The National Park Service is managing this grassland in accordance with its mission of preserving and restoring native landscapes. Inspiration Point contains the only serpentine grassland within Golden Gate National Recreation Area s 74,000-plus acres of land. A fragmented band of serpentinite, the California state mineral, traverses San Francisco, emerging on the Presidio from Inspiration Point and continuing to the coastal bluffs. Numerous small grasslands once flourished along this band. Inspiration Point is the site of one of the few intact remnant serpentine grasslands in the San Francisco peninsula because of development.
Serpentine soils are very unusual, and are hosts to many endemic plants.
While containing high levels of certain heavy metals that can be toxic to plants, they are low in other elements needed for plant growth, such as calcium. Over hundreds of thousands of years, many plant species have evolved mechanisms that allow them to survive in serpentine soils, and some are found only in these unique habitats. As their habitat diminishes, these specially adapted plants become rare or endangered. Inspiration Point is home to three rare plants, including one of the last remaining natural populations of Presidio clarkia. The trees being removed in the current habitat restoration project are primarily Monterey pines.