Angelo Coast Range Reserve

The Angelo Coast Range Reserve, one of the NRS’s most diverse sites, is located on the South Fork of the Eel River. The reserve encompasses four aquatic and at least 26 terrestrial habitat types, including redwood groves, mixed conifer/deciduous forests, meadows, several types of chaparral, and the state’s largest virgin Douglas-fir forest community. Olympic salamanders, flying squirrels, black bears, and federally threatened northern spotted owls are among the old-growth inhabitants. The reserve also protects four undisturbed watersheds, among them the six-square-mile Elder Creek watershed. These pristine aquatic ecosystems support salmon, steelhead trout, river otters, and Pacific giant salamanders.

Educational Outreach

Students from local public schools stay overnight on site and learn about the area’s natural and land-use history.

Selected Research

• Eel River food webs, productivity, and effects of disturbance by scouring winter floods and invasive species (bullfrogs and Sacramento squawfish) which threaten native yellow-legged frogs and native salmonids.
• Effects of river productivity on terrestrial consumers addressing linkages between river communities and surrounding uplands in the old-growth forest watershed. Impacts of fine riverbed sediments on food webs supporting the growth of juvenile steelhead.

Special Research of National Significance

• Airborne Laser Mapping
• Earth Surface Dynamics – understanding the processes that shape the Earth’s surface
• Eel River Critical Zone Observatory