Pescadero, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 2.3 miles northwest of Pescadero, CA
The coast 2.3 miles northwest of Pescadero, 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.
What this reading actually covers
Nothing here is parcel-level. USGS's raw transects run every few hundred feet along the shore; this page averages the ones nearest Pescadero, CA into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 37.27°N, 122.41°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.
Where this fits nationally
Averaging 38 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 92% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.32 ft/yr. Taken at face value, this segment's raw -0.21 ft/yr reading would land it 497 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. For scale: Bayport, NY, 2628 miles away, ranks 1083 of 1211 nationally for growth, 0.83 ft/yr. 2.4 miles up the coast, Pescadero, CA shows the same lack of a significant trend.
Not this whole stretch, just Pescadero itself: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal is USGS's own live version of this data.