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Nature Needs Time to Heal

The CZU fire transformed Big Basin Redwoods State Park in a matter of hours. Its effects will linger for hundreds of years. The forest is expected to rebound, eventually, more or less—but when? How long until the forest looks, feels, sounds, and smells like the place we knew?

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CZU Anniversary

On August 16, 2020 a climate-fueled-weather event sparked the most catastrophic fire ever recorded in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Over the next month, fire raged through the region impacting lives, communities, parks, and some of the most ancient and beloved remaining coast redwood forests in the world. A year later, we look back at the CZU Fire.

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Big Basin: Honor its Past, Build it to Last

If you love Big Basin, please consider this: reimagining Big Basin can pioneer a new model for California’s state parks, just as Big Basin was more than a century ago. We believe that in this moment of transformation, Big Basin can lead the way for the State Parks to enter into a new era of public parks–one that is desperately needed. 

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Funding for Big Basin’s Future and Santa Cruz Redwood Forests

Work at Big Basin and throughout the region to recover from the devastation of the wildfires is underway. We need your help. Learn about the Santa Cruz Redwoods Restoration Fund and Big Basin’s Future Fund to support regional recovery and the planning, designing, and rebuilding efforts that will shape the Big Basin’s future.

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Visit Camping And Backpacking Skyline To The Sea

Redwood Camping and Backpacking

Sleeping among the towering California redwood trees is an unforgettable treat. Local parks offer a variety of options for family and group camping. Whether you want the comfort of coming back to campground at night after an inspiring day hike or the solitude of backcountry camping, the local redwood parks have just what you need. Here are resources to help you plan a trip to camp in these beautiful forests.

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Big Basin Recovery Fund Supports Access and Safety Improvements

NEWS: Sempervirens Fund and Save the Redwoods League have raised $543,000 to date for California State Parks and the massive recovery effort at Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The first disbursement of $200,000 will primarily support staffing and equipment costs for removing damaged and fallen trees that pose a hazard to other trees, personnel and future visitors.

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Big Basin Redwoods State Park entrance sign

Big Basin Memories

In August 2020, a widespread lightning storm ignited fires in the Santa Cruz mountains. The fires, centered in the historic Big Basin Redwoods State Park, and while we wait to return to Big Basin, people around the world are sharing their memories of their visits to this magnificent park.

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New growth sprouting in the redwoods after a fire

What Recovery Means for Big Basin and Santa Cruz Redwoods

Although the fires are no longer consuming the landscape throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains, we still grieve for the people in our community whose lives were in danger during the CZU Lightning Complex wildfires in August and September 2020. We continue to receive questions about what comes next. We don’t have all the answers, but we talked with Laura McLendon, our Director of Conservation, for a sense of what happened, and what’s to come, for redwood forests at Big Basin Redwoods State Park, and beyond.

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Big Basin Redwoods State Park before the wildfires from the CZU Lightening Incident

Wildfires in Big Basin Redwoods State Park

We are devastated to report that Big Basin, as we have known it, loved it, and cherished it for generations, is gone. Early reports are that the wildfire has consumed much of the park’s historic facilities. We do not yet know the fate of the park’s grandest old trees.

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