Quick Take
The $2.4 million acquisition of the NoraBella property along Highway 236 is seen as a key step in the post-CZU fire recovery of Big Basin Redwoods State Park.
California State Parks and Sempervirens Fund, California’s first redwoods conservation land trust, have acquired the 153-acre NoraBella property to expand Big Basin Redwoods State Park as it continues to recover from the 2020 CZU fires. The acquisition, announced Thursday, cost about $2.4 million.
“Big Basin is California’s oldest state park, and this keystone expansion will help accelerate the park’s recovery from the devastating 2020 CZU wildfire while supporting the Newsom administration’s Outdoors for All and 30×30 initiatives,” said California State Parks Director Armando Quintero in a media release. “NoraBella is the gateway into Big Basin and will serve as a world-class entrance to the park’s new visitor center for generations to come.”
Straddling Highway 236, NoraBella was already a high priority for protection before the fires in 2020, according to the release, and is seen as an important piece of the park’s plan for improving visitor facilities.
In more recent history, the NoraBella property was featured on a 2011 episode of the show “Hoarders,” because its previous owner, Roy Kaylor, packed the property’s roads with cars and other objects and fought the county over the cleanup of chemicals and debris.
Colby Barr, co-founder of Verve Coffee Roasters, purchased the property from the county in 2020. After cleaning it up, he sold it to Sempervirens in 2021.
“The land, habitats, waterways and redwoods at NoraBella have been through so much over more than a century — from clearcutting, to being treated like a junkyard, to the CZU wildfire — and it feels like redemption to finally secure the forest’s future as part of Big Basin,” said Sempervirens Fund Executive Director Sara Barth in the release.
State Park officials plan to adopt a facilities management plan, a general plan amendment and an environmental impact report this year to continue moving forward on the agency’s vision for Big Basin’s post-fire identity.
Click here for public engagement opportunities connected to the major rebuild.
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