• The Point Reyes Beach as viewed from the Point Reyes Headlands

    Point Reyes

    National Seashore California

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  • Operational Changes Took Effect on May 1

    The Lighthouse Visitor Center is now only open Fridays through Mondays. The Kenneth C. Patrick Visitor Center will be closed through late December 2013. More »

  • 2013 Harbor Seal Pupping Season Closures

    From March 1 through June 30, the park implements closures of certain Tomales Bay beaches and Drakes Estero to water-based recreation to protect harbor seals during the pupping season. Please avoid disturbing seals to ensure a successful pupping season. More »

Fire Ecology - Research

The objectives of fire research at PRNS are two-fold. The primary research objective is to collect and analyze data on specific biological resources in a scientifically rigorous manner to determine positive or adverse effects of prescribed burning on targeted resources. The secondary objective is to improve the knowledge base about prescribed fire and wildfire such that fire research will contribute both to science and to fire management.

Research has been conducted by park staff and by outside researchers. It is the goal of the fire program at PRNS to continue in-park research efforts and to recruit high caliber research from outside organizations.

 

Reports

Forrestel, Alison B, M.A. Moritz, and S.L. Stephens, Landscape-Scale Vegetation Change following Fire in Point Reyes, California, USA, Fire Ecology, Volume 7, Issue 2, pp. 114-128, 2011 (1,217 KB PDF)

Ramage, B., A. Forrestel, M. Moritz, K. O'Hara, 2010. Long Term Monitoring of the Ecological Impacts of Sudden Oak Death in Point Reyes National Seashore: 2007-2009 (633 KB PDF)

Moritz, M., T. Moody, B. Ramage, A. Forrestel, 2008. Spatial distribution and impacts of Phytophthora ramorum and Sudden Oak Death in Point Reyes National Seashore (1,565 KB PDF)

U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2005. Vision Fire: Lessons Learned from the October 1995 Fire. Point Reyes National Seashore, 98pp. (html)

R. Scott Anderson's Brown-bag Seminar Presentation "Contrasting Vegetation and Fire Histories on the Point Reyes Peninsula During the Pre-Settlement and Settlement Periods," February 2006 (5,198 KB PDF)

Anderson, R.S. 2005. Contrasting Vegetation and Fire Histories on the Point Reyes Peninsula During the Pre-Settlement and Settlement Periods: 15,000 Years of Change (1,155 KB PDF)

Anderson, R.S. 2001. Long-Term Fire History from Sedimentary Charcoal Analysis: the Wildcat Lake and Glenmire Sites (203 KB PDF)


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Did You Know?

Solar Panels on the Bear Valley Administration Building. Daniel Strain / NPS.

As of 2012, Point Reyes National Seashore has installed solar panels on fifteen park buildings, from which the park receives close to 30 percent of the energy it uses. More...