The North Coast Regional Report includes climate science, impacts, and adaptation information for Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties.
At the confluence of four major ecoregions and the Pacific Ocean, the North Coast region holds an extraordinary diversity of life, ecosystems, and cultural legacies. Its steep mountains, fog-fed forests, serpentine outcrops, and verdant valleys form a rare mosaic of microclimates and habitats, many found nowhere else on Earth.
The region is remote and distinctly rural. Small cities and towns are interspersed with huge areas of private timberland, ranches, agriculture, alpine zones, National Forests, and State Parks. Over 28 Tribes reside here, including the three largest Tribes in California (Karuk, Yurok, and Hoopa). Despite the many colonial impacts forced on both Indigenous Peoples and the places they resided on before European contact, the Tribes within the North Coast region have continued to tend, shape, and be an intricate part of the ecosystems found here since time immemorial.
Climate change is already dramatically affecting the North Coast through impacts from wildfires to marine heat waves. Despite this, the region models successes in conservation, restoration, and future-focused adaptation thanks to Tribal leadership, including examples like the Klamath River dam removal. The region provides numerous ecological, cultural, and economic values that are essential in sustaining wildlife and human communities for Northern California and beyond.
North Coast Regional Report
Coordinating Lead Authors
Andrew Stubblefield & Rosemary Sherriff, Cal Poly Humboldt