The California Coastal National Monument Logo
Designed by Bureau of Land Management illustrator May Wakabayashi in 2000, the logo for the California Coastal
National Monument (CCNM) is elegant in its form and simplicity. The center of the logo appropriately depicts
three offshore rocks or islets of varying sizes. These three rocks show only the portion above mean high tide, symbolizing what the national monument designation is intended to protect, but it also places them in the larger landscape
(or seascape). The three rocks also symbolize the three dimensions--physical (abotic), biological (biotic), and sociocultural (cultural)--of the ecosystems of the California coast of which the CCNM is an integral part and helps to
protect. Two stylized seabirds fly above the rocks as a reminder that the rocks of the CCNM provide key habitat
for seabirds, marine mammals (i.e., seals and sea lions), and a wide variety of intertidal species. On the right side of
the logo, three aligned mountain ranges come down to the coast and symbolize the three land-based core-managing
partners--the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the California Department of
Fish and Game, and the California Department of Parks and Recreation (i.e., California State Parks)--who, through a
memorandum of understanding, are collectively responsible for the oversight and long-term management of the entire
CCNM. And finally, the series of stylized waves that connect the sea and the land on the logo symbolize the numerous
partners (i.e., other agencies and organizations) that are key to the CCNM success, both coast-wide as well as locally.