California's Coastal Resources

This site offers access to pages on the Geography of California Coastal Systems and on California Coastal Ecology. Much of the material is drawn from the California Coastal Commission's California Coastal Resource Guide. The California coast is a region of unsurpassed beauty and natural splendor, blessed with an abundance of rich and varied resources. The coast supports a diversity of plant communities and tens of thousands of species of insects and other invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals, including numerous rare and endangered species. From the lush redwood forests of the north to the wide, sandy beaches of the south, California's expansive coastline contains many distinct habitats. These habitats are the result of many different natural forces. The habitats/environments are: Coastal Mountains, Streams and Rivers, Marine Terraces, Bluffs and Headlands, Coastal Sand Dunes, Beaches, Wetlands, Rocky Intertidal Zones, Islands and Offshore Rocks, and Nearshore Waters and Open Ocean. Users of this site may also access the California Ocean and Coastal Environmental Access Network (Cal OCEAN), a web-based virtual library for the discovery of and access to ocean and coastal data and information from a wide variety of sources and in a range of types and formats. The goal of Cal OCEAN is to provide the information and tools to support ocean and coastal resource management, planning, research, and education via the Internet. Educational levels: General public, High school, Intermediate elementary, Middle school