How did these soils form? This soil tells a story of gravel shedding from Mountain Rock, carried by water with clay from the hills and deposited on the alluvial plain for millennia. 250 years ago Europeans, cattle and sheep arrived and now the gravel and soil is carried to the ocean. Why? There must have been grasses, sedges and other plants getting buried while preventing erosion. 40’ of topsoil formation could be a human artifact from 1000 years of stewardship. Science could give us an answer