Kenneth S. Norris Rancho Marino Reserve, Protected coastal area in San Luis Obispo County, California, US.

Kenneth S. Norris Rancho Marino Reserve is a protected coastal area featuring scrub vegetation, grasslands, ocean habitats, and forest growth across varying elevations. The land transitions from shoreline to higher inland terrain where different plants and animals thrive.

Native Californians gathered shellfish and acorns on this shore for up to 5,000 years. In 1841 the Mexican governor granted the land to Julian Estrada as part of Rancho Santa Rosa. Swiss dairymen later grazed cattle here, and Chinese seaweed farmers burned intertidal rocks from 1900 to 1960 to encourage sea lettuce growth. The site joined the UC Natural Reserve System in 2001.

This location has been home to people who gathered shellfish and fished here for thousands of years. The land still reflects this deep human connection to the coast.

There is no public access: the reserve is privately owned and funded, operated by the University of California under a use agreement. Entry is limited to research and teaching use, so visitors cannot tour the site or use its facilities. The terrain runs from a sea cliff up to a ridge 700 feet high, crossed by nine coastal drainages.

The reserve protects 225 acres of Monterey pine forest at the southern end of one of California's three remaining original stands. A long-term study of the pines' demography began in 2001, and PISCO monitors the kelp forests offshore.