New River
Area of Critical Environmental Concern
Trails starting at Storm Ranch connects coastal pine forests with New River.
New River
Area of Critical Environmental Concern
Trails starting at Storm Ranch connects coastal pine forests with New River.
New River was born during the Great Flood of 1890, when the mouth of Floras Creek moved north. Where the creek once flowed due west into the sea, the floodwaters carved a new channel that now flows north for almost 15 miles before finally entering the sea.
New River is dynamic and ever changing. The river and adjacent lands form a special management area known as an ‘Area of Critical Environmental Concern' (ACEC), with management decisions that focus on conserving the area’s unique variety of plants and animals, habitats, and ecological processes. Dunes are transforming into forests, fragile flowers struggle to survive, and the river mouth keeps shifting.
What's special about New River? New River offers an abundance of habitats, many still in early succession stages. Many wetlands, meadows, and forests were open sand a century ago. The New River area has been inhabited and used by people for at least a thousand years; adjacent lands are now managed for agriculture, primarily for cattle grazing and cranberry bogs.
Watch birds and other wildlife, gently investigate threatened plants and animals, and observe the details of an emerging landscape. The river hosts migrating salmon and waterfowl and the coastal forest is a key stop-over for migrating songbirds.
Open free to the public daily, New River offers parking (but no turn around for RVs), three miles of trails (at Storm Ranch), and restrooms. The Ellen Waring Learning Center, with displays, field guides, and library, is opened for groups upon request. A hot spot for amateur and professional photographers alike, don’t miss this chance to capture a unique and evolving landscape.
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