The Hans Jenny Pygmy Forest Reserve lies on the oldest and highest of five
wave-cut terraces that rise from the chilly waters of the Mendocino County
coast. In this complex “ecological staircase,” each terrace is approximately 100,000
years older than the one below it and supports a distinct association of soils,
microbes, plants, and animals. The uppermost terrace of the reserve affords an
opportunity to study two pristine climax communities, Bishop pine forest and
pygmy forest, on podzolized (nutrient-poor, highly acidic) soils. Underlying this
relatively inhospitable soil is a clay hardpan. As a result, much of the vegetation is
stunted, and there are dwarf trees; some mature trees are barely waist-high with
trunks a few centimeters in diameter. The reserve also harbors an understory of
unusual evergreen shrubs, with many endemic species, such as Mendocino cypress
and Bolander’s pine. This site, which is protected by The Nature Conservancy
(TNC), is named in memory of renowned UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Hans
Jenny, a world authority on soil science, who spent over half a century studying the
inhospitable soils that support this rare, fragile forest.
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