When Big Basin fell victim to California’s record-setting wildfires this fall, at least one conservation group mourned its scorched landscape and questioned if the state park would ever recover.
Two months later, the park remains indefinitely closed, crews are working to clear “hazard trees” — those that could come crashing down — and the debate continues on whether its redwood forest can rebound as it did after past fires. Some scientists say California is entering uncharted territory with climate change, leaving coastal redwoods with conditions that are hotter and less foggy than before.
“We just don’t know what things will look like,” said Emily J. Francis, a forestry ecologist at the University of Texas who has studied Big Basin’s redwoods. “There are a lot of challenges, a lot of questions, and a lot of unknown.”
Big Basin is not just an expanse of redwoods where Californians have fond memories of hiking and camping. It is California’s first state park, created in 1902 to help launch a statewide movement to protect the state’s ancient redwoods. Its history could be seen in the park’s Headquarters Administration Building, built in 1936 by crews from the Civilian Conservation Corps.
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