Fort Hunter Liggett, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 14.1 miles west of Fort Hunter Liggett, CA
The coast 14.1 miles west of Fort Hunter Liggett, CA shows no statistically significant trend either way. USGS's transects measured a rate here, but it's smaller than the survey's own margin of error for this stretch, so calling it "eroding" or "growing" would overstate what the data actually shows.
The grain of this number
Nothing here is parcel-level. USGS's raw transects run every few hundred feet along the shore; this page averages the ones nearest Fort Hunter Liggett, CA into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 35.96°N, 121.48°W. The survey behind it runs to 1852-2016, in USGS's California assessment, using the LRR method. Shoreline surveys aren't repeated every year, so this is the most recent long-term measurement USGS has published for this coast, not a live reading.
How solid is this number
Averaging 22 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 100% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.33 ft/yr either side. Taken at face value, this segment's raw -0.2 ft/yr reading would land it 508 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. Rank 1057 nationally for growth belongs to West Sayville, NY, 2612 miles from this stretch, measured at 0.66 ft/yr. 2.1 miles up the coast, Fort Hunter Liggett, CA shows 0.4 ft/yr of eroding.
Not this whole stretch, just Fort Hunter Liggett itself: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal is USGS's own live version of this data.