The King Range Wilderness is a 42,585-acre (172 km2) federally designated wilderness area within the King Range National Conservation Area in northern California, United States. The area was set aside with the passage of the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act of 2006 (Public Law 109–362). The Bureau of Land Management is the responsible agency. This section of California's coastline is known as the Lost Coast, a landscape too rugged for highway building, which forced the construction of State Highway 1 and U.S. 101 inland. The King Range Wilderness is the longest undeveloped coast, outside of Alaska, in the United States. The Act of 2006 also set aside an area three geographical miles offshore as the Rocks and Islands Wilderness. It is the smallest wilderness area in the National Wilderness Preservation System, with a total size of five acres (2.0 ha). The King Range is part of the Coast Ranges mountains and has the greatest relief in the shortest distance of all coast ranges in the state. In the lateral distance of three miles (5 km), the King Range rises from sea level to over 4,000 feet (1,200 m). There are four areas of botanical significance: Old growth forest of Douglas-fir on the east slopes of King Range, dune system of the Mattole River, undisturbed coastal prairie, and coastal stands of reedgrass. Wildlife include black-tailed deer, black bear, mountain lion, and the re-introduced Roosevelt elk. Bird species include quail, grouse, dove, hawks, turkey vultures and osprey. Marine animals include harbor seals, Steller and California sea lions, and river otter. The Honeydew Creek Wildlife Preserve protects 2,980 acres (12 km2) of habitat north of King Peak for bald eagle, northern spotted owl, mink and anadromous fish.
Area history
The earliest prehistoric sites in the coastal area are no older than 2,800 years, possibly because of geological uplifting and soil erosion. Early Native American artifacts found in the King Range suggest settlement by the Wiyot, then the Yurok by AD 1100. More recently, the Mattole, Sinkyone and Bear River peoples have lived in the area. From the 1570s through the 1800s, Spanish, American and Russian explorers and fur-trappers came to the area. By the 1880s, ranches and farms were supplying the demands of the mining communities and the growing settlements. Remains of old homestead ruins and their orchards can still be found throughout the King Range. With the advent of mechanized equipment, the area became more accessible, and the Douglas fir forests supplied lumber and an economic boom was underway by the 1940s with Humboldt County being the largest supplier in the state. Fishing also became a large economic industry, especially for salmon. On December 10, 1929, President Herbert Hoover issued Executive Order 5237 at the request of the state that withdrew several parcels from settlement as public land. California's State Division of Beaches and Parks saw recreational potential in the King Range, but the land remained unclassified until the 1950s. Congressman Clem Miller introduced a bill in 1961 to establish the national conservation area, and had support from organizations such as the Sierra Club and the Mattole Action Committee. Although Congressman Miller died in a plane crash in 1962, another member of Congress, Don Clausen, continued Miller's work and the bill was signed into law by 1970.
Climate The area gets some of the highest rainfall totals in the continental United States, with over 100 inches (2,500 mm) of rain yearly in the Mattole River valley. In addition, coastal fog brings moisture during the summer months. Although the inland areas can have summer temperatures over 100 °F (38 °C), the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean moderates coastal temperatures to an average of 60 °F (16 °C). The extreme vertical rise of the mountains create intense rain showers (called orographic, meaning terrain-induced), caused by the lifting of storms as they approach the steep topography. The watersheds are flooded regularly as a result. There are weather anomalies here also; less coastal fog than other coastal parts of the state, and the prevailing wind is from the northeast-east instead of westerly.
Waterways
Mattole River and estuary The Mattole River's mainstem is 62 miles (100 km) in length and has more than 74 tributaries. It has historically had large runs of salmon and steelhead trout, but due to past logging, road building and severe floods in 1955 and 1964, all of which impacted the river, fish numbers have declined. The coho salmon is a federally listed threatened species (Southern Oregon/Northern California populations) that use the Mattole River and its tributary, Mill Creek. Increased sediment and lack of tree cover reduced the quality and quantity of fish habitat by increasing summer water temperatures. The Environmental Protection Agency added the Mattole River to the state's list of impaired watersheds in 1992. The Mattole Estuary is where the waters of the land meet and mix with the tidewaters of the Pacific Ocean, and acts as a settling basin for both river sediment and sand from ocean waves, and will eventually fill to become a meadow. The Bureau of Land Management designated the Mattole Estuary as an "Area of Critical Environmental Concern" in 1981. This area, now at more than 650 acres (2.6 km2), has significant cultural, historic, wildlife and habitat resources. The watershed, or catchbasin of the river has been seriously impacted from past road building, and restoration efforts include abandonment of some roadways as well as reshaping and upgrading of others. Other fish species in the Mattole River include the Pacific lamprey, threespine stickleback, and the starry flounder.
The historic Punta Gorda Lighthouse located near the estuary of the Mattole River.
Other waterways The streams flowing into the Pacific from the west side have both anadromous and resident fish as well as amphibians and reptiles. The largest of these waterways are Big Creek and Big Flat Creek. All the coastal streams have been identified as unique in habitat and variety of species . Restoration efforts by both public land agencies and nonprofit groups has been going on since the 1970s with the restoration projects focused on the Mattole River, its estuary, tributaries, and the river's lower reach area.
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