Point Reyes National Seashore is a good place to view how man influences nature and how nature influences man. Here I am viewing an introduced plant, ice plant that had a significant and negative influence on the coastal dunes.
An exhibit at North Beach explains how the invasive ice plant and European beach grass are displacing the native plants and keeping the normally shifting dunes stable. Stable dunes may sound like a good idea but I think we need places where we can see nature at work.
Here you can see piles of ice plant that have been pulled up while some of the native plants are reestablishing themselves.
Beach Primrose
Seaside Daisy
Near the visitor center we can see how nature can have catastrophic effects on man. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake ran right through Point Reyes.
The offset of this fence shows how far the earth moved.
The line of posts on the hill above the fence demarks the San Andreas Fault.
The fault runs through Tomales Bay, in front of the lodge where were staying. I wonder what it would be like to be there when the earth moves again.
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