The Forest
The Del Monte Forest is an internationally important treasure. Just 200 years ago, the Peninsula was blanketed with a rich Monterey Pine Forest ecosystem. There were grizzly bears, eagles, condors, and other wildlife in abundance. What remains in Del Monte Forest, though fragmented by housing and golf courses, still constitutes a rare treasure of diversity, beauty, history and critical wildlife habitat.
The Del Monte Forest is one of the rarest forest ecosystems in the world. The forest is used as a genetic heritage site for a global multi-billion dollar forest products industry. These trees are listed as endangered by all the important international entities who monitor the world's resources. This forest is also the source of much of the Monterey Peninsula's renown beauty, which attracts tourists and revenue from the world over.
In the entire world, there are only five small native populations of this forest - three on the coast of California and two small stands on Mexican Islands off Baja. One of these is near extinction. Human development has destroyed over half the range of this forest in the two hundred years of European colonization. There are only 13,000 acres left of this forest type.
Study Links
Selected
Biological Features of Monterey Pine and Its Forest 