Crescent City Marsh. (USFWS Photo by D. Imper )

Western lily. (USFWS photo by D. Imper)

Map of the project area.

The Coastal Program and the Endangered Species Program at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Arcata Fish and Wildlife Office worked cooperatively to provide funding and technical assistance as part of an effort to develop a conservation strategy for the Crescent City Marsh. 

This 1,400 acre coastal watershed is located in Del Norte County, California, close to the Oregon and California border. The area includes private, state, county and tribal lands.  In 2006, funds were provided to the Smith River Alliance, a non-profit organization, for development of a conservation strategy, and the work is still in progress.  The strategy includes: development of a public outreach and education plan focused on the need for conservation of the marsh;  working with the public to develop conservation options such as conservation easements, land exchanges, acquisition opportunities and methods to improve the hydrologic regime of the marsh; and development of funding options.

The Crescent City Marsh is home to more than 230 plant species, at least a dozen of which are considered rare, threatened, or endangered. Many of these species are absent or rare elsewhere along California’s coast.  The marsh also supports the largest known population of the federally endangered western lily (Lilium occidentale). More than 75 percent of the lilies grow here because the western lily and the plant communities in which it occurs require very specific moisture content. 

The Coastal Program and Endangered Species Program staff are working to better understand how the plant communities are affected by the hydrologic regime of the marsh.   The Coastal Program has provided hydrology expertise and funding while the Endangered Species Program has provided funding and continues to monitor the status of the western lily and associated plant community.