California’s oldest state park will stay closed for at least a year to protect the public as the state takes a cautious approach to reopening the beloved forested enclave that was badly burned in a recent wildfire.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains suffered extensive damage from the CZU Lightning Complex fires, 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, said Chris Spohrer, a state parks district superintendent.
Spohrer made the comments after he helped lead Gov. Gavin Newsom, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Peter Gaynor and a host of state officials on a tour through the burned park. The public won’t be safe at Big Basin for the next 12 months or more, Spohrer said, partly 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, thereby demanding even more resources to restore the park. …
Click here to read the full article from the San Francisco Chronicle.
I’m glad that Gov. Nuisance was there for a lovely photo op. Luckily there were Rangers there to explain the burnt areas to him.