Point Reyes Seashore National Park has over 80 miles of coastline. North of San Francisco, the park attracts more than two million visitors every year.

But rising seas and more extreme storm surge endanger the coastline and the northern elephant and harbor seal pups born in the park. To raise awareness about climate change impacts, the park is hosting a traveling art quilt exhibit.

Each piece uses fabric to illustrate an impact of global warming. For example, one quilt depicts rooftops barely visible behind a wall of seawater.

Dell’Osso: “If you come into our main visitor center and you see this very attractive art display, you’re going to walk up to it and say, ‘what is this?’ And as you start to read the captions that go with these quilts, you’re going to be educated even more on how can we make a difference, as our planet is changing.”

That’s John Dell’Osso, Chief of Interpretation and Resource Education for the park.

Dell’Osso: “This is just another way to increase the public’s awareness of an issue such as this and hopefully give them hope: here’s what you personally can do about maybe lessening this and slowing it down.’”

Together, the diverse quilts piece together climate impacts and solutions.

Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media.
Top Photo: Elephant seals (adult male, adult female, and pup) (source: National Park Service
Bottom Photo: Art quilts showing at the Pt. Reyes exhibit.

More Resources
http://www.nps.gov/pore/naturescience/climatechange.htm