Wildfire destroys historic buildings at Big Basin State Park, some redwoods damaged

San Jose Mercury News ^ | August 20, 2020 | Paul Rogers

[ProtectOurFreedom]

In a devastating loss for one of California’s most venerable parks, the historic park headquarters, the nature center, campgrounds and other structures at Big Basin Redwoods State Park were destroyed in the raging wildfires currently burning through the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The status of the ancient redwoods in the park, some of which tower more than 300 feet tall and date back nearly 2,000 years, was unclear Thursday afternoon. Redwood trees’ bark is heavily fire-resistant, but in intense fire storms the trees can be damaged, and some of the large trees near park headquarters were scorched by the flames, according to rangers who were able to briefly get into the area.

Chris Spohrer, Santa Cruz district superintendent for state parks, said Thursday that rangers had only been able to briefly access the park’s central area so far due to fire risk. Some large redwood trees around the park headquarters had been burned, he said, with damage visible high up in the limbs and branches.

“From what they described it was a high-heat, high-intensity fire,” Spohrer said. “A lot of the canopy, they noted, had been burned. But it is too early to tell what the long-term damage is going to be to those trees.”

Big Basin is California’s oldest state park. It receives more than 1 million visitors a year from around the world. Established in 1902, the park gave rise to the movement to preserve coast redwoods, the world’s tallest trees, from logging a century ago, and sparked the birth of California’s state park system.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Continues...

State parks officials issued a statement late Wednesday saying the park “sustained extensive damage” Tuesday and would be closed indefinitely. The fire burned the park’s “historic core and campgrounds” and destroyed its rustic headquarters, a classic timber building on the National Register of Historic Places constructed in 1936 by President Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps. All campers, rangers and visitors were safely evacuated Tuesday.

State Parks Director Lisa Mangat on Wednesday contacted the heads of several environmental groups that have spent millions buying land and donating money to expand the 18,000-acre park for generations. She told them to brace for catastrophic damage.

“The historic structures in California’s first state park are almost completely destroyed. It’s awful,” said Sam Hodder, president of Save the Redwoods League, a San Francisco-based conservation organization, which was founded in 1918.

On Thursday morning, Cal Fire, the state’s primary firefighting agency, said the blazes, which began with lightning strikes on Sunday, had burned 40,000 acres in remote parts of northern Santa Cruz County and southern San Mateo County, much of it heavy forests. Known as the CZU Lightning Complex fires, the blazes have so far destroyed 20 homes, with 8,500 structures threatened. The fires were 5% contained Thursday morning, Cal Fire reported, with 28,000 people in Boulder Creek, Ben Lomond, Lompico and surrounding communities ordered evacuated, and wider evacuations possible. In San Mateo County, areas around Pescadero and La Honda also were evacuated.

“The fire was right on top of the park,” said Santa Cruz County Supervisor Bruce McPherson, whose district includes Big Basin. “The smoke was hanging over it and they couldn’t get any helicopters in there.”

Big Basin is home to the largest continuous stand of old-growth redwoods south of San Francisco. With 80 miles of hiking trails, the park also contains second-growth redwood forests which were logged generations ago, with Douglas fir, oaks and chaparral over elevations that vary from sea level to over 2,000 feet. It has waterfalls, scenic overlooks and a classic 1930s open-air amphitheater where rangers give nature talks.

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This is so tragic. Big Basin is one of the most magical places and it's only an hour from our house. The damage is going to be immense to the ancient trees and the loss of the beautiful old park structures is beyond heartbreaking. Here is the park HQ in better days.

Fortunately, our oldest daughter backpacked the Skyline to the Sea Trail just four months ago, so she got to see it one last time.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Ping...please pass on to other Bay Area (or ex-Bay Area) FReepers.

[RitchieAprile]

used to live in the hills off stevens canyon rd in cupertino back n the 90s. manzanita everywhere, burns really hot.

[nickcarraway]

Such a shame. I thought they had more defensible space.

[nickcarraway]

Is the entire park closed? It’s 18k acres, and there are many entrances.

[SaveFerris]

O.K., at first I thought that read:

“Welfare destroys historic buildings at Big Basin State Park”

LOL doing a mini-fast (so far) today so not even caffeine at this point.

O.K., where’s my soda...

[ProtectOurFreedom]

This fire is in the redwoods, far from the manzanita and madrone.

[RetiredTexasVet]

Alleged lightning strikes ....

[eyeamok]

At least we saved all the overpopulated forest area surrounding the coastal redwoods, from going to the lumber mill and being made into useless crap like houses

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Actually there are not many entrances to BBSP. State Hwy 236 is about it. You can hike in from Waddell Creek, but that is closed now.

[jimtorr]

What a shame. I camped and hiked in Big Basin 30 years ago. I lived in Sunnyvale then.

[crz]

Watch how dam dumb these people will be. If those redwoods die of from fire kill they wont salvage them.

Each one of those trees have enough lumber to frame a house.
Of course, there is only few sawmills in the northwest left that could handle logs that large.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It is far more than "alleged." A tropical storm hit and there were over 2,500 lightning strikes in the Bay Area and Central Coast. Two of our kids live there and saw it over the peninsula and in the East Bay.

This is Mitchell's Cove in Santa Cruz around 3 a.m. Sunday August 16. Does that look "alleged" to you?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

We saw a logging truck headed up 280 around Palo Alto a couple months ago. It had a full load of redwood logs.

[nickcarraway]

I've hiked put by Waddell. There's also an entrance you can hike in from Portola Redwoods and Pescadero Creek Park. I think there's an entrance to hike in from Butano State Park.

I think there are a more hiking entrances, but only the one driving entrance where these buildings burned. You can park at Waddell Creek, and there are a few buildings there.

[nickcarraway]

I missed it, but almost everyone else around here was woken up by a loud, dry thunder and lightning storm. Once person told me she thought it was a nuclear bomb.

[SE Mom]

Hate to see this- so many beautiful parts of NoCa. I have friends in various parts there and between Newsom and fires they’re ready for Texas.

I read over 200 square miles have or are burning.:(

Stay safe.

[nickcarraway]

Fires are part of the natural lifecycle of redwoods. They do survive them, and then a new ring grows up around it.

They actually need to conduct more controlled burns, because that is a part of the redwood forest.

When they are prevented to long, they burn to hot.

[nickcarraway]

You could smell the smoke yesterday, and bits of ash were on my car. There was always a very weird look to the sky and the air.

[dandiegirl]

God works in mysterious ways.