America's pre-eminent redwoods showcase, Redwood National Park, will begin 2006 significantly larger, and not just because the massive trees there grew taller.
The formerly 112,000-acre park in Humboldt and Del Norte counties -- home to the tallest living things on Earth -- grew by about 26,000 acres after President Bush signed a law to expand the park's boundaries on Dec. 21.
The law, written by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., added the 25,000-acre Mill Creek property, a vast expanse of redwood and Douglas fir forests six miles south of Crescent City, to the park's northern flank, along with a few smaller parcels. The Mill Creek property, roughly equal in size to the city of San Francisco, was heavily logged over the past 150 years, but remains home to bald eagles, black bears and some of California's best salmon streams.
"It really is a purchase for the future,'' said Kate Anderton, of Santa Cruz, the executive director of Save-the-Redwoods League, based in San Francisco. "We are trying to act on a scale that is appropriate for the grandeur of this ecosystem.''
The league coordinated the property's purchase in 2002 for $60 million from Stimson Lumber, based in Portland, Ore. It raised $15 million in private funds to augment $45 million in state and federal parks money.
The purchase had been on the league's wish list since the 1930s. It also represents the league's largest, and most expensive acquisition since its founding in 1918.
Unlike most other purchases of redwoods for parks, environmentalists and government officials bought Mill Creek knowing that most of the trees were only about 50 years old or less, and that the property was crisscrossed with 255 miles of former logging roads.
Their goal: to restore it, looking a century ahead.
"It is true it has been logged. It is second-growth,'' said Ruth Coleman, California's state parks director. ``But with careful management, we can grow it back so it will look like an old-growth forest. It may not be in our lifetime, but people should remember we purchase these parks for future generations as well.''
Since 2002, the property has been managed by the state parks department and will continue to be, under an agreement with the federal government. State parks, the Smith River Alliance, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other organizations already have worked with Save-the-Redwoods League to restore and replant 18 miles of logging roads that threatened to erode into streams.
Many more miles will be decommissioned, Anderton said. Also, the groups are thinning small trees in overgrown sections of the forest where loggers planted saplings too tightly after heavy cutting. That will allow light to get through so redwoods can grow larger more quickly, Anderton said.
So far, public access on the property is limited to docent-led tours arranged though Redwood National Park's visitor center. Both Anderton and Coleman say they would like to open it as soon as possible to unaccompanied hiking, mountain biking, horse riding or other uses. That can only occur, however, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration and the state Legislature approve new money to hire more state park rangers.
The Mill Creek property connects more than 400,000 acres of protected North Coast forests. Linked are Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, along with sections of Redwood National Park and the Smith River National Recreation Area.
The property's streams contain steelhead trout, coho salmon and fall-run chinook salmon -- all protected now against erosion or water diversions that could have come from housing development or future logging if done harmfully.
"The fisheries value is tremendous,'' said Tom Weseloh, north coast manager for California Trout, a fishing advocacy group. "Mill Creek is one of our healthier streams in the state. This was a very high priority.''
Redwood National Park -- known for its ancient misty forests, bright pink rhododendrons and 37 miles of rugged beaches near the Oregon border -- was established in 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson. It was doubled in size in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter. It contains 45 percent of all the old-growth redwood acreage in California.
"People come there from across the world,'' said Holly Bundock, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service. "And Mill Creek is a magnificent addition. The second growth is thick. There are lots of bears and salmon. It is really a lovely piece of land.''Mercury News
