The fire that burned through Big Basin in August 2020 was not only the largest natural disaster in the park's 120 year history, but it's recovery effort is the largest and most complex in the almost 160 year history of California State Parks. That complexity was highlighted on the Trail Crew's April 30th workday.
Pacific Starflower (Trientalis latifolia) and Pacific Coast Irises (Iris douglasiana)
The directive over the past several workdays was to remove more burned vegetation and improve sightlines along the Redwood Loop Trail resulting in a more managed appearance to the area, but those instructions had changed as we prepared to head out on the trail.
Visits to the park by different stakeholders in recent weeks resulted in renewed discussions on what the area should look like in the end, how to preserve natural processes and the best way to get there, so the decision was made to stop work on the Redwood Loop until a new direction was agreed upon.
So with the Redwood Loop on-hold, we headed to the stretch of Skyline-to-Sea Trail between the Old Lodge site and Gazos Creek Fire Road to resume work we started earlier in April when we cleared debris from the trail itself.
This time the goal was to expand the previous work by clearing burned vegetation within 10 feet of either side of the trail. We split the crew into two groups with one working ahead felling and bucking dead Tan oaks while the larger group handled the slower work of cutting and moving debris into burn piles. By the end of the day we had started and completed six burn piles, left two others about half finished and felled about a dozen dead trees along a one-third mile stretch of trail.
With most of the dropped trees still needing cleared, there is still lots of work to be done in this area.
The crew put in 145hrs and thanks to Arnold Arcolio, Daryn Bieri, Katy Booth, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, John Collins, Denis DeCeuster, Aiden Epstein, Mimi Guiney, Jan Hill, Marc Koenig, Janie Leifhelm, John Martin, Mike Peasland, Dale Petersen, Mike Rhoades, Devdutt Sheth, Bruce Washburn, Chris Young, and new member Kasiana McLenaghan for a successful workday.