A Stewardship Story: Return to Nature
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.
A Fainter Footprint in the Forest
In 2023, you protected more than 50 acres of redwood forest bordering Castle Rock State Park. This land had long been caught between commercial timber zoning and the steady expansion of a public park. As one of the last undeveloped inholdings within the park boundary, Castle Rock Hollow plays a quiet but important role in reconnecting forest and trail across the landscape, and can help realign the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail.
But tucked amongst its groves were several dilapidated buildings, unsafe for people and wildlife, and silently seeping chemicals and toxins into the soil and water. Thanks to you, these structures and materials were removed in the summer of 2024, ahead of winter rains and winds that could increase their threat to the forest and all who rely on it.
Watch as photographer Ian Bornarth documents the removal of these structures at Castle Rock Hollow and the space is returned to the forest.
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.
Undamming Water and Wildlife
Unmaintained roads are not the only structures that disrupt forest systems. Dams can alter watersheds more completely and for far longer. A defunct dam on San Vicente Redwoods’ Mill Creek trapped sediment behind it for 100 years—creating poor water quality upstream and poor habitat quality downstream. Endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout return from the sea to the forest to spawn the next generation among the pools created by redwood roots.
They depend on loose gravel and cobble to form stable beds for their eggs and to shape pools and riffles that shelter young fish. For nearly a century, that material was trapped behind the Mill Creek dam. Thanks to you, the dam was removed in 2021, and now sediment is able to move downstream again. Within a year, endangered coho salmon fry were documented in the watershed for the first time on record. These young fish will spend several years at sea before returning as adults. We continue to monitor the creek’s recovery through wildlife monitoring and an ongoing environmental DNA sampling project with UCLA and Amah Mutsun Land Trust. In the future, we hope to see the fry observed in Mill Creek complete that cycle and return to spawn, marking the first confirmed generation to do so in more than a century.
Watch as our Stewardship Team return fry to the creek after being counted.
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.
More to Explore
- See San Vicente Redwoods’ fire recovery and resilience in the photo essay Fuel for Fire
- Read more about Monitoring Wildlife
- Learn more about Caring for Our Lands
