Out of the Ashes: an Inside Look at Big Basin State Park
October 21, 2020
In this piece, we follow MBOSC Trails Project Manager Garret Hammack as he tours Big Basin with CA State Parks staff directly following the CZU Lightning Complex Fire. Garret grew up enjoying the beauty of our Santa Cruz Mountains Parks and shares both his personal reflections and professional insights about his recent run-in with wildfire devastation.
If you would like to support parks and trails that have been affected by the recent wildfires, please consider contributing to our Out of the Ashes bike giveaway. Every $5 you pitch in goes directly to helping land managers rehabilitate and reopen parks like Big Basin and earns you one entry to win the dream bike of your choice from Ibis or Specialized.
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Over a month has passed since the CZU Lightning Complex Fires devastated communities throughout Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. Until today, I hadn’t witnessed any of the damage first hand. I’d told myself that I had consciously avoided the Santa Cruz Mountains to make room for first responders, but I knew that another major reason why I’d stayed away was that I half wanted to avoid facing the damage that ravaged the Santa Cruz mountain parks and open space I hold so dear. Despite these reservations, I decided to join CA State Parks staff for an evaluation and tour of Big Basin Redwoods and Butano Redwoods State Parks. As I pulled my mask on and hopped in the car, I was taken back to a very similar day over a decade before.
On a warm summer evening ten years prior, teenaged me hopped in the type-six State Park Fire Engine 7151 heading to Big Basin. Sandwiched side-by-side between two Environmental Scientists and my mom, District Interpreter, was both excited and nervous to hear world-renowned researcher and tree climber Steve Sillett speak at the Big Basin Lodge. Always an adventurous, thrill-seeking kid, I never got tired of exploring the redwood forest behind my house, climbing trees, building bike trails, and stirring up the general teenager ruckus. Because of this, my mom was hoping to focus some of that energy on ecosystem dynamics and wildlife ecology, topics exciting enough to catch my wandering attention but also studious enough to support my future.
[caption id="attachment_14156" align="aligncenter" width="1108"]
Scenes from the evaluation and tour[/caption]
Steve took the stage. This guy had climbed the tallest trees in the world, reaching nearly 380 feet, and I was amazed as he and his friends recounted their adventures. *If you haven't read The Wild Trees by Richard Preston, it comes highly recommended. Steve and his tree climbing colleagues spoke about the thrills and treasures you can find seemingly floating high above the lodge. As Steve spoke about how reiteration creates habitats for animals and plants that grow wedged into the redwood canopy, I couldn’t help but appreciate the impressive ingenuity and creativity of this precariously perched ecosystem. Needless to say, I was hooked.
Jump back to this past September. As I made the same drive up highway 236, I thought about the connectivity of Big Basin’s fragile temperate rainforest and wondered what it would look like post-wildfire. Passing the Jamison Creek fire station, the scene was familiar but oh, so different. Burned forest and homes surrounded me as I drove up towards the park. While I was working for State Parks in 2017, I was sent to help fight the North Bay fires. But homes burnt to ash with smoldering embers looked much different in my own backyard. Heavily-cooked trees surrounded the road like toothpicks with cat-faced trunks clung onto their last needles. Following our convoy past the army of PG&E crews, we came to the remnants of the same lodge where Sillett had sparked my fascination and curiosity for natural science. This time, the lodge was gone and only a pile of ash and debris remained.
[caption id="attachment_14157" align="aligncenter" width="1108"]
Big Basin Headquarters[/caption]
It's hard to imagine how tremendously powerful the fire front must have been. The only thing that matched my memory were the pressure laminate interpretive signs standing unscathed amid the burnt hellscape. While the buildings and facilities were toasted to rubble, the old-growth forest breathed a fresh breath of resilience. Not only could I feel it in the air, but I could see it all around me. On the redwood loop, the still-smoldering charred trees had already begun to sprout back new iterations. The Mother of The Forest tree was still standing, scarred but strong. Young willows and ferns had already begun to break through the ashy soil, and chirping chickadees broke the dead silence.
[caption id="attachment_14155" align="aligncenter" width="1103"]
Along 236 North of Big Basin / Looking toward the coast on Upper China Grade[/caption]
Winding up Big Basin Way, the mosaic of fire became very apparent. Some stands of trees stood barren and void of life, while others had burned slowly, only slightly scarred below the canopy. Breaking off on dusty and bumpy fire roads revealed a success story on the Northside of Big Basin and Butano. State Park environmental scientists had taken great care managing thousands of acres with a reoccurring fire prescription since the 1970s. The plots that had been burned within the past five decades appeared incredibly resistant to the fire and seemingly more resilient upon initial inspection. This will be an incredible case study to grow successful programs like the Santa Cruz State Parks natural resource fire program! Had there been no management, we can only imagine how much further the destruction would have spread towards the Bay Area.
[caption id="attachment_14147" align="aligncenter" width="665"]
Año Nuevo State Park during a prescribed fire I participated in back in 2017 with CASP.[/caption]
Despite their hard resource management work, there was nothing fire crews could do on the evening of Tuesday, August 18th, when three different infernos combined in an eruption of unprecedented fire conditions. The perfect storm of wind, heat, and dry fuel sent the complex racing through Big Basin, San Vicente, Cotoni Coast Dairies, and nearby communities.
As we traversed through Butano toward the ocean, the coastal terraces mantling the Santa Cruz mountains shown through the burned canopy. Although many see this charred ash as a horrific disaster, fire is actually a familiar friend to the coastal range. Local native tribes annually performed prescribed burns to maintain a fruitful and healthy coastline. This active approach to land management promoted flourishing habitat for both humans and wildlife. And, despite these regular fires, the old growth redwood forest has stood strong for thousands of years. These smoldering trees are wiser and stronger than we could ever hope to be. While we recover from the material loss of the CZU Lightning Complex Fires, it’s important to take a step back and remember the resilience of the forest beyond the urban-wildlife interface. With the impacts of climate change looming, let us take this time to learn from the creativity and impressive ingenuity of the temperate rainforest.
[caption id="attachment_14151" align="aligncenter" width="676"]
Big Basin State Park[/caption]
Take a note out of Sillet’s book; next time you're in the forest pause and look up! Soak in the serenity and beauty of the living landscape above. My hope is that we can use this disaster and the many other devastating fires across the state as a learning opportunity to shape a new era of responsible management and conscientious policy. Let this be a call to action for environmental advocates, land managers, and policymakers because while the best time to plant a tree may have been 20 years ago, the second best time is today.
Our Out of the Ashes bike giveaway is running from now through November 16, and directly supports the rehabilitation of Big Basin State Park. Every $5 you pitch in goes directly to helping land managers rehabilitate and reopen parks in the Santa Cruz Mountains and earns you one entry to win the dream bike of your choice from Ibis or Specialized.
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Over a month has passed since the CZU Lightning Complex Fires devastated communities throughout Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. Until today, I hadn’t witnessed any of the damage first hand. I’d told myself that I had consciously avoided the Santa Cruz Mountains to make room for first responders, but I knew that another major reason why I’d stayed away was that I half wanted to avoid facing the damage that ravaged the Santa Cruz mountain parks and open space I hold so dear. Despite these reservations, I decided to join CA State Parks staff for an evaluation and tour of Big Basin Redwoods and Butano Redwoods State Parks. As I pulled my mask on and hopped in the car, I was taken back to a very similar day over a decade before.
On a warm summer evening ten years prior, teenaged me hopped in the type-six State Park Fire Engine 7151 heading to Big Basin. Sandwiched side-by-side between two Environmental Scientists and my mom, District Interpreter, was both excited and nervous to hear world-renowned researcher and tree climber Steve Sillett speak at the Big Basin Lodge. Always an adventurous, thrill-seeking kid, I never got tired of exploring the redwood forest behind my house, climbing trees, building bike trails, and stirring up the general teenager ruckus. Because of this, my mom was hoping to focus some of that energy on ecosystem dynamics and wildlife ecology, topics exciting enough to catch my wandering attention but also studious enough to support my future.
[caption id="attachment_14156" align="aligncenter" width="1108"] Scenes from the evaluation and tour[/caption]
Steve took the stage. This guy had climbed the tallest trees in the world, reaching nearly 380 feet, and I was amazed as he and his friends recounted their adventures. *If you haven't read The Wild Trees by Richard Preston, it comes highly recommended. Steve and his tree climbing colleagues spoke about the thrills and treasures you can find seemingly floating high above the lodge. As Steve spoke about how reiteration creates habitats for animals and plants that grow wedged into the redwood canopy, I couldn’t help but appreciate the impressive ingenuity and creativity of this precariously perched ecosystem. Needless to say, I was hooked.
Jump back to this past September. As I made the same drive up highway 236, I thought about the connectivity of Big Basin’s fragile temperate rainforest and wondered what it would look like post-wildfire. Passing the Jamison Creek fire station, the scene was familiar but oh, so different. Burned forest and homes surrounded me as I drove up towards the park. While I was working for State Parks in 2017, I was sent to help fight the North Bay fires. But homes burnt to ash with smoldering embers looked much different in my own backyard. Heavily-cooked trees surrounded the road like toothpicks with cat-faced trunks clung onto their last needles. Following our convoy past the army of PG&E crews, we came to the remnants of the same lodge where Sillett had sparked my fascination and curiosity for natural science. This time, the lodge was gone and only a pile of ash and debris remained.
[caption id="attachment_14157" align="aligncenter" width="1108"] Big Basin Headquarters[/caption]
It's hard to imagine how tremendously powerful the fire front must have been. The only thing that matched my memory were the pressure laminate interpretive signs standing unscathed amid the burnt hellscape. While the buildings and facilities were toasted to rubble, the old-growth forest breathed a fresh breath of resilience. Not only could I feel it in the air, but I could see it all around me. On the redwood loop, the still-smoldering charred trees had already begun to sprout back new iterations. The Mother of The Forest tree was still standing, scarred but strong. Young willows and ferns had already begun to break through the ashy soil, and chirping chickadees broke the dead silence.
[caption id="attachment_14155" align="aligncenter" width="1103"] Along 236 North of Big Basin / Looking toward the coast on Upper China Grade[/caption]
Winding up Big Basin Way, the mosaic of fire became very apparent. Some stands of trees stood barren and void of life, while others had burned slowly, only slightly scarred below the canopy. Breaking off on dusty and bumpy fire roads revealed a success story on the Northside of Big Basin and Butano. State Park environmental scientists had taken great care managing thousands of acres with a reoccurring fire prescription since the 1970s. The plots that had been burned within the past five decades appeared incredibly resistant to the fire and seemingly more resilient upon initial inspection. This will be an incredible case study to grow successful programs like the Santa Cruz State Parks natural resource fire program! Had there been no management, we can only imagine how much further the destruction would have spread towards the Bay Area.
[caption id="attachment_14147" align="aligncenter" width="665"] Año Nuevo State Park during a prescribed fire I participated in back in 2017 with CASP.[/caption]
Despite their hard resource management work, there was nothing fire crews could do on the evening of Tuesday, August 18th, when three different infernos combined in an eruption of unprecedented fire conditions. The perfect storm of wind, heat, and dry fuel sent the complex racing through Big Basin, San Vicente, Cotoni Coast Dairies, and nearby communities.
As we traversed through Butano toward the ocean, the coastal terraces mantling the Santa Cruz mountains shown through the burned canopy. Although many see this charred ash as a horrific disaster, fire is actually a familiar friend to the coastal range. Local native tribes annually performed prescribed burns to maintain a fruitful and healthy coastline. This active approach to land management promoted flourishing habitat for both humans and wildlife. And, despite these regular fires, the old growth redwood forest has stood strong for thousands of years. These smoldering trees are wiser and stronger than we could ever hope to be. While we recover from the material loss of the CZU Lightning Complex Fires, it’s important to take a step back and remember the resilience of the forest beyond the urban-wildlife interface. With the impacts of climate change looming, let us take this time to learn from the creativity and impressive ingenuity of the temperate rainforest.
[caption id="attachment_14151" align="aligncenter" width="676"] Big Basin State Park[/caption]
Take a note out of Sillet’s book; next time you're in the forest pause and look up! Soak in the serenity and beauty of the living landscape above. My hope is that we can use this disaster and the many other devastating fires across the state as a learning opportunity to shape a new era of responsible management and conscientious policy. Let this be a call to action for environmental advocates, land managers, and policymakers because while the best time to plant a tree may have been 20 years ago, the second best time is today.
Our Out of the Ashes bike giveaway is running from now through November 16, and directly supports the rehabilitation of Big Basin State Park. Every $5 you pitch in goes directly to helping land managers rehabilitate and reopen parks in the Santa Cruz Mountains and earns you one entry to win the dream bike of your choice from Ibis or Specialized.
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