Ferndale, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 5.6 miles west of Ferndale, CA?
USGS's shoreline-change data puts this stretch, 5.6 miles west of Ferndale, CA, at 1.4 feet of erosion a year on average, a long-term rate for this specific ~3.5-mile section, not one storm's damage. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 14 feet over the last decade.
What this reading actually covers
USGS surveys the coast in transects spaced a few hundred feet apart; this page groups the nearest ones into a single ~3.5-mile reading for the stretch closest to Ferndale, CA, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 40.55, -124.36. USGS's California assessment last surveyed this stretch through 1852-2016, computing the rate with its LRR method. Other US regions were surveyed in different years, sometimes decades apart, so this page states its own rather than implying one national vintage.
What 1.4 ft/yr means over time
Run 5.6 miles west of Ferndale, CA's 1.4 ft/yr rate forward 25 years and it implies about 35 feet of further retreat, assuming nothing changes, which is exactly the assumption a seawall or nourishment project exists to break.
Where this fits nationally
This reading comes from 110 individual transects averaged together, 100% of which measured erosion rather than growth. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.78 ft/yr. Among the 1211 US coastal segments with a measurable trend, this one ranks 167 for erosion, 1 being the fastest-retreating coast in the dataset. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. Rank 26 nationally for erosion belongs to Port Sulphur, LA, 2089 miles from this stretch, measured at 8.84 ft/yr, 6.3x this stretch's rate. 1.8 miles away, Ferndale, CA is the nearest other measured stretch: slight erosion at 0.97 ft/yr.
One address near Ferndale: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal zooms past this stretch to the underlying map.