In the Wake of Wildfire, Big Basin Redwoods State Park Partially Reopens to the Public
Big Basin State Park is not the lush, shady ancient forest it once was. In August 2020, 97 percent of the old-growth forest nestled in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains burned in the devastating CZU Lightning Complex fire. Eighteen thousand acres burned, and the iconic park visitors center, lodge, staff homes, and other buildings were reduced to ash. An eerie silence hung over the scorched earth and skeletal trees.
Teresa Baker was shocked when she saw what remained a few months after the catastrophe.
“It seemed like a warzone,” says Baker, an advocate for diversity in the outdoors who serves on a committee advising the reimagining of Big Basin. “I didn’t hear any birds. I didn’t see any green. Nothing.”
Nearly two years later, Big Basin will partially reopen to the public this weekend on Friday, July 22. Though many trees were severely damaged or killed by the blaze, most of Big Basin’s redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) survived, even in areas where fire ravaged the canopy. Fuzzy bursts of bright-green new foliage spurt in improbable directions from blackened redwood trunks.