Quick Take
California's oldest state park is unveiling new details about its post-fire revival plan, including Indigenous partnerships and eco-focused design. Public review begins with a webinar Thursday.
California State Parks has released more detailed plans for the future of Big Basin Redwoods State Park as it continues to recover post-fire. The plans include new trails, the return of camping, education and ecology centers, and collaborations with local Indigenous groups.
In late June, the state agency released the draft summary of its Facilities Management Plan — a plan to rebuild and reimagine Big Basin after the majority of its facilities were destroyed in the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire. State Parks will host a webinar on Thursday evening for interested members of the public to learn more about the major vision for the park’s new life.
The CZU fire decimated the park, burning about 97% of the 18,000 acres of land in Big Basin and destroying more than 100 structures, including a good portion of the visitor facilities. But State Parks has been planning for its next iteration for several years now, as new life has sprouted from the devastation, with wildlife and native vegetation making a comeback.
State Parks and Sempervirens Fund — California’s first land trust — have been working together to set the park up for the future, particularly its visitor experience and facilities. They purchased the Sterrenzee Ridgetop and Saddle Mountain Vista properties in 2023. Last year, they bought two more properties in the same area. In total, there is about 200 acres of land in the Saddle Mountain area near the east side of the park along Highway 236 north of Boulder Creek.
The plan has continued to form over the past year. The Saddle Mountain area is going to hold a new park entrance, visitor center, café and store. A shuttle service will run on weekends taking visitors into the main day-use area, which is planned for the old-growth redwood forest area where the former park headquarters used to be.
The old-growth redwood forest will still be a hub of visitor activity, said State Parks Santa Cruz District parks and recreation specialist Will Fourt, but it will be more “ecologically focused” than the headquarters and visitor centers that used to be there, with reduced development and only a small amount of parking and amenities.
“That’s really to allow more space for ecological, stream and meadow restoration,” he said, adding that there will still be a trail system in this region of the park as well as an amphitheater, an ecology center and a little parking. “The biggest overarching goals are to allow natural processes to occur and maximize the resilience and health of the old-growth redwood forest and to increase equity of access for all future Californians.”
Fourt added that the plan includes bringing back a similar amount of camping in the park as there was before the fire in 2020, when there were nearly 200 sites, including cabins. There will be a variety of different types of camping options including car camping, small-group and large-group sites, and cabins.
Fourt added that there will also be overnight accommodations at the Little Basin site just north of Boulder Creek, which will also house another important addition to the land: a mixed tribal use area that includes a cultural center and collaborations among local Indigenous groups and State Parks on restoration projects, Indigenous ceremonies and other cultural activities.
On Thursday evening, the public can attend a webinar during which State Parks staff will review the plans and provide a chance for public input on the most important environmental topics that the upcoming environmental impact report should cover. An initial study of the project laid out environmental aspects to consider when moving forward with a major development plan like this in an ecologically sensitive area.
“That includes things like if there will be any impacts to threatened or endangered species, wetlands,” he said. Fourt mentioned a threatened seabird, the marbled murrelet, which roosts in the park, as an example: “That was a primary focus of the general plan, so we will be addressing that in the final environmental impact report.”
Even though the vision in the plan won’t be reality for some time, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks executive director Bonny Hawley said people have been eager to come back ever since Big Basin reopened in July 2022. Between then and June 30, she said that 182,038 people have visited the park. The organization runs the day-use reservation system and available camping at Rancho del Oso.
“People have generations of memories in Big Basin. For some it’s very emotional because most of the buildings are destroyed and the forest is very different,” she said. “But we’re amazed at the resilience of the forest, and people are really taking advantage of the opportunity to see how the trees are resprouting.”
The meeting takes place on Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Register for the webinar here.
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