Point Reyes National Seashore is often a place to find reprieve from our day-to-day lives, to get away from the din and general overwhelm of life’s demands. It’s a place full of the sounds of juncos and towhees, the long call of red-tailed hawks and the soft rustle of wind in the trees. Some 2.5 million people come to the seashore each year, but the pandemic taught many that while the need for natural spaces is great, those places are not always accessible to all. 

That is why in 2021, the Point Reyes National Seashore Association began to capture and preserve the wild sounds of the seashore through a recording project called “Soundscapes of the Seashore.” The project is meant to not only share the sounds of the coastline, but also to educate listeners about the importance of sound as a public resource. 

In 2020, documentary film director Mark Lipman reached out to members of the seashore association to discuss recording in the park. Mr. Lipman, a board member of the Nature Sounds Society, intended to “adopt” the seashore by recording the park’s sounds for public use and enjoyment. 

According to Heather Clapp, director of community engagement for PRNSA, his query could not have come at a better time. During the pandemic and the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd protests, which brought a growing recognition of segregation in Marin County, access to the seashore was a top priority for the organization.

“Because of the pandemic, along with the realization that this is what people need more than ever, especially those who don’t have access to the seashore, we began this really beautiful discussion around soundscapes and how we can restore people’s relationships with the natural world through sound,” Ms. Clapp said.

The project launched at Muddy Hollow Trail, where Mr. Lipman would hike in and camp with special permission. In his recording, the low drone of wind and crashing waves provides a backdrop for the moaning calls of spotted towhees, a song sparrow’s quick chirping, the complex warble of a hermit thrush and a great horned owl’s deep hooting.

Mr. Lipman and other volunteers have since recorded the sounds of passing horses at Five Brooks Trailhead, the open echos of scrub jays at Bear Valley Trail, the soft and muffled sounds of waves through the dunes at Abbotts Lagoon, and the roiling and shaking of the Pacific Ocean at Alamere Falls. These recordings have been edited into five short audio pieces that can be found online.

And the team is still working. The Giacomini Wetlands, where the park service maintains a long-term wetlands restoration project, is of growing interest to the sound recorders. There, volunteers are capturing not just the sounds of the marsh—from northern harriers to wood ducks and mallards—but also the underwater clicking and clacking of the peculiar toadfish living within the reeds.

At the wetlands, as with many wild places, the sounds of roads and human activity often make recording difficult. “It is probably the worst place you could possibly try to record because there’s roads on both sides of Tomales Bay,” Mr. Lipman said. “You walk through that area and it’s gorgeous, but you know, the sound environment is very compromised.”

Ms. Clapp said that balance between human commotion and nature lies at the heart of the seashore’s existence.

“These sites are a little challenging because of that human interface, but that is what a national park is also for,” she said. “It’s for visitor enjoyment and for human enjoyment, and it’s what people need. And to have the Giacomini Wetlands site so centrally located and accessible within the hub of the community here in Point Reyes Station is vital.”

Sound recordings are not only a vital resource for people unable to access the park, but they are also becoming increasingly important in conservation research. Since 2018, scientists with the park service have used wireless recording devices across the seashore and other federal lands to monitor northern spotted owl populations more regularly. These wireless recordings reduce habitat disruptions and have the potential to be used to study other aspects of the environment, said Dave Press, the integrated resources program lead at the seashore.

“I think there’s a lot of questions that we could delve into just with the data that we have on hand,” he said. From using the owl recordings to listen for other bird species or even the rare Point Reyes mountain beaver, there is much researchers in the park and beyond could learn from sound recordings.

Mr. Press said sound is an important resource that the park service at large is dedicated to preserving. 

“I think it’s important to recognize that sound itself is a resource, and people don’t often think about that,” he said. “You know, try to enjoy a quiet evening out in the wilderness and suddenly a jet plane darts overhead. That it’s a little disturbing for us and the wildlife in those areas. So when it comes to the National Park Service’s mission of preserving our resources, the soundscape is definitely one of those resources.”

As visitors come in great numbers to Point Reyes every year, providing space for public enjoyment and preserving wildlife are two needs the park is attempting to meet. At times they may be in tension, but the importance of sound goes beyond just enjoyment and information gathering. It helps us reconnect better with nature, Mr. Lipman said.

“We’re so visually oriented, that when you start to focus on sound, it just connects people in a different kind of way to a place because it’s less familiar,” he said. “They hear, they connect, and it can be very meaningful.”

To listen to the recordings, visit go.nps.gov/seashoresoundscapes.