- The Balmoral Reef Plate is a small tectonic plate (microplate) located in the south Pacific north of Fiji. Clockwise from the north, it borders the Pacific Plate, the Australian Plate, Conway Reef Plate, and the New Hebrides Plate. The northern and western borders are a divergent boundary while the rest of the borders are transform and convergent boundaries. The Balmoral Reef Plate’s ocean crust is less than 12 million years old and is spreading between the New Hebrides and Tonga subduction. The plate forms the west central part of the seafloor of the North Fiji Basin.
- Hendrickson Canyon Natural Resources Conservation Area (dnr.wa.gov)
The 159-acre Hendrickson Canyon NRCA contains Wahkiakum County’s last high quality, mature and old growth forest composed of 100 to 120 year old western hemlock, western red-cedar, and Sitka spruce, with scattered older trees. There are very few such remnant stands of mature or old growth forests remaining in the Willapa Hills of southwestern Washington. The site also supports a high-quality example of the western hemlock/Oregon oxalis community type and provides habitat for birds associated with old-growth forest conditions.