swan, tundra, 175, 176, 178 Sweeney Dam, 44 swift, 177 Swift Creek, 23 Table Bluff, 34, 42, 44, 130, 136 tailed frog salamander, 171, 172 Tall Trees Grove, 48 tarspot, 181 taxation, 139 Tedoc Mountain, 24 Tehama County, xvi, 31 temperature Klamath Mountains, 10 North Coast, 29 terrain, and fires, 108–109 terrane, 2 Tertiary fossils, 88 Thomes Creek, 31, 73, 193 Thompson Peak, 23 Thompson Ridge, 5 Thoreau, Henry David, 141 Thornburgh, Dale, 72, 94, 105, 139 threadfish shad, 163 threespine stickleback, 164 Thunberg, Carl, 92

thunderstorms, 107 tidewater goby, 164 Toad Lake, 11 toads, 172 Tolowa Dunes State Park, 49, 83, 179 Tolowa Indians, xiii, xiv, 14, 111, 112, 129, 136 topsmelt, 164 Tour of the Unknown Coast, 39–40 Townsend’s big-eared bat, 161 Townsend’s long-eared bat, 158 Townsend’s mole, 158 Townsend’s vole, 158 trails, 128, 129, 141, 142 Trinidad, 42, 43, 175 Trinidad Bay, xi, xii, xiii, 42, 44, 83, 128, 130, 160 Trinidad Head, 44 Trinidad State Park, 45 Trinity Alps black bears, 159 Cascade frog, 162, 170 convergence with Scott and Salmon Mountains, 15 features, 23 fires, 107 forest pattern, 61 granitic outcrops, 23 insect pests, 182 meadows, 69, 70 plants, 98 plutons, 4 Rufous hummingbird, 175 trees and shrubs, 68, 69, 70 Trinity Alps Wilderness, 20–21, 145 Trinity County, xvi, 128 Trinity Dam, 131–132 Trinity Lake, 20, 23, 131–132, 167 Trinity Mountains Cascade frog, 170 convergence with other mountains, 23, 104 endemic plants, 98 fires, 115 forest pattern, 51, 61 geological history, 34 meadows, 70 plants, 98, 151 plutons, 4 rock outcrops, 1 Sacramento River, 6, 7 serpentine flora, 11

245

246

general index

Trinity Mountains (continued) trails over, 128 trees and shrubs, 68, 69, 72 view from South Fork country, 24 Trinity National Forest, 141 Trinity ophiolite, 63, 64 Trinity River Basin Fish and Wildlife Task Force, 167 Trinity River Diversion, 131–132 Trinity River Restoration Project, 168, 170, 173 Trinity River/Trinity River watershed convergence with Klamath River, 11 description of, 20–24 federal protection of, 147 fish restoration project, 167–168 foothill yellow-legged frog, 170 forest pattern, 61, 66, 68, 71 gold discovery and mining, 7, 125, 128 location of, 6 naming of, xii North Fork, 23 Smith’s travels, xiii steelhead trout, 165 South Fork, 23 sturgeon, 166 trails along, 129 Trinity Valley, 132 trout brook trout, 162, 163, 170 brown trout, 162, 163, 170 bull trout, 162, 163 coastal cutthroat trout, 139, 163, 165 Dolly Varden, 162 McCloud redband trout, 163 rainbow trout, 162, 163, 165, 166, 170 resident rainbow trout, 163 in Smith River, 24 steelhead trout, 139, 165, 167 Trowbridge’s shrew, 158 tsunami, 41 Tsungwe Indians, xiii tufted puffin, 177 tui chub, 163 tule elk, 158, 160 Tulelake Basin, 87 tule perch, 164 pond turtle, 167, 173, 174 Twin Lakes, 72, 86–87 Ukiah, 34 ultramafic rock, 63, 64

Underwood proposed wilderness, 190 ungulates, 158 Union, 128, 129, 130 Union Mattole Company, 131 Union Town Company, 128 University of California Natural Reserve System, 38, 140 Upper Cederville, 85 Upper Klamath Lake, 6 US 101, 34, 35 US 199, xvi U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 17, 31, 38, 41, 45, 140, 146, 155, 192, 193 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 45, 146–147, 167, 179 Usal Creek, 40 vagrant shrew, 158 Vale, Thomas, 187–188 valley garter snake, 174 Van Duzen River, 36, 42, 78, 80, 130, 147 vascular plants, 150–157 Vaux’s swift, 177 Vesa Bluffs, 5 Virginia opossum, 158, 161 volcanic rock, 5 volcanoes, 40–41, 104 voles, 158, 160 Wailaki Indians, 111 Wallace, David Rains, 101 Wallace, Ray, 13 wandering salamander, 171 Warner Mountains, 6, 85 waterfowl, 45, 175, 176, 178 water management, 131 water molds, 181, 185 watersheds of Klamath Mountains, 6–7 of northwest California, xv See also specific watershed Wawona, 188 weasel, long-tailed, 158 Weaverville, xvi, 20, 22, 125, 126, 128, 29, 142 Weitchpec, xi, xiii, 6, 11, 12, 23, 24, 46 Western Azalea Botanical Area, 24 western bluebird, 175, 177 western brook lamprey, 163, 166 western conifer seed bug, 180 western cordillera, 101

general index western fence lizard, 173, 174 western gall rust, 181 western gray squirrel, 158 western mosquitofish, 164 western oak bark beetle, 180, 185 western pine beetle, 180, 182 western pine shoot borer, 180 western pipistrelle, 158 western pond turtle, 167 western rattlesnake, 173 western sagebrush lizard, 173, 174 western sandpiper, 178 western snowy plover, 176 western spruce budworm, 180 wetlands, 48, 49, 150, 155, 178, 192 wetland shrubs, 56 wetland trees, 53, 75, 136 Wheelock, 17 Whilkut Indians, 111 Whipple, Jennifer, 70 Whiskeytown Lake, 9, 10, 20 Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, 146 white catfish, 163 white crappie, 164, 166 white-faced ibis, 176 white-footed vole, 158 white pine blister rust, 115, 181, 183–184 white pocket rot, 181 white sturgeon, 163, 166 white-tailed kite, 176 Whitethorn, 42, 79 Whittaker, Robert, 101,114, 115 widgeon, American, 179 Wilaki Indians, 134 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (1968), 132, 143, 147 wild dog, 158, 161 Wilderness Act (1964), 143, 145, 146 wildland protection, 187–194 wildlife protection, 143, 146 wild turkey, 175, 176 Wildwood, xii, 4 willet, 176

247

Willits, Margaret, 179 Willits (town), 34, 35 Willow Creek, 23, 35, 135 Wilson, Karen, 156 winter, 45, 117 Wintun Indians, 9, 111,112, 128, 129 Wiregrass Ridge, 46 Wiyot Indians, 111, 112, 129, 136 wolf, gray, 157, 158 wolverine, 157, 158 woodpeckers, 176, 177 woodrats, 158, 160 Wooley Creek, 5, 14, 112 World War II, 123, 134, 137, 138, 139, 142, 145, 189 World Wildlife Fund, 124, 190, 192, 194 Wyiott Indians, 46 Yana Indians, 111 yellow-breasted chat, 177 yellow perch, 164 yellow pine chipmunk, 158 Yellowstone National Park, 141, 146 Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve, 141 yellow warbler, 177 Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness, 38, 193 Yolla Bolly Mountains, 7, 31, 33, 34, 41, 60, 104, 109, 133 Yolla Bolly Primitive Area, 145 Yosemite National Park, 146, 147, 187–188 Yosemite Valley, 188 young forests, 116 Youngs Peak, 4 Youngs Valley, 14 Yreka, xvi, 15, 150 Yuki Indians, 111, 112 Yuki proposed wilderness, 38, 193, 194 Yuma bat, 158 Yurok Research Natural Area, 122 Yurok Indians, xi, xiii, 14, 45, 46, 111, 112, 121, 122–123, 136, 166 zinc, 127

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