Support Big Basin’s Future

Aerial view of Big Basin State Park’s NoraBella property, the Gateway to Big Basin, a 153-acre redwood forest along Highway 236, added to the park in February 2026. 
Photo: Jordan Plotsky

MOUNTAIN VIEW — California is leading on climate, on resilience, and on access to nature for all, and we applaud the Governor’s announcement of State Parks Forward, a bold new target to expand California’s state park system by 30,000 acres by 2030, extending the ambition of the state’s powerful 30×30 commitment, and recognizing state parks as one of the most powerful tools we have to meet it. This vision builds on the historic announcement of three new state parks and affirms that protecting more land for people and nature is essential to California’s future.

“California’s state parks are our promise in place: land protected for climate resilience, wildlife, and people, today and for generations,” said Sara Barth, Executive Director of Sempervirens Fund. “Expanding California’s state parks by 30,000 acres by 2030 is how we turn 30×30 from a goal into a legacy. Sempervirens Fund is ready to support that goal in the Santa Cruz Mountains.”

Since 1900, Sempervirens Fund has protected more than 36,000 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, most of which are now state park lands, including most of Big Basin Redwoods State Parks, which was expanded in February 2026 by 153 acres.

California’s state parks are spectacular destinations, and they also form a connected network of public spaces that safeguard biodiversity, store carbon, protect watersheds, and reduce wildfire risk, while offering millions of Californians places to learn, heal, and connect with the landscapes that define our state. As climate impacts accelerate, as temperatures rise, and drought and flooding become more extreme, these lands increasingly serve as a first line of defense: buffering communities from extreme heat, flooding, and fire, while anchoring long term resilience across entire regions.

This moment also reflects years of sustained progress, turning ambition into action. Recent legislation has shown that California can move faster to expand and restore parks without compromising transparency, accountability, or environmental values. In particular, we celebrate Santa Cruz Assemblymember Gail Pellerin’s leadership on legislation (AB 679) that cut unnecessary “green tape,” streamlining land acquisition for critical state parks in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Paired with AB 630 (Allen – El Segundo), both laws sustain public trust with rigorous oversight. That success demonstrates what’s possible when lawmakers align policy with urgency and on the ground reality.

We thank Governor Gavin Newsom, Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, State Parks Director Armando Quintero, and the members of the Legislature who have consistently championed state parks as climate infrastructure, community infrastructure, and generational investments. Their leadership has helped ensure that California’s parks are both preserved and strengthened to meet the challenges ahead.

“As the state looks to 2030, and to a new administration, expanding our state park system is one of the clearest, most unifying ways to carry California’s 30×30 vision forward,” said Barth. “Conserving nature at scale, accelerating climate action, and ensuring every Californian has access to the outdoors sends a powerful signal that California intends to keep leading, by protecting the places that protect us.”

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Keystone property for Reimagining Big Basin plan after 2020 CZU wildfire is first addition to the park in 15 years

Support Big Basin’s Future

Aerial view of Big Basin State Park’s NoraBella property, the Gateway to Big Basin, a 153-acre redwood forest along Highway 236. 
Photo: Jordan Plotsky

BOULDER CREEK —Today, California State Parks and Sempervirens Fund, California’s first redwoods conservation land trust, announced the permanent addition of the 153-acre NoraBella property to expand Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Boulder Creek. The $2.415 million acquisition is the first for Big Basin since State Parks acquired the Little Basin property from Sempervirens Fund and the Peninsula Open Space Trust in 2011.

“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. “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.”

NoraBella, also known as the Gateway to Big Basin, was a priority for protection even before the 2020 CZU wildfire, due to its thriving natural ecosystems. It has continued to be a priority acquisition for State Parks after the fire as being a key to the park’s general plan for improving visitor-serving facilities.

Sempervirens Fund, founded in 1900, was instrumental in establishing Big Basin in 1902 and has worked with State Parks to protect most of the park’s now 18,376 acres.

“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. “Even before the 2020 wildfire, we knew NoraBella would provide a dramatic entranceway to Big Basin, and enhance the conservation values of the park.”

A redwoods conservation priority
At the turn of the 20th century, the property was almost entirely clear-cut of redwood trees. A century later, the entire 153-acre NoraBella property is forested across three ridges down into creeks, waterfalls and canyons, forming a miniature basin of its own next to Big Basin. NoraBella includes a primary tributary to the headwaters for Boulder Creek, which is a tributary to the San Lorenzo River. Among wildlife observed on the property are mountain lions and gray foxes.

“NoraBella is a conservation gem,” added David Cowman, Sempervirens Fund’s director of land stewardship. “Permanent protection of NoraBella as part of Big Basin is critical to ensure the long-term health of the Boulder Creek watershed and the San Lorenzo River system it supports. The property has abundant and healthy stands of redwoods, as well as mixed evergreen forests of Douglas-fir, coast live oaks, tan oaks and madrones.”

Reimagining Big Basin
In response to the destruction of the CZU wildfire, State Parks is engaging in a considerable and first-of-its-kind planning effort to reimagine a state park. With nearly all of the park’s facilities, infrastructure and trails lost or badly damaged by the fire, State Parks has worked collaboratively to establish a new vision for the park, new management plans for the park’s natural resources, a new facilities plan to guide rebuilding the park’s future infrastructure, and a forthcoming trails plan to guide the park’s renewed recreational experiences for visitors.

This year, State Parks expects to adopt the Facilities Management Plan, a General Plan Amendment, and Supplemental Environmental Impact Report that have been prepared to implement the renewed vision for the park. State Parks will then begin to design each of the buildings, including the new visitor center and recreational facilities such as campgrounds, in phases, in preparation to rebuild. Visit reimaginingbigbasin.org to learn about upcoming opportunities to engage with the planning effort.

The Saddle Mountain Welcome Area and NoraBella
A key part of the Reimaging Big Basin Vision includes establishing a welcome center at Saddle Mountain, which borders the NoraBella property, and providing shuttle service for park visitors from there and from further outside the park into the old-growth area on busy weekends. With these facilities located at Saddle Mountain, the parking and buildings in the heart of the old-growth area can be much smaller, which in turn reduces the impact those facilities have on the surrounding sensitive old-growth redwood forest. Portions of the adjacent NoraBella property also offer locations to build some of the park’s necessary operations facilities, making the acquisition important for rebuilding the park as well as for conservation.

Unique Recent History of NoraBella
In addition to its abundance of natural and scenic features, NoraBella is also known for its previous ownership by Roy Kaylor, who collected cars and other objects that lined roads throughout the property. Kaylor, featured on a 2011 episode of the A&E show Hoarders, also battled the county over the cleanup of debris and chemicals leaching on the property. Verve Coffee Roasters co-founder Colby Barr purchased the property from Santa Cruz County in June 2020. Environmental assessments completed by Barr and Sempervirens Fund confirmed the NoraBella property, including the streams, have a clean bill of health. Sempervirens purchased the property from Barr in February 2021. State Parks purchased the property in 2026 partially with funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund through the U.S. Department of Interior and the California Department of Parks and Recreation.

Sempervirens is especially thankful to the more than 1,100 donors who helped fund the $2,415,000 purchase of NoraBella in 2021, including the Lipman Family Foundation, the Feldman family in memory of Carl Feldman, Brian Krawez and the team and clients at Scharf Investments, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

More to Come
The expansion of Big Basin Redwoods State Park is one example of how the state and partners have made it a priority to establish places for people and nature to thrive. New legislation signed into law by Governor Newsom (AB 679, 2025 Pellerin) will further strengthen California’s commitment by streamlining the acquisition of properties adjacent to Big Basin Redwoods, Butano, and Año Nuevo state parks. State Parks looks forward to announcing these new acquisitions that expand outdoor connections, advance climate resilience, protect California’s natural and cultural resources, and strengthen the state’s economy.

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photo by Orenda Randuch

Resetting Redwoods

A century and a half ago, as California’s economy expanded, settlers and industrialists began moving into the Santa Cruz Mountains and deciding what the redwood forests were for. Imagine seeing for the first time the dense understory of sky-scraping titans shading young redwoods in a diverse community that nourished wildlife and cooled creeks teeming with Coho-salmon. Navigating the untouched forest proved difficult and dangerous, but within the forests’ intricate ecosystem these newcomers also saw the potential to use the forest to grow cities like San Francisco and to establish new businesses, institutions, and more.

In an act of hubris, they forcibly carved roads into hillsides that gave their equipment access to each tree and stream, disrupting what had been thriving for thousands of millennia. Today, giant stumps, evenly-aged forests, and Coho-less creeks are the familiar scars of the once decimated forests. These crossings and structures continue to redirect water and sediment today; a large reason why in many places, protection alone cannot undo that damage. Restoring impacted forests begins by removing infrastructure designed for short-term extraction in mind.

Thanks to you, we steward more than 12,000 acres of protected land that we work to restore to nature for all of us.

Take a peek behind the trees at how you have helped the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz mountains–some of the most biodiverse and threatened on Earth–return to nature this year.

Removing Roads Less Traveled

While not all of the forests we protect have unsafe buildings and materials on them, nearly all of them have roads. Many were designed for short-term industrial uses rather than long-term stability on steep terrain. Some continue to provide necessary access to the forest for stewardship, wildlife monitoring, and emergency crews like firefighters. But unmaintained roads can add to the erosion of mountainsides, fragile after the CZU Fire and the extreme winter storms that followed.

With fewer plants to help hold soil in place, dirt roads can wash out, taking away the soil the recovering forest needs, and muddying critical water sources we and wildlife need. With your support, we were able to “rock” crucial access roads—establishing beds of crushed gravel—and decommission unnecessary roads to reduce soil erosion, improve water quality, and give the space back to the forest.

See Orenda Randuch’s photos before and after the removal of an unused road at the Lompico Headwaters you protected in 2006.

Rooting Out Invasive Species

Infrastructure isn’t the only thing humans brought into the redwoods. As people across the country and globe came to the Santa Cruz mountains, plants and creatures came with them. Invasive plants like French, Scotch, and Italian broom took root in places without pests and pathogens equipped to naturally keep them in check. A single plant, such as old man’s beard (Clematis vitalba), can quickly cover ground in the forest and strangle redwood trees. Invasive plants can be a double-edged sword to the heart of the forest as they go up the canopy. Not only can they grow quickly without natural checks—crowding out the native plants the redwood forest and its creatures rely upon—they are also less fire-resilient—making their big growth a big pile of fuel for a wildfire.

A seemingly harmless sounding species, periwinkle (Vinca major), is particularly difficult to remove because any root left in the soil will regenerate into new plants. Thanks to you, invasive periwinkle and French broom removal projects began in the summer of 2024 in the redwood forest you protected at Lompico Headwaters. In 2025 and beyond, the work has continued as a returning project so native plants can re-establish themselves on the forest floor. Your support allows us to remove invasive plants, their deep roots and copious seeds, so these invaded patches do not become a persistent source of dry, flashy fuel in the hotter, drier years predicted to come.

See our Stewardship Team's photos before and after work to remove a patch of periwinkle from the forest by hand.

Returning Redwoods to Nature and Resilience

The truth is: redwood forests still bear the scars of a history marked by profoundly destructive human intervention. They have endured axes and bulldozers, but also lingering barriers like dams, buildings, and invasive species. What has changed is how we act now. Stewardship, for us, is the ongoing work of carefully and humbly understanding how to support forests toward what they once were, and what they still have the potential to become.

Protecting our last remaining redwood forests from further development is a crucial first step. By reducing human impacts left on the land, natural systems regain the capacity to respond, adapt, and recover. Together, we will continue to anchor broader efforts to renew watersheds, support resilient forests, and accelerate the collective well-being of ecosystems that redwoods are capable of achieving. With your help, our forests will be resilient and strong, able to support wildlife, clean water, fresh air, cooler temperatures, and healthy communities for generations to come.

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Damage from the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fire is seen at Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Boulder Creek, Calif., Friday, April 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

These Redwoods Are Too Big for Small Dreams

In the weeks after the 2020 CZU fire, as wildfire still smoldered in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, we attempted to answer a tough question we were being asked repeatedly: what will the park look like in the future?

At the time, we didn’t yet know the extent of the damage to the forests themselves, but we did believe the moment was significant: an opportunity for California State Parks to reimagine, not just Big Basin, but how all state parks are cared for, how structures are built and services are delivered, and how people are invited to experience the natural wonders of the state’s parks.

Here’s what we suggested then:

We aspire for a new Big Basin that honors its historic past and is designed for the future. Big Basin should be built to last, planned for fire, and designed to coexist with both nature and people. We envision a park that models resilience to climate change, applies both scientific and Indigenous knowledge to land stewardship, and welcomes all communities to experience its redwoods with respect and inclusion. We continue to believe this. And now we know that while the CZU Lightning Complex Fire burned 97% of the entire park, almost every structure was lost, and most Douglas firs succumbed to the fire, the vast majority of redwoods survived and will recover. That’s quite simply amazing.

Reimagining Big Basin

In August 2021, California State Parks launched Reimagining Big Basin, a collaborative visioning process bringing together hundreds of Californians who met, listened, and shared their own connections to the forest. Their ideas, gathered through public workshops, advisory meetings, and surveys, informed every element of the 2025 Facilities Management Plan, which now translates that vision into practice.

From the beginning of this effort, Sempervirens Fund served as an active participant in the working group guiding strategies for forest stewardship, facility design, and recreation planning, ensuring that conservation and visitor experience were considered together.

A Framework for the Future

Building upon the Reimagining Big Basin Vision Summary, the Facilities Management Plan sets out a clear path for establishing new visitor-serving services and restoring safe access while establishing how people will experience Big Basin in the coming years. The plan protects the park’s most sensitive landscapes, leaving the old-growth forest primarily for walking, reflection, and learning. Each element reflects the public input gathered over several years and the shared values of Sempervirens Fund and California State Parks.

Key objectives include:

• Relocating visitor facilities, including parking and administration, to the new Saddle Mountain Hub, keeping intensive uses outside the old-growth redwoods.
• Building for long-term resilience, with solar energy, underground utilities, and fire-resistant design that anticipate future climate conditions.
• Integrating science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge to guide restoration of forest health, water systems, and wildlife habitat across the wider landscape.
• Preserving the old-growth experience by designing all structures within the redwood core to be minimal, resilient, and in harmony with the forest.
• Managing visitation through a shuttle system and timed entry, ensuring access remains safe and balanced with resource protection.
• More accessible trails and facilities, with new routes and restrooms that meet ADA standards so that people of all abilities can explore the forest.
• Partnering with Indigenous communities to create ceremonial spaces and shared stewardship areas at Little Basin and other significant sites.
• Restored trails and paths will replace damaged roads and reopen areas closed since the 2020 fire, giving visitors more ways to experience Big Basin while easing congestion in popular spots.
• Expanding storytelling and interpretation to reflect California’s cultural diversity and deepen visitors’ understanding of the redwood ecosystem.

Together, these priorities represent a measured but ambitious plan to revitalize Big Basin in a way that honors its past and equips it for the environmental realities of the future. They also reaffirm Sempervirens Fund’s long-standing commitment to collaborative stewardship and to maintaining Big Basin as a place where forest health, cultural heritage, and public enjoyment advance together.

Want to get involved?

Stay connected with California State Parks as they manage the many phases of Reimagining Big Basin and seek public input and involvement.

Learn More

Caring for the Park’s Natural Resources

The Forest Management Strategy, completed in 2024, guides how California State Parks and its partners, including Sempervirens Fund, will restore and care for Big Basin’s recovering redwood forest. It recognizes the park’s landscape as both resilient and altered, where decades of fire suppression, historical logging, and climate change have left dense and vulnerable stands.

The strategy of this plan, which you can read here, marks a deliberate return to active management, blending modern science with time-honored stewardship practices. Its core objectives include:

• Strengthen forest resilience by reducing hazardous fuel buildup and promoting a balanced mix of mature and younger trees. These management practices will create conditions that can better endure drought, storm, and fire.
• Support the safe use of prescribed and cultural fire to approximate the historical fire cycles that once shaped redwood forests, improving soil health and habitat renewal.
• Restoration will focus on maintaining the richness of native species and ensuring that wildlife can move safely through continuous habitat corridors within and beyond park boundaries.
• Re-establish stream function, meadow health, and watershed stability in response to recognizing that forest recovery depends as much on water as on trees.
• Restore traditional land-care practices through sustained collaboration with Tribal partners and ensure these lands remain places of cultural teaching and ceremony.

Together, these actions define a new standard for forest care in the Santa Cruz Mountains, an effort that treats fire, water, and growth as interdependent forces rather than opposing risks. Over two thousand acres of the park have been prioritized for initial restoration, setting a foundation for decades of adaptive management and learning.

Light peaks through recovering redwoods in the heart of Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Photo by: Orenda Randuch.

An accompanying Environmental Impact Report examines the potential effects on the marbled murrelet, a threatened seabird that nests in the complex and high old-growth canopies. The CZU fire had an outsized impact on their nesting habitat. They prefer Douglas firs, which were decimated in the 2020 wildfire. Despite that, a murrelet sighting was captured on video in 2021. We believe that the combined planning for forest management and facilities will likely initially impact murrelet behavior, but will ultimately improve conditions at the southern end of their range. The plan also incorporates measures such as improved food storage, waste management, and visitor education to limit risk to the species.

Looking Ahead

Work at Big Basin will continue in stages over the coming years, guided by the Facilities Management Plan and the Forest Management Strategy. Together, these plans set the foundation for how the park will adapt to future conditions while protecting its ecological and cultural legacy. Sempervirens Fund strongly supports this direction and the years of collaboration that shaped it.

The scale of this work is substantial. State Parks anticipates roughly $370 million in phased investment to rebuild essential facilities, modernize infrastructure, and complete ecological restoration. That funding will come from a combination of state allocations, agency partnerships, and philanthropic support. For its part, Sempervirens Fund remains focused on the long-term stewardship of the forest: restoring redwood ecosystems, supporting climate adaptation, and ensuring the surrounding landscape continues to sustain the park’s recovery.

These plans also advance broader public goals. Legislation such as AB 679 and SB 630 will help accelerate the formal expansion of the Saddle Mountain area, reinforcing its role as Big Basin’s new headquarters and primary visitor hub. Together, these efforts move the park closer to a future where access and conservation strengthen one another.

Beyond the park boundary, we remain committed to securing and restoring lands that sustain Big Basin’s broader ecosystem. The Gateway to Big Basin property, for example, will strengthen ecological connections, support native regeneration, and provide a natural transition between the Boulder Creek community and the park’s new entrance area.

Revitalizing Big Basin is not just about recovery. It’s about renewing a covenant between people and forest, and between past and future. These redwoods have endured fire, time, and change. With care–and with all of our support–they will grow back stronger, and teach us to do the same.

More to Explore

• Read more about how Nature Needs Time to Heal
• Listen to California State Parks' Chris Spohrer introduce Reimagining Big Basin
• Learn more about the Saddle Mountain Conservation Area

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Many people associate bats with Halloween or general spookiness, an idea popularized by the many cultural depictions of Dracula morphing into a black bat, flying at midnight and guided by the light of the moon, on his way to find his next victim. But haunting caricatures aside, these nocturnal creatures are critical members of our redwood ecosystem.

The Bats of California's Coast Redwoods

To learn more about bats and how they interact with the redwood forest, we spoke with Dr. Winifred Frick, Chief Scientist at Bat Conservation International and an adjunct professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz. “There are about 13 bat species that live in the coast redwood forests of California—redwood trees make excellent bat homes. Old redwood trees are especially valuable as bat homes, as their ‘basal hollows’ serve as ‘caves’ for some bat species. In addition, many bat species will use crevices or bark fissures in redwood trees to roost.”

Old growth trees are ideal for bats, because they have open understories which allow the mammals to maneuver in flight much easier while foraging. Some bats fly up into the redwood canopy, though we don’t know much about their behavior in the canopy since it’s difficult to study a mammal that prefers to be 250-feet off the ground.

The sheer size of a redwood can help some bats who need more space than others. “The Townsend’s big-eared bat normally has to live in caves (or cave-like structures like abandoned houses or mines). In the redwood forest, basal hollows, or goose-pins, are big enough to feel like a cave, so Townsend’s big-eared bats will roost in redwood trees,” says Dr. Frick.

A few of the species—hoary bats, western red bats, silver haired bats—in California are migratory, but most are residents. “[Most bats stay in the state], though they will move to different roosts seasonally,” says Dr. Frick. “Females often group up together in the summer season to have their pups and rear young, and then disperse for winter to find roosts that are thermally stable and protected during winter.”

She adds a fun fact: California now has a state bat, the Pallid bat.

Dr. Winifred Frick extracting a Yuma myotis (Myotis yumanensis) from a mist-net in the redwoods of the Big Creek UC Natural Reserve with her son Darwin Frick Heady in 2022.

 Researchers setting up a mist-net in Humboldt Redwoods State Park as part of a long-term study on the migratory behavior of bats led by Ted Weller of the US Forest Service.

Big brown bat

California myotis

Townsend's big-eared bat

California myotis

Hoary bat

Pallid bat

Pallid bat

Mexican free-tailed bat

Townsend's big-eared bats

All photos courtesy: Bat Conservation International. Credits: Row 1: J. Scott Altenbach; Row 2: Bruce D. Taubert; Josh Hydeman; Hydeman; Row 3: Taubert; Hydeman; BCI

Full List of Bat Species Commonly Occurring in Coast Redwood Forests

Scientific name	Common name
Antrozous pallidus	Pallid bat
Corynorhinus townsendii	Townsend’s big-eared bat
Eptesicus fuscus	Big brown bat
Lasionycteris noctivagans	Silver-haired bat
Lasiurus blossevillii	Western red bat
Lasiurus cinereus	Hoary bat
Myotis californicus	California myotis
Myotis evotis	Long-eared myotis
Myotis lucifugus	Little brown myotis
Myotis thysanodes	Fringed myotis
Myotis volans	Long-legged myotis
Myotis yumanensis	Yuma myotis
Tadarida brasiliensis	Mexican free-tailed bat

All bats in California are insectivorous—meaning they dine on a smorgasbord of flies, moths, beetles, and other bugs. This special diet helps to carry nutrients upslope from the forest’s streams. Bats like the Yuma myotis (Myotis yumanensis) forage for emergent aquatic insects—that is, those transitioning from a life in water, as juveniles, to a life on land, as adults.

Bracken exodus at night. Photo courtesy of Bat Conservation International/Josh Hydeman.

The bats feed for insects in riparian habitats, areas where the land meets creeks and streams, then move nitrogen back up to the forest through their “guano rain.”

Counter to their depictions in popular culture, bats are harder to find in fall and winter—their active season is typically the dry summertime. They often have their pups in June; the pups—just one per litter—nurse, learn to fly, and become independent once the weather starts to cool down, before the transition to autumn. During the cold season, bats will hibernate, or enter torpor, to save energy, as there are fewer insects around for them to munch on.

None of the bat species of California are listed as Federally Endangered or Threatened, but some of them are species of conservation concern, including Townsend’s big eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii), Western red bat (Laisurus blossevillii), Fringed myotis (Myotis thysanodes), and Hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus). Dr. Frick says:

Bats in California face several threats, including the pervasive threat of habitat loss and effects of climate change, as well as specific threats like wind energy turbines. Migratory bats, such as the hoary bat, are at particular risk from wind energy turbines—each fall, hoary bats travel through California’s redwood range on remarkable nighttime journeys. Scientists are still discovering how these tiny travelers find their way through the forest canopy and beyond.

The effects of climate change on bats include extreme weather, drought, and wildfires. The disease White-nose Syndrome is an imminent threat, although bats in California have not yet shown signs of the disease.

A redwood hollow is the perfect place for a bat to find a cozy home. Photo by Rebecca Thomas.

All creatures of the redwood forest are important and have a role to play when it comes to maintaining a healthy ecosystem, and bats are no exception. Like marbled murrelets, they need redwoods to roost and need the streams that flow beneath the trees to find food. But bats don’t just help the redwood forest—they help maintain a healthy ecosystem around the globe. Their guano is considered a natural fertilizer, and globally contributes to the health of agriculture and agroforestry by consuming insect pests that damage crops. There are now 1,500 species of bats recognized, which means that bats make up over 20% of all mammal species.

Want to learn more about bats and how you can help them? Dr. Frick shares these valuable resources and suggestions:

• Become a member of Bat Conservation International
• Watch the award-winning documentary film The Invisible Mammal (screening in San Francisco on 10/25, with Dr. Frick in attendance!)
• Donate to Sempervirens Fund to support and protect the redwood forests that California bats rely on.

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Contact: Matt Shaffer, mshaffer@sempervirens.org, (415) 609-2750

Aerial view of the Gateway to Big Basin, a 153-acre redwood forest along Highway 236. Photo: Jordan Plotsky

Mountain View, Calif.: Today, Sempervirens Fund, California’s first land trust, hailed Governor Gavin Newsom’s decision to sign AB 679 (Pellerin – Santa Cruz) into law. AB 679 streamlines the process for California State Parks to acquire critical lands for Big Basin Redwoods, Año Nuevo, and Butano State Parks. By removing unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles, while maintaining transparency and fairness, this legislation ensures that conservation partners and the state can work more efficiently together to advance existing plans, safeguard redwood forests, and rebuild resilience after the devastating CZU Lightning Complex fire.

“AB 679 cuts the green tape to accelerate the protection of habitat, expand parklands, and restore damaged landscapes—strengthening climate resilience and community recovery in the Santa Cruz Mountains,” said Sara Barth, Sempervirens Fund’s Executive Director. “This bill provides greater certainty for conservation organizations and accelerates the work of protecting redwoods for future generations. We are grateful to the Governor for advancing this breakthrough policy.”

“After three years of hard work, we did it! AB 679 is now law, paving the way for Big Basin to rise from the ashes stronger than ever,” said Assemblymember Gail Pellerin. “This victory cuts through green tape so California State Parks and conservation partners can move quickly to protect our majestic redwoods, expand parklands, and bring new life to Big Basin and other parks devastated by the CZU Fire. I am deeply grateful to the Governor for signing this bill—and to Sempervirens Fund for sponsoring it and standing shoulder-to-shoulder in this effort. Together, we are delivering on a promise to the people of Santa Cruz County: a resilient, restored, and accessible state park for generations to come.”

Sempervirens Fund is proud to support this important step toward a more resilient, thriving redwood landscape.

“This legislation has been championed by Assemblymember Gail Pellerin since she took office in 2023 and we are forever grateful for her persistence and steadfast dedication to the recovery of parks impacted by the 2020 CZU wildfire,” added Barth. “This achievement would also not be possible without the leadership of Senator John Laird and Department of Parks and Recreation leadership, including Wade Crowfoot, Armando Quintero, and Darla Guenzler, and California State Parks Santa Cruz District Superintendent Chris Spohrer.”

“I am pleased Governor Newsom has signed AB 679 into law. This is a major victory for the redwoods and for the people of the Santa Cruz Mountains,” said Senator John Laird. “By enabling faster, more efficient land acquisition while upholding transparency and fairness, this law strengthens our ability to restore and expand our treasured parks in the aftermath of the CZU wildfire. Together with California State Parks and our conservation partners, we have the tools we needed to act with urgency and purpose.”

Over the past few years, Assemblymember Pellerin has been spearheading variations of AB 679, but while earlier versions had advanced through the legislature, they have not been signed into law. This year, not only did AB 679 get the Governor’s signature, but it provided the template for companion legislation, SB 630 (Allen – El Segundo), which similarly streamlines the process for California State Parks to acquire critical lands for state parks throughout California. The features of SB 630 are similar to AB 679, with minor distinctions, including a cap on the fair market value of the land available for purchase by the State. Sempervirens Fund also applauds Governor Newsom for signing SB 630 into law.

“Assemblymember Pellerin’s vision for AB 679 in 2023 was essential for modeling a statewide approach, SB 630, which together establishes a major breakthrough for advancing state park expansion statewide,” added Barth. “The two laws, in tandem, usher in a new era for state parks’ new future.”

View of Santa Cruz Mountains from Castle Rock State Park. Photo by Orenda Randuch.

AB 679 was pursued, in part, to accelerate the recovery of Big Basin State Park in accordance with their Reimaging Big Basin planning, which includes the establishment of a new entrance at Saddle Mountain. Since the fire, Sempervirens Fund has protected almost 200 acres of land for expanding Big Basin at Saddle Mountain and is already pursuing transfers of those properties.

In August 2023, Sempervirens transferred 222 acres and six properties to California State Parks for Castle Rock State Park. “While the 2023 expansion of Castle Rock State Park was the result of invaluable partnership with the state on the due diligence of a complex real estate transaction, having legislation like AB 679 in place would have accelerated those transfers,” added Barth. “Now that the green tape has been cut, we anticipate a faster process for expanding Big Basin at Saddle Mountain.”

The post NEWS: Legislation Cutting Green Tape for Expanding California State Parks Now Law appeared first on Sempervirens Fund.

San Vicente Redwoods and Mill Creek

It sometimes shocks people that fish can be found in a redwood forest, but the creeks of the Santa Cruz Mountains were once rich with coho salmon and steelhead trout.

Today, the coho salmon population is under threat. There are many causes for this: outdated logging practices, deforestation, development, and water extraction for farming and residences are all factors. Recently, climate change has become a new threat. Devastating wildfires, such as the CZU Lightning Complex, can cause severe damage to the riparian habitat.

From 2021, before the Mill Creek Dam was removed. The defunct dam stood for more than a century. Photo by Ian Bornarth.

Four years ago, in October 2021, we partnered with the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County to remove the Mill Creek Dam—a big impediment for salmon. Dams reduce salmon access to critical waterways and, especially in this case, the gravelly sediment that establishes critical spawning beds.

Dams are uncommon in the Santa Cruz Mountains; the one at Mill Creek was built in the last century to support redwood logging, but it was poorly planned and immediately defunct. But there it sat for a century, clogging the creek. The removal of the dam was a major milestone for the creek and for our team it opened the door to advanced stewardship¹ practices that will help restore this watershed and support the ecosystem.

Supporting the creek helps, in turn, to support the watershed that it is born from. The watersheds of the Santa Cruz Mountains require extra care given all the life they support. This care comes in many forms and stewardship activities: decommissioning rural dirt roads, implementing water bars (dirt humps on roads), clearing culverts before, during, and after rainfall, and minimizing vehicle activity during the wet season.

"Removing the dam took years of planning and permits but the dam came down in a matter of minutes. But what came next was spectacular. Winter storms reformed the creek bed and immediately moved a century of granite cobble downstream. And a year later, the coho returned." —Beatrix Jiménez-Helsley, Natural Resource Manager at Sempervirens Fund

Before and since the removal of the Mill Creek Dam, we have undertaken a number of other stewardship projects in the area to support salmonid life and breeding. Our restoration efforts began in 2017, with our stewardship team felling trees to improve instream habitat. In 2018, we began a large-scale effort to remove invasive plant species in the area, focusing specifically on Clematis vitalba (commonly known as “old-man’s beard”)—a climbing vine that was choking out the riparian and forest habitat.

Felled redwoods crisscross Mill Creek, surrounded by lush forest floodplain. Photo by Ian Bornarth.

In 2022, we recorded 15 juvenile coho salmon downstream and 12 juvenile steelhead trout. We can’t confirm they will all mate and survive, but the numbers are promising. This year, we have placed 111 more large woody debris structures—10 times the number placed before—to further improve the creek environment for these important fish.

Recently, baby redwoods have been spotted growing near Mill Creek—proof that the dam’s removal is beginning to support the next generation of life in these sacred forests.

BLM Land and the Start of the Lower San Vicente Creek Watershed

Heading southwest from Mill Creek, our Stewardship team makes a stop at a patch of land owned by the Bureau of Land Management. Here, they will remove the invasive Cape Ivy (Delairea odorata), a highly aggressive, non-native invasive plant with a growth rate of 20 feet, in all directions, per year. Cape Ivy smothers the redwood canopy and understory, which in turns prevents the establishment of tree saplings and other native species, resulting in a loss of understory plant diversity.

Without room for native plants to grow, native fish, amphibians, and other riparian species suffer, as there are fewer meals for the macroinvertebrates that they eat. In addition, the plant is mildly toxic and can be directly harmful to insects and wildlife, further reducing the diversity and health of wildlife and aquatic species. In short, an invasive plant like Cape Ivy can send repercussions down to the very bottom of the food chain.

"Cape Ivy vines can grow at rates exceeding 1-2 meters a month in all horizontal directions once it has established roots and 2-4 meters when growing vertically towards the light," explains George McMenamin, a Restoration Consultant based in Boulder Creek. "This allows it to rapidly form a dense ground cover of greater than 90% over large areas."

Not only does it prevent the establishment of new tree saplings and shrubs, but it also prevents the growth of many other native plant species resulting in a significant loss of understory plant diversity, including herbaceous plants. This loss of plant diversity leads to reductions in the diversity and numbers of in macro invertebrates resulting in a greater loss of food for fish, frogs and other riparian animal species.

"Because you need to remove every piece of the plant to control, you need a patient and talented crew and an expert supervisor," says Kelli Camara, Consulting Technical Director at the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County. "Native plants can co-exist with Cape Ivy to some degree and in those areas we try to avoid impacting the native plants, which makes the removal of Cape Ivy even more time consuming and labor intensive."

Cape Ivy climbs over and smothers low growing native vegetation, disrupting food webs, reducing plant diversity and the quality of food and cover for our native wildlife that evolved with plants endemic to our area. "It also prevents the establishment of new tree sapling and trees are needed to provide shade, cover and food, and ultimately need to fall into the creek to maintain the health of our streams for fish and wildlife," says Camara.

Cotoni-Coast Dairies

The San Vicente watershed flows through Cotoni-Coast Dairies to the Pacific Ocean. Photo by R. Rymer

Sitting on the edge of the coast is a property known as Cotoni-Coast Dairies, an area with a rich ecosystem, boasting a rich diversity of native plants such as red alder and the endemic Monterey cypress and wildlife like the threatened California red-legged frogs, mountain lions, and of course, coho salmon and steelhead trout.

With the vast Pacific Ocean on one side and the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains on the other, one can easily connect the dots and begin to trace the salmon’s journey from the interior forest to the ocean. At Cotoni-Coast Dairies, the two forested creeks—the Lower San Vicente Creek and Mill Creek—run and then meet before they empty into the sea; coho salmon follow these streams that flow downstream into the Pacific Ocean in order to grow from adolescence as a smolt into an adult fish, ready to mate and then, migrate to the sea’s rich smorgasbord to feed.

The unique and special geology of the San Vicente Watershed.

The Lower San Vicente Creek is unique. It no longer has a bar-built estuary, because the creek was rerouted in 1906 to make way for a railway access trestle. Without the estuary, fish can swim in or out of the stream any time of the year–the only regional watershed with this feature.

Additionally, its karst geology—a term that indicates that the bedrock has dissolved enough to create streams, creeks, or sinkholes—leads to higher and colder flows than in nearby watersheds, even during severe droughts.

Water and watersheds are critical for all living things on earth, and the ones that exist in the Santa Cruz Mountains are exceptional and special—another reason we work to protect this place. In much of the stewardship work we do throughout the watersheds of the Santa Cruz Mountains, we aim to restore the area to what it once was, before the influence of human development.

Our hope is that the creeks and streams, when allowed to flow freely and without impediment, will connect to the grand Pacific Ocean, and that the positive effects of our work will extend far beyond the coast of California.

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Assessing Forest Health

One of the tools we utilize to assess the health of redwoods and their environs is the botanical survey. Our Land team partners with contract botanists and ecologists to gain insights into what types of stewardship efforts a particular area might need to better thrive. At a micro level, the well-trained eyes of these scientists look down at the ground to identify what species are notably present and absent. At a macro level, they identify the overall strengths and opportunities of the property and of the habitat. Together, these micro and macro assessments help inform our conservation and restoration efforts.

With your help, Castle Rock Hollow was acquired by Sempervirens Fund in 2021. Its 51-acres of forest bordering Castle Rock State Park had been zoned for commercial timber harvest, and yet we saw a much brighter future for this property. It was one of the last remaining inholdings to be acquired within Castle Rock State Park, and after restoration work, we envision an opportunity to transfer it to California State Parks so that it might be added to the Park itself. At the same time, we hope it will also enable a realignment of the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail away from the main road and provide a potential new camping site. Its protection will also support the ongoing health of the entire forest and the flora and fauna that rely on it.

Surveying a New Property

Sempervirens Fund facilitated a recent botanical survey of Castle Rock Hollow with the goal of understanding the macro-habitat of the property to then prepare a stewardship plan to enable an eventual handover to the State Park system. At prior visits here, the team had been curious about the history and health of a distinctive meadow. The Castle Rock Hollow meadow is a hotbed of biodiversity. The wildlife camera we installed has captured mountain lions, deer, and more in the meadow, and a variety of flowers and grasses abound. In addition, there has been much speculation among the team about the history of the meadow. The presence of plants that are known to have been beneficial to Indigenous Peoples, such as yarrow and soaproot, have some convinced that the meadow was deliberately cleared and cultivated. During our survey day, Consulting Ecologist Matt Marshall of Ecological Concerns Inc. (ECI) ² joined Sempervirens Fund’s Land Stewardship Associate, Chris Lopez, a day of further investigation and learning.

The primary visible evidence of ECI’s work in the meadow so far were piles of invasive bamboo and French broom that had been cleared. This work of removing invasive plants is done through hand pulling to ensure roots are removed and so that desired native plants are left undisturbed. “A healthy native meadow is only about 5-10% native cover,” Matt shared. “Grasslands are the most invaded habitat type,” he continued, and native cover is rare because invasives take over with their high germination rates and more rapid growth than natives.

Sempervirens Fund Forest Fellow, artist Jane Kim, strolls under the redwoods with Sempervirens Fund's Chief Marketing Officer Matt Shaffer.

Sempervirens Fund's Land Stewardship Associate, Chris Lopez (R) in the meadow with ECI's Matt Marshall

Botanical Survey Image Gallery

Do you know which plants are native vs. non-native?

Native

Western Sword Fern

Polystichum munitum

Native

Giant Horsetail

Equisetum telmateia

Non-native

Recently pulled invasive French Broom. One of the most invasive plants.

Genista monspessulana

Native

Shreve Oak

Quercus parvula var. shrevei

Native

Milkmaids

Cardamine californica

Native

California Beaked Hazelnut blossoms

Corylus cornuta

Native

Yerba Buena, a member of the mint family that smells amazing!

Clinopodium douglasii

Native

California Blackberry leaf with a Flower Lebia Beetle (Lebia viridis).

Rubus ursinus

Native

Blueblossom

Ceanothus thyrsiflorus

Non-native

Changing Forget-Me-Not

Myosotis discolor

Native

Pacific Poison Oak

Toxicodendron diversilobum

Native

Western Starflower

Lysimachia latifolia

Native

Bigleaf Maple sapling, one of only two native maples in the area.

Acer macrophyllum

Native

Modesty

Whipplea modesta

Native

Wavy Leafed Soap plant flower

Chlorogalum pomeridianum

Native

Western Heart's Ease

Viola ocellata

Non-native

Sempervirens Fund's Forest Fellow Jane Kim helping clear the meadow of invasive French Broom.

Genista monspessulana

Native

Brodiaea or Blue Dicks

Dipterostemon capitatus

Non-native

Vetch flowering in the meadow. The flowering shrub at rear is Blueblossom.

Vicia villosa

Native

Redwood Sorrel

Oxalis oregana

Native

Wavy leafed soap plant leaves

Chlorogalum pomeridianum

Native

Common Yarrow

Achillea millefolium

Native

Woodland Strawberry

Fragaria vesca

Securing a Botanical Balance

Once visible invasive plants are removed, the work of restoring native plants in their place begins. ECI does this by carefully collecting seeds of existing native plants in the meadow, growing them in their nursery, and then reestablishing the seedlings back in the meadow. ECI believes in the importance of using site-specific, or at least watershed-specific, seeds to ensure compatibility and viability within the existing ecosystem. Another school of thought has others in the field testing the practice of using seeds from warmer climates to reseed areas experiencing warming, because they fear climate change will outpace the plants’ ability to adapt to warming trends. The experts will be watching results of differing approaches play out in real time, influencing our and our partners’ stewardship efforts for years to come.

At Castle Rock Hollow, our stewardship work in the meadow and in the surrounding redwood forest is not a one time activity - it is ongoing. French broom and bamboo are hardy and grow rapidly, which means new shoots in cleared areas of the meadow will need to be pulled regularly. As the meadow is reseeded and reestablished with native cover, we will also be using maps from these detailed botanical surveys to create short and long term restoration plans for each small parcel, including rewilding of dirt roads and tracks and removal of evidence of structures across the property. With a comprehensive understanding of the individual zones on this parcel of land and their individual needs, we can steward the land to a natural, sustainable state. At that point, we’ll be ready to pursue a handoff to California State Parks so that Castle Rock Hollow can be where it belongs - seamlessly integrated into the majestic Castle Rock State Park that surrounds it.

What Comes Next

Is this painstaking investigation and restoration work worth the effort? “We believe we have a role in restoring and protecting native lands for the benefit of the plants and animals that live there and for the benefit of the people who seek their own restoration in these spaces,” said Lopez. Across California, and through a robust network of stewardship professionals in the Santa Cruz Mountains, this level of inquiry, deliberate interventions, monitoring, and analysis is giving Sempervirens Fund and our partners robust data about how best to support natural systems recovering from human impacts. Paired with county and state programs that incentivize nature-based solutions, conservation, and forest resilience, we believe that every acre of active management will have far greater benefits across the region’s interconnected systems.

All of these conversations and so many more were part of the deep dive that was the Castle Rock Hollow botanical survey. Our work preserving and protecting the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains can sometimes feel just as complex as the natural systems that sustain these forests! As Sempervirens Fund celebrates 125 years of stewarding these lands, our commitment remains as strong as ever to the preservation in perpetuity of these marvelous forests and their sustaining ecosystems for generations to come.

Chris Lopez and Forest Fellow Jane Kim look up into the canopy.

More to Explore

• Learn more about how we're Growing Old-Growth today for tomorrow.
• Explore how we are Caring for the Land across the Santa Cruz Mountains.
• Visit Castle Rock State Park.

The post Behind the Scenes: A Botanical Survey of Castle Rock Hollow appeared first on Sempervirens Fund.

Raj-Ann Rekhi Gill

Los Altos, Cailf. (July 17, 2025) – Sempervirens Fund, California’s first land trust, is proud to welcome Raj-Ann Rekhi to its board of directors.

Raj-Ann Rekhi is an Operating Partner at SVQ, a Silicon Valley-based angel investing syndicate, and brings decades of experience in nonprofit development and international affairs. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Syracuse University, her undergraduate alma mater, and holds a Master of Science in International Relations from the London School of Economics. Over the course of her career, she has worked with a range of organizations including The Asia Society and Museum, American India Foundation, and the San Jose Museum of Art. Rekhi also serves on the board of the India Community Center in Silicon Valley. A passionate advocate for arts, culture, and community, she is an avid hiker and lifelong lover of the outdoors.

“I’m thrilled to join Sempervirens Fund and contribute to its enduring mission of protecting the redwood forests—one of California’s most iconic and vital landscapes—for generations to come,” said Rekhi.

Sempervirens Fund is California’s first land trust and the only organization dedicated exclusively to protecting the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Founded in 1900 by a group of concerned citizens, the organization is celebrating 125 years of redwoods conservation in 2025. Its mission is to ensure coast redwood forests in the Santa Cruz Mountains thrive for generations to come. The organization also encourages public connection to and stewardship of California’s natural wonders.

“We’re delighted to welcome Raj-Ann to our board,” said Sara Barth, Executive Director of Sempervirens Fund. “Her global perspective, commitment to public service, and deep roots in the Bay Area will help advance our vision for resilient redwood forests and thriving communities.”

The post NEWS: Sempervirens Fund welcomes Raj-Ann Rekhi to its board of directors appeared first on Sempervirens Fund.

1900

Sempervirens Fund was established. The community-led movement to save the Santa Cruz Mountains’ redwoods from logging gained momentum at the turn of the century. Community members were horrified by the destruction they saw in their backyard and joined forces to demand preservation of these threatened trees.

1902

At its founding, the first order of business for The Sempervirens Club (as it was then called) was to establish and permanently protect six square miles of old-growth redwoods, creating Big Basin Redwoods State Park, or as it was known then, California Redwood Park. It was the first new park in the California State Park system.

1920

Artist and photographer Andrew P. Hill was referred to as the “savior of the redwoods” for his work drawing attention to their destruction and as a founding member of Sempervirens Club. Ever since, he has been honored in many ways, including with a plaque and a fountain in his name at Big Basin State Park.

1957

Butano State Park opens, after we advocated for the land’s protection.

1976

The Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail began taking shape in 1969. With the help of partners including California State Parks, local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club, and volunteers from many trail organizations, the trail opened to the public in 1976.

1980s & 1990s

We continued to lead ongoing efforts to protect not just the redwoods themselves, but the watersheds that nourished them. Active community support and negotiations facilitated land acquisitions that added thousands of acres to Big Basin Redwoods, Castle Rock, and Butano State Parks.

1991

We protected Camp Hammer through our first conservation easement.

2007

We protected the 535-acre Little Basin, a former camp retreat for Hewlett Packard employees. Little Basin was later added to Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

2011

An extensive coalition of community land trust partners facilitated the purchase and protection of the 8,532-acre San Vicente Redwoods property to heal and restore the forest after decades of commercial use. It was the largest private forestland remaining in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the largest land purchase in our history. This was only possible due to enthusiastic community support and investment.

2014

We led the formation of the Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network (scmsn.net), a regional collaboration of 25 organizations engaged in land stewardship in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

2017

We partnered with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band to protect 96 acres of coastal land. We also became the fiscal sponsor for the Indigenous Amah Mutsun Land Trust and helped them become their own 501c3 nonprofit land trust.

2017

Along with donors, foundation funders, and key partners, we led the campaign to designate the Cotoni-Coast Dairies, over 5,000 acres adjacent to San Vicente Redwoods, as a National Monument.

2018

Sempervirens Fund and partners Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), Save the Redwoods League, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife worked together to remove the invasive plant, Clematis vitalba, at San Vicente Redwoods.

2019

The Robert C. Kirkwood entrance, built by Sempervirens Fund, opened at Castle Rock State Park.

2021

The Mill Creek Dam was removed, helping endangered coho salmon to return and thrive.

2022

In partnership with The Y, we purchased a conservation easement and created a stewardship fund to protect Camp Jones Gulch, allowing the old growth treasures here, and youth access, to be permanently protected.

2022

Big Basin Redwoods State Park reopened after the destructive CZU Lightning Fire Complex. Most redwood trees survived, and stewardship and restoration efforts in conjunction with our partners will speed the forests’ recovery.

Sempervirens Fund Executive Director Sara Barth

The post 125 Years appeared first on Sempervirens Fund.

Stronger Together

Redwood forests are so much more than a collection of towering trees. We have learned that redwoods are stronger together, forming an interconnected system unique among evergreens that nurtures young trees, supports older ones, and creates conditions for the whole forest to thrive. A key factor in the community resilience of the redwood forest is the concept of chronodiversity, or the condition of temporal richness in a particular habitat or ecosystem, and, within communities of plants, specimens of various ages. In his book, Elderflora: A Modern History of Ancient Trees, historian Jared Farmer explores the complex history of the world’s oldest trees. In a changing climate, a long future for these big trees is still possible, Farmer shows, but only if we give care to young things that might grow old.

Illustration courtesy of Jane Kim, Ink Dwell Studio

A redwood forest masterfully provides care to young things so that they might grow old. The redwood’s shallow but widespread roots help them survive by intertwining with the roots of other trees around them. Intertwined root systems provide stability to these mighty trees during strong winds and floods - quite literally holding one another down. Their shallow roots can also sprout and support new redwood trees far more successfully than from their cone seeds.

Redwoods can often be seen growing in circles, known as “fairy rings” or “family circles”, because they sprouted from the roots or base of a parent tree. The parent tree helps to nourish the sprouts through its well-established root system while they grow. When the parent trees die, the young redwoods continue to grow in the circle shielding, stabilizing, and nourishing each other through their roots. Redwoods, even unrelated ones, take care of one another, supporting each other with nutrients through their interconnected roots including their young, sick, and old. This chronodiversity is foundational to the sustainability of healthy redwood forests.

The Importance of Old-growth

Photo by Orenda Randuch

Old-growth redwoods are the essential anchors of a chronodiverse redwood forest. Even more broadly, Farmer names old-growth redwoods as lynchpins of our planet’s chronodiversity as a whole. Old-growth redwoods are both megaflora, the largest plants of a particular region, habitat, or epoch; and elderflora, the longest-lasting plants of a particular region, habitat, or epoch.

Extreme climate conditions and weather events are not making this any easier. Stresses from heat, drought, and wildfire are increasingly putting redwoods, and the chronodiversity necessary for their long-term survival, at risk. Sustaining healthy and chronodiverse redwoods also addresses climate change: no other species stores as much carbon as a redwood tree.

Protecting and connecting remaining old-growth redwoods and second growth trees that will grow into old-growth ensures these interconnected natural systems can continue to function, so the healthy forest can sustain itself – and us. Not only do chronodiverse groves help one another thrive, combined they also provide exponentially greater habitat for plant and wildlife species. Although only 5% of old-growth redwoods are left in their native habitat, by preserving the land they grow on and restoring natural conditions, we’re helping to create the old-growth forests of tomorrow.

Restoration Fosters Chronodiversity

Photo by Orenda Randuch

Creating the conditions for thriving, chronodiverse redwood forests is a challenging work in progress. After decades of heavy logging, newer trees often regrow all at once, too close together and forced to compete for space, sunlight, and water. The lack of resources for all the trees can leave them stunted and unable to reach their full potential, and more importantly, can crowd out larger, more essential older trees.

At places like San Vicente Redwoods, foresters are selectively cutting smaller trees and thinning the understory, aiming to help the biggest trees in previously logged stands grow faster. Thanks in part to research from scientists like dendrochronologist Allyson Carroll, “we know bigger, older redwoods are more resilient to disturbance from catastrophic wildfire, storms, floods, disease, you name it,” says Laura McLendon, director of land conservation for Sempervirens Fund. “So, the quicker you can return second-growth forests to certain old-growth characteristics like wider spacing, the better.” The goal is eliminating some of the ecological hurdles left by over a century’s worth of logging, road building, fire suppression, and development. By helping to restore ideal conditions through careful stewardship, chronodiverse redwood forests, anchored by old-growth trees, can again thrive.

A redwood forest is resilient. By protecting and connecting redwood forests in the Santa Cruz Mountains, we help redwoods grow stronger, together. Once it’s protected, restored, and chronodiverse, a redwood forest can take care of itself. We’re encouraged that redwoods sprouted at the time of our founding 125 years ago are only a few short years from becoming venerable old-growth themselves, providing plant and wildlife habitat, clean air, and inspiration for thousands, even millions, of years to come.

More to Explore

• Learn more about how we're Growing Old-Growth today for tomorrow.
• Read our Climate Action Plan to help redwoods survive so we all can thrive.
• Explore our collaboration with Bay Nature magazine: "Why Cut Redwoods?"

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