Importance / Issues

Redwood National and State Parks are located in a relatively unpopulated, rural area and the coastline is one of the least developed areas of coast in California. As a result, many of the problems commonly associated with anthropogenic effects are not generally observed within the park boundaries.  Historically, the coastline has been considered pristine and, consequently, an area of low priority for research and management.  Much of the coastline is not easily accessible, making monitoring and research difficult, but also keeping direct human impacts low.

In January 2004, RNSP held its first marine scoping session to address the state of the Parks’ marine resources.  As a follow up to the scoping session, an assessment, appropriately termed the Phase I assessment, was conducted in concert with an ongoing survey of marine resources along portions of the 52 km (37 mi) park coastline by the Park. 

Principal Investigator

Sean Craig
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Humboldt State University
Arcata, CA 95521

Inventory Leader

Dr. Daniel Sarr
Network Coordinator
Ashland, OR 97520

Park Leader

David Anderson
Fishery Biologist
Redwood National and State Park

Objectives

The first objective was to create an exhaustive species list of the intertidal marine algae, invertebrates, and fish.

The second objective was to compare this list with previous studies conducted at Redwood National and Parks.

The third objective was to establish a voucher collection of identified specimens.

Parks

Redwood National and State Parks

Status

Completed, the Klamath Network has now moved from inventorying Intertidal communities to monitoring intertidal communities.