Point Reyes National Seashore is comprised of a mosaic of forest, scrub, and grassland vegetation types. These three broad vegetation groups can be divided into more specific vegetation types: bishop pine forest, Douglas-fir/mixed evergreen forest, coast redwood forest, maritime chaparral, coastal scrub, coastal grassland and coastal dune.
| Vegetation Type |
Description |
| Bishop Pine Forests |
Bishop pine is fire dependent, serotinous species. Trees live up to 100 to 120 years and require fire to reproduce in large numbers. Fire regime is high severity and trees do not typically survive fire. |
Douglas-fir/
Mixed Evergreen Forests |
Douglas-fir and mixed evergreen forest can tolerate a variable fire regime. These forests experienced a fire return interval of 10 to 30 years prior to Euro-American settlement due to Native American land management and other human-caused fire, but in the absence of humans, fire return intervals would have been much longer. |
| Coast Redwood Forests |
Mature coast redwoods are very resistant to fire. These forests experienced a fire return interval of 20 to 30 years prior to Euro-American settlement due to Native American land management and other human-caused fire, but in the absence of humans, fire return intervals would have been much longer. Coast redwoods require bare mineral soil exposed by fire or flooding to reproduce. |
| Maritime Chaparral |
Chaparral is a fire dependent vegetation type consisting of a mixture of sprouting and non-sprouting shrubs and a high diversity of forbs. Non-sprouting (obligate seeding) shrubs require infrequent, high-severity fire to reproduce. These high severity fires kill mature obligate-seeding individuals, scarify the seedbank and create bare mineral soil which allows a new cohort to germinate. |
| Coastal Scrub |
Coastal scrub vegetation does not require fire to reproduce, but does respond well to fire. Many coastal scrub species are able to sprout post-fire. Grassland is seral to coastal scrub and frequent fire will favor grassland communities. |
| Coastal Grassland |
Coastal grasslands had a long history of frequent burning by Native Americans (every 1–3 years). However, the invasion of these grasslands by non-native species since Euro-American settlement has drastically changed grassland species composition. Fire may facilitate further non-native species invasion in some situations, especially in the case of very short fire return intervals. Grassland is seral to coastal scrub and frequent fire will favor grassland communities. |
| Coastal Dune |
Dune vegetation types have sparse vegetation cover and are therefore not very flammable and seldom burn. |
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 Since 2018, a broad partnership co-led by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy has been working towards creating a fine scale vegetation map of Marin County. After collecting high resolution aerial imagery, LiDAR, and on-the-ground data, they released a draft “Lifeform Map” last year with 22 vegetation classes. This June, they finalized that map and completed it’s fine scale counterpart!  A draft “Lifeform Map” is now available for Marin County. It represents the latest milestone in the Marin Countywide Fine Scale Vegetation Map and Landscape Database Project, co-led by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, in collaboration with a broad coalition of agencies and partners.  In Marin and San Mateo Counties, previous mapping efforts used varying methods and focused solely on individual agency lands, making it challenging or impossible to interpret the data at a landscape level. But now, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is co-leading efforts to produce fine scale vegetation maps for both counties. A broad coalition of agencies and partners are collaborating on the efforts.  October 27, 2018, marked 10 years since the levees were removed as part of the Giacomini Wetlands Restoration Project, a collaborative effort between Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area. One of the goals of the restoration project was to shift vegetation communities at the site from dairy pasture to tidal salt and brackish marsh. We also hoped to see an increase in native plant-dominated communities. Overall, it has been a success.  A broad coalition of Marin County land management agencies and other partners have joined forces to meet their common need for a fine-scale vegetation map and landscape database. The first phase of this project will create digital aerial photos at a resolution of six inches, and three-dimensional landscape imagery through LiDAR surveys.
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