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BOULDER CREEK — Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state leaders surveyed the devastation at Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Tuesday, but California’s oldest state park will be closed for at least one year before the state can even consider allowing the public to return to the beloved forested enclave that was badly burned in a recent wildfire.
Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains suffered extensive damage from the CZU Lightning Complex. Most of the structures are gone, and while many of its most majestic trees are expected to survive, the area is riddled with hazards that will take a long time to fix.
Newsom said seeing the destruction first hand was an emotional experience.
“If this is not a gut punch, then you’re not truly conscious as a human being,” he told a reporter.
Chris Spohrer, a state parks district superintendent, helped lead Gov. Newsom, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Peter Gaynor and a host of state leaders on a tour through the burned park. Spohrer said the public won’t be safe at Big Basin for the next 12 months or more in part because parks officials still need to figure out exactly which trees must be removed and which will remain. They hope that stress from high winds in the coming months will show them which trees are best positioned to survive.
Additionally, parks officials are concerned that flames from the CZU complex may have left the soil at Big Basin unable to retain much moisture, thereby greatly increasing the risk of floods and debris flows when winter rains arrive. Those events could damage the trails and roads in the park and would demand even more resources to restore the park.
Driving into the beloved park near the town of Boulder Creek is now a dramatically different experience than it was for generations of visitors who went to the site since its founding in 1902.
What was once a constant green wall of redwood, Douglas firs and oak is now increasingly brown as the park approaches. The entrance is barely recognizable, with the park visitor center and headquarters, the nature museum, and store and the old lodge all reduced to piles of rubble. Burned vegetation is everywhere, as are fallen or felled tree trunks. Everything smells like campfire.
“My heart really does break,” Spohrer said, his voice breaking with emotion. “The memories here. The generational commitment … this is a really meaningful place to all of us.”
In addition to Newsom and Gaynor, the Big Basin tour also included Thom Porter, the head of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection; new state parks director Armando Quintero; Governor’s Office of Emergency Services director Mark Ghilarducci; California Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot and others.
They arrived at the park several minutes past noon and began inspecting the damage with a handful of journalists. For the next 50 minutes, the group looked closely at the destroyed buildings and damaged trees while parks officials explained their significance. Newsom stood inside the hollow center of the “Auto tree,” named for its ability to fit a vehicle backed into its center, and marveled at the giant’s apparent survivability.
He and the other officials also walked through the badly damaged park amphitheater, where flames have broken some of the logged benches. And they walked to two of the most treasured trees, named the Mother and Father of the forest, two old-growth redwoods that are both still standing, though signs of fire are all around them. A portion of one nearby tree was still smoldering from the fire.
Quintero, who was at Big Basin just a few hours into his first day as state parks director, said California could use the devastation at Big Basin to set a global example.
“I think we have an opportunity to show the world what the parks of the future could look like,” he said, suggesting that the state establish a new way of managing parkland for the next century.
Newsom was also asked about the state legislative session that concluded the night before. He said he has no immediate plan to hold a special session to address business that lawmakers couldn’t finish, but he didn’t rule it out either. And though he did not explicitly say he would sign a bill to make it easier for former inmates to become firefighters when they leave prison, he noted that it’s “long been an area of interest to me” and said he looked forward to reviewing the details.
This pool report was written by San Francisco Chronicle reporter J.D. Morris and provided to the Associated Press.
