Dune Habitat: A Once Common, Now Rare Commodity

View of the bluff towards Baker Beach with sand dune and dune plants in foreground.

These sand dunes are a remnant of a vast dune field that underlies much of San Francisco. This dune system is composed of sand that has blown up and over the hills of San Francisco from Ocean Beach and Baker Beach.


The sand originated on a broad coastal plain that stretched 30 miles offshore during low sea levels of the last Ice Age. It was transported inland during rapid sea level rise as continental glaciers melted between about 18,000 and 5,000 years ago. The dunes remained active until urban development covered them.


Ongoing restoration of the coastal plant communities on this relict dune is helping bring back rare plant species, like the San Francisco lessingia and Dune gilia.