When I saw the sign for Inglenook Fen, two things came to mind: wine and northern England. Wine, of course, from the vineyard in Madera, California, and England because, well, fen seems to go with words like hill, dale and bog you associate with England.

Actually, the Inglenook Fen-Ten Mile Dunes Natural Preserve encompasses nearly 1,300 acres of coastal dunes within MacKerricher State Park that extend from Ward Avenue north to the Ten Mile River, according to by Renée Pasquinelli, Sr. State Park Resource Ecologist, who notes that state codes define it as “natural preserves consist of distinct areas of outstanding natural or scientific significance established within the boundaries of other state park system units … such features as rare or endangered plant and animal species and their supporting ecosystem…”.

Explains Pasquinell: The Ten Mile Dunes complex, which includes Inglenook Fen, is a natural heritage treasure of statewide significance. It is comprised of a unique, relatively pristine native dune and wetland ecosystem that supports three federally and state listed species (Western Snowy Plover, Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus, Menzies’ wallflower, Erysimum menziesii spp. menziesii, and Howell’s spineflower, Chorizanthe howellii), and numerous other special status plants.

Chorizanthe howellii is found no where else in the world but in the dune systems in and around MacKerricher State Park. The Inglenook Fen, an ecological intermediate between a bog and a marsh, is the only known remaining coastal fen in California.

This is more reason to visit Fort Bragg.

To get there: follow Highway 1, north of downtown Fort Bragg, make a left on Ward Ave, drive to the end, park, and walk north a quarter mile on the Old Haul Road to Inglenook Fen

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