New land transfers, proposed state legislation look to give Big Basin’s post-CZU recovery another boost

By the end of next year, the plan for Big Basin Redwoods State Park’s new visitors center and recreational areas could be ready for implementation — nearly four years after the park’s amenities were almost entirely destroyed.

Sempervirens Fund, California’s first land trust, said Friday that it has purchased two properties adjacent to Big Basin, which it intends to transfer to California State Parks to create a new entrance and new amenities lost to the CZU Lightning Complex fire in 2020. The two properties total 10 acres and cost Sempervirens $845,000.

The CZU fire devastated the historic state park in northwest Santa Cruz County, scorching about 97% of Big Basin’s 18,000 acres and more than 100 structures, including many visitor facilities within the park. More recently, though, new life has begun to sprout from the decimation, with wildlife and native vegetation blooming once again.

California State Parks and Sempervirens Fund started making moves to revitalize the park’s visitor experience last year, purchasing the Sterrenzee Ridgetop and Saddle Mountain Vista properties that lie in the same area as the two most recent purchases. Including those purchases, there is now about 200 acres of land in the Saddle Mountain area adjacent to the east side of the park along Highway 236 north of Boulder Creek. State Parks envisions using this area for Big Basin’s next chapter.

Chris Spohrer, superintendent of State Parks’ Santa Cruz district, said the agency has not made any final decisions regarding what the Saddle Mountain area will house, but that it remains the likely area for a welcome center, administrative offices and parking and pickup points for a visitor shuttle service.

Spohrer said State Parks is still in the middle of conducting public feedback sessions to find out what visitors want in the new version of Big Basin, but that by the end of 2025, the agency expects to begin moving forward with specific projects. However, he said that public engagement thus far has shown that people want “a diversity of overnight experiences,” including campgrounds, tent cabins and recreational-vehicle camping. Those surveyed have also discussed the importance of trail access, including equestrian use.

Spohrer said State Parks is also working with Santa Cruz Metro to increase bus service to the park to ease traffic congestion.

Though the march toward a new Big Basin is well underway, new state legislation could help expedite the process.

Assembly Bill 2103, introduced by 28th District Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, seeks to streamline the land acquisition process for State Parks. If enacted, the bill would exempt land acquisitions for Big Basin, Año Nuevo State Natural Reserve and Butano State Park from the requirement that they must be first acquired by the State Public Works Board. All three parks sustained serious wildfire damage in 2020. 

The bill advanced in the state legislature Tuesday and would make it faster and easier for State Parks to acquire land from conservation groups such as Sempervirens Fund. Sempervirens Executive Director Sara Barth said that while the organization fully intends to transfer the land to State Parks, it is a time-consuming process with no promises. She said Pellerin’s bill seeks to make that process just a little bit easier for the Santa Cruz district, which needs additional land to best rebuild Big Basin facilities: “It doesn’t provide any certainty, but it reduces a level of the bureaucracy.”

Barth added that the arduous process to transfer land and create new park additions is a disincentive for other groups to work with State Parks on expansion.

“Sempervirens has a 124-year history working with State Parks, so we’re more inclined to work with that uncertainty because of the deep partnership,” she said. “But because this process is so uncertain and risky, it’s creating a barrier to the investment of nonprofit philanthropy in supporting the state park system.”

The legislation moving forward is a good sign that rebuilding the many lost State Parks facilities could happen more quickly than it has historically — away from the most sensitive areas of the park, where another fire could prove devastating yet again.

“Until that can happen, the park itself is going to be really hindered in fully reopening to the public,” Barth said. “The property transfers need to happen quicker, and not over three to four years.”

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