Recovering from fire at San Vicente Redwoods

League is working with partners to restore this Santa Cruz redwood forest

When the CZU Lightning Complex Fire moved through the Santa Cruz Mountains last Augustone of the areas that burned was the San Vicente Redwoods, a nearly 9,000-acre property linking Silicon Valley and the Pacific Ocean. Save the Redwoods League holds a conservation easement on the property, which was purchased from commercial owners by Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) and Sempervirens Fund in 2011. 

Our partners at POST recently produced the above video about how the fire moved through one particular section of the property called Deadman Gulch, where the League has been leading a restoration project to support the recovery of the second-growth redwood forest from logging decades ago and accelerate the development of old-growth characteristics. As forester Nadia Hamey explains in the video, the fire actually had the beneficial result of clearing away dense thickets of tanoak and madrone that were impeding the recovery of the coast redwoods. 

Following the fire, League staff have joined with our partners and the Amah Mutsun Land Trust crew to plant new redwood seedlings in areas that were cleared by fire. 

There’s more information about this effort on the POST website. 

About the author

Since 1918, Save the Redwoods League has protected and restored redwood forests and connected people with their peace and beauty so these wonders of the natural world flourish.

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