Editing Marin County, California (section)

==Ecology==
{{more citations needed|date=May 2015}}

[[File:Mount tamalpais from berkeley.JPG|thumb|right|220px|[[Mount Tamalpais]] is the highest peak in the [[Marin Hills]] and can be seen here from [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]] in [[Alameda County, California|Alameda County]].]]
Marin County is considered in the [[California Floristic Province]], a zone of extremely high [[biodiversity]] and [[endemism]]. There are numerous [[ecosystem]]s present, including [[Coastal Strand]], [[California oak woodland|oak woodland]], [[California mixed evergreen forest|mixed evergreen forest]], and [[Coast Redwood|Coast Redwood Forests]] [[chaparral]] and [[riparian zone]]s. There are also a considerable number of protected plant and animal species present: [[Fauna]] include the [[California red-legged frog]] (''Rana draytonii'') and [[California freshwater shrimp]] while [[flora]] include Marin Dwarf Flax, ''[[Hesperolinon congestum]]''; Tiburon Jewelflower, ''[[Streptanthus niger]]''; and Tiburon Indian paintbrush, ''[[Castilleja neglecta]]''.

[[File:Muir_Woods_National_Monument,_Marin_County,_California.jpg|thumb|left|220px|[[Muir Woods National Monument]], which is on the Pacific coast of southwestern Marin County]]
A number of watersheds exist in Marin County, including [[Walker Creek (Marin County, California)|Walker Creek]], [[Lagunitas Creek]], [[Miller Creek (Marin County, California)|Miller Creek]], and [[Novato Creek]].

Notably, the Lagunitas Creek Watershed is home to the largest remaining wild run of [[coho salmon]] (''Oncorhynchus kisutch'') in Central California. These coho are part of the "Central California Coast Evolutionarily Significant Unit,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/protected_species/salmon_steelhead/salmon_and_steelhead_listings/coho/central_california_coast_coho.html|title=Central California Coast Coho Salmon &#124; NOAA Fisheries|date=February 26, 2021}}</ref> " or CCC ESU, and are listed as "endangered" at both the state and federal level.

Significant efforts to protect and restore these fish<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marincountyparks.org/depts/pk/our-work/os-main-projects/san-geronimo |title=Marin County Parks and Open Space: Our Work - San Geronimo Project |access-date=November 28, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208134324/http://www.marincountyparks.org/depts/pk/our-work/os-main-projects/san-geronimo |archive-date=December 8, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> have been underway in the Watershed since the 1980s. Fifty percent of historical salmon habitat is now behind dams. Strong efforts are also being made to protect and restore undammed, headwater reaches of this Watershed in the [[San Geronimo Valley]], where upwards of 40% of the Lagunitas salmon spawn each year and where as much as 1/3 of the juvenile salmon (or fry) spend their entire freshwater lives. The "Salmon Protection and Watershed Network"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://spawnusa.org/ |title=Salmon &#124; Turtle Island Restoration Network |publisher=Spawnusa.org |access-date=June 13, 2014}}</ref> leads winter tours for the public to learn about and view these spawning salmon, and also leads year-round opportunities for the public to get involved in stream restoration, monitoring spawning and smolt outmigration, juvenile fish rescue and relocation in the summer, and advocacy and policy development. Around 490 different species of birds have been observed in Marin County.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marinaudubon.org/sighting.htm |title=Home &#124; Marin Audubon Society |publisher=Marinaudubon.org |access-date=June 13, 2014}}</ref>
[[File:The Veench Vista - Marin County.jpg|thumb|left|375px|The Veench Vista - Marin County]]

Despite the lack of rain in the Marin County area due to historic drought levels,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.marinwater.org/318/Drought-Information |title=Drought Information &#124; Marin Municipal Water District - Official Website |access-date=November 28, 2015 |archive-date=December 1, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151201221745/http://marinwater.org/318/Drought-Information |url-status=dead }}</ref> in 2014, an estimated 20,000 juvenile Coho salmon made the migration from their spawning grounds in the [[Lagunitas Creek]] area to the Pacific Ocean. This increase in migration was significantly up from the previous historic record for the same migration measured in 2006 at 11,000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Drought-helps-coho-salmon-set-migration-record-5574273.php |title=Drought helps coho salmon set migration record |date=June 24, 2014 |publisher=sfgateorg |access-date=June 24, 2014}}</ref>

In 2010, all of the county's beaches were listed as the cleanest in the state.<ref name="dirty">[https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-beaches-grade-well-for-safe-swimming-3187113.php Bay Area beaches grade well for safe swimming], May 27, 2010, by Carolyn Jones, San Francisco Chronicle</ref>

When [[Richard Henry Dana Jr.]] visited San Francisco Bay in 1835, he wrote about vast [[tule elk]] (''Cervus canadensis nannodes'') herds near the [[Golden Gate]] on December 27: "...we came to anchor near the mouth of the bay, under a high and beautifully sloping hill, upon which herds of hundreds and hundreds of red deer [note: "red deer" is the European term for "elk"], and the stag, with his high branching antlers, were bounding about...," although it is not clear whether this was the Marin side or the San Francisco side.<ref>{{cite book |title=Two Years Before the Mast. A Personal Narrative. |url=https://archive.org/details/twoyearsbeforema00danarich | author=Richard Henry Dana Jr. |year=1840 |publisher=Harper and Brothers |location=New York |isbn=9781441405401 |page=[https://archive.org/details/twoyearsbeforema00danarich/page/270 270]}}</ref>