Wetlands and Estuaries Quick Reads

Smooth cordgrass cross-breeds with native California cordgrass, producing “super hybrids” that grow much taller and with denser stems than the native species. These hybrids can also survive both lower and higher in the intertidal zone. If hybrid cordgrass became established in the estuaries of Point Reyes, it could fill many of the mudflats used by shorebirds. How would this affect the small creatures that the birds feed on, and the broader salt marsh ecosystem?

Healthy wetlands perform a variety of key functions wherever they are found. California has already lost more than 90% of certain types of wetlands, including stream-side wetlands, the most prevalent wetland type in Pinnacles National Park. The San Francisco Bay Area Network Inventory and Monitoring Program collected pilot monitoring data on a small number of stream sections at Pinnacles National Park in 2009 and completed its first full year of wetlands monitoring in 2012.

Although riparian areas do not represent a large proportion of Pinnacles National Park, they are extremely important to the species that live within and around them. An inventory of the species that occur in the riparian areas of Pinnacles was conducted in 2001- 2004. The completed inventory revealed a moderate change to the vertebrate species composition since the last inventory, and included some other interesting findings.