Jim Popenoe
Orick Beach
The beach at Orick is a good place to see intact native dune-mat vegetation. The Redwood National and State Parks removed the invasive plant, European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria), from Orick Beach in 1999. Beachgrass had trapped sand, forming high dunes that buried native dune plants. The dunes were so high that they largely hid the ocean from the highway. After the beachgrass was removed, winter storms lowered the dunes, and it became much easier to view the ocean from the highway. No longer smothered by beachgrass, native dune-mat plants have rebounded.
