Habitat Over View
Lake Earl and Lake Tolowa are a component of the Smith River Flood plain extending from Crescent City, CA to the Oregon border. The Lake is located 5 miles north of Crescent city. Lake Earl is 3.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide with a surface area of 2,278 acres (Monroe et al, 1975). Lake Tolowa is smaller with a surface acreage of 243 acres (Monroe et al, 1975). The bodies of water making up Lake Earl and Lake Tolowa are more similar of coastal lagoons. The dunes that separate Lake Tolowa from the sea are occasionally breached and open to the sea. This allows salt water to pass into the lakes. This mixing creates varying degrees of salinity. This complex and diverse area provides variety of habitats that support diverse populations of plant species (see Table 1.).
Table 1 Habitat Acreage
Forest
Riparian 608 Acres
Intertidal Flats and Channels 302 Acres
Open Water
Coastal Sand Dunes
Marshes and Sloughs
(Monroe et al, 1975)
Forest:
Several different types of forest habitat occur in the Lake Earl and Lake Tolowa area. On the predominant sand soils forests are typified by Sitka spruce, shore pine and Monterey cypress (Monroe et al, 1975). In this forest type a thick understory of blackberry, salal, huckleberry and various shrubs form (Monroe et al, 1975). On the more stable soils are Redwood and Douglas fir, even though these species where logged in the past they still cover a large percentage of the area (Monroe et al, 1975). The last forest type is a mix of Sitka spruce, alder and Shore pine (Monroe et al, 1975).