Elkhorn Slough

by Mark Silberstein and Eileen Campbell

Book Overview

Discover one of Californias few remaining wetlands. In these beautifully illustrated pages, youll explore a narrow, winding waterway edged with marshy and muddy ground where plants and wildlife find a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1878244000
• ISBN13: 9781878244000
• Release Date: February 1990
• Publisher: Monterey Bay Aquarium Press
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Postcard from California

This is an enticing little book about a glorious place. Elkhorn Slough is a seasonal brackish-water estuary which drains into Monterey Bay, about 100 miles south of the Golden Gate. It's a National Research Reserve, managed by Cal Fish & Game, not a pristine wilderness by any means, but a "rescued" and partly restored coastal wetlands. The initial efforts to rescue it came from The Nature Conservancy, an organization to which I contribute more willingly than to any political campaign. More than 75% of California's coastal wetlands have been ravaged by development, and the efforts to destroy the remainder for short-term profit have been assisted by the current Republican administrations in DC and in Sacramento. The little book gives a history of the salvation of Elkhorn, and an eloquent description of the ecological value of sloughs and marshes. It also includes descriptions of the flora and fauna, including life habits and significance to the hills above and sea below the slough. There are wonderful pictures of the estuary and its fauna, particularly of the birds and marine mammals. One is certain to see large numbers of birds there, even in the months between migrations, as well as seals, sea lions, and sea otters. Elkhorn is probably the finest place to observe otters in all of California. Bird-watchers, take note: on a single day, from my kayak, I've seen pelicans, two species of grebes, loons, four species of gulls, cormorants, mergansers, pintails, buffleheads, shovelers, ruddy ducks, all manner of common ducks, geese, dowitchers, stilts, avocets, willets, curlews, clapper rails, night herons, blue herons, two species of egrets, three species of hawks, and a rabble of songbirds. The best way to visit Elkhorn Slough is by kayak or canoe, although there are a few walking paths also. Boat launches are maintained at the mouth and at two places toward the source, but most visitors rent a kayak at Moss Landing, a hamlet by the bridge of Highway 1 which crosses the mouth of the estuary. No freeway has been allowed to ruin the coast of the Bay Area from SF to Monterey, and I suspect that if bulldozers arrived to build one, I'd be among hundreds or thousands of protestors throwing our bodies in their path. There are glorious state park beaches north and south of Moss Landing. The rugged hills along this coast include huge tracts of park and nature preserve, with glorious hiking trails, and Monterey, with its research aquarium, is well worth a visit. The whole area is a year-round wonderland for outdoorsy tourists, and a vivid living sermon on the importance of conservation and preservation. Off-shore oil drilling would potentially doom this fragile national treasure; any politician who advocates it should hasten to kayak up Elkhorn Slough, to see first-hand what he/she risks destroying. Later: as the comments that follow reveal, there are current and ongoing threats to the viable ecology of Elkhorn Slough. Agricultural run-off of pesticides and