Chair, Mendocino Group
Along the coast of Mendocino County, from the Ten Mile River to the Navarro River, there is a series of five uplifted terraces rising from the sea an elevation of about 650 feet. These are unusual because, unlike terraces elsewhere, each is quite flat and distinct from the next.
Until recently it was thought that on the third, fourth and fifth of these terraces exclusively occurred the curious Pygmy Forest, more appropriately named the Mendocino Pygmy Cypress Woodland. A recent study by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has found a wider distribution. (Classification and Mapping of Mendocino Cypress Woodland, January 2019.)
The City of Fort Bragg had planned a solid waste transfer station within the Pygmy Forest on Highway 20, but thanks to the dedication of Sierra Club members, California State Parks and U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, the plan has been altered, so the state will receive county land at a capped dump site to use for the transfer station.
The Pygmy often presents as a stunted and misshapen, sometimes boggy, often impenetrable, lichen-clad, seemingly dead or dying, otherworldly landscape. This is due to the soils being extremely acidic, deficient in nutrients, with a degree of aluminum toxicity. They are often underlain with a cement-like hard pan 18 inches down, making drainage very poor. Soils are often saturated for much of the year.
The Pygmy is flat, and rain water does not run off, except where landscapes have been disturbed with development or even trails. Once disturbed, the Pygmy is unrecoverable. Study indicates that the oliogotrophic (nutrient poor) soils are very old, up to 500,000 years old on the 650-foot elevation found on the 5th terrace in Mendocino County. (Mendocino Pygmy Cypress Forest, Teresa Sholars and Clair Golec, 2006.)
The Pygmy forest has been the object of much scientific study for more than a century. Dr. Hans Jenny spent many years studying it, eventually theorizing a science of pedology, or soil development, upon which today’s agriculture, forestry and other environmental sciences are based. (Lottie’s Pygmy Forest Blog p.4.) Dr. Jenny and John Olmstead were so enamored of the Pygmy forest that they spent years raising funds to purchase parts of it (ibid. p6).
Because of these efforts, we have Jughandle State Natural Reserve, with its famed Ecologic Staircase. Other groups, including the University of California, College of the Redwoods Foundation, national conservation organizations as well as local garden clubs have purchased acreage in the Pygmy Woodland and donated this to California State Parks, notably Van Damme Park and Jughandle.
In 1960, the Pygmy Woodland was estimated as covering 4,000 acres. There are perhaps 2,000 acres remaining today. It has been considered by municipal entities as land of no value, there being few merchantable trees, and the often saturated soils cannot support septic systems. Much of it has
destroyed for use as land fills or garbage dumps or transfer stations or bulldozed for access roads or residences with highly engineered septic systems.
More recently, it has been considered by environmentalists on a par with old-growth redwoods. The area that lies within the Coastal Zone is protected, but much of it lies outside.
The California Fish and Wildlife Agency has designated Mendocino Pygmy Cypress Woodlands as a sensitive vegetative type with a ranking that varies from extremely rare and threatened to a less threatened ranking.
Many rare and endangered plants grow within or are associated with it, as well as rare bogs and swamps. Rankings both locally and globally change with new investigation and study. Trees vary in height from one to 50 meters. Shrubs, Huckleberry, Rhododendron and Labrador Tea may be present, along with signature species Bollander’s Pine in association with Pygmy Cypress. There are many, many varieties of lichen.
It is difficult to take a simple look at the Mendocino Pygmy Cypress Woodland. Once looked into, a vast complexity arises. To quote from the recent Fish and Wildlife study, “Native plants have adapted to the suite of relatively harsh environmental conditions on the tops of the old terraces.
The plants forming the vegetation on these oliogotrophic soils overlap to some degree based on their ability to tolerate a combination of soil moisture, fertility and depth. Through vegetation classification, we have identified six plant associations that are different floristically and structurally from the surrounding vegetation growing under the more ‘forgiving’ conditions.... These six types occur only on the marine terrace ‘islands’ ranging from near Salt Point in Sonoma County to just north of Fort Bragg in Mendocino County.” (Classification andMapping of Mendocino Cypress Woodland, January 2019, p 11.)
It is all about those soils, which occur on the outer coast of Mendocino County and sometimes in Sonoma County. The Pygmy has been an object of fascination and scientific study for a long time.
Please see various sources cited for more information.