The Governor’s May Revise Budget includes much of the costs for rebuilding and re-opening California’s oldest state park. 97 percent of the 18,000-acre Big Basin Redwoods State Park was damaged (or destroyed) during last summer’s CZU Lightning Complex Fires.
The fire destroyed Big Basin’s historic 1930s-era visitor center, its headquarters, park amphitheater, museum and store. It also destroyed more than 100 buildings (including 20 ranger homes, 225 campsites, and 35 tent cabins), as well as 6 wooden vehicle bridges, 46 pedestrian bridges, 51 culverts, the park’s electrical system, water pipes and hundreds of signs, fences, wooden stairs and other park features.
Although nearly all of the big redwood tree’s trunks were blackened, they are expected to survive, and many are already re-sprouting green branches.
A small part of the park, near the ocean at Rancho del Oso, is scheduled to reopen on Saturdays and Sundays starting Memorial Day weekend.
Newsom’s revised budget now goes to the Legislature for final approval.
More information can be found at info can be found at: parks.ca.gov.
