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Western Trillium (Trillium ovatum)
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Ready for Spring's Renewal
Today is one of the most beautiful days I can recall here on the redwood coast. Spring has only just begun, but the sky is clear, and the sun is warm. Wildflowers are blooming along the coast and throughout the hills, and eager pollinators are buzzing around. Grey Whales are spouting off the coast as they make their northbound spring migration. There is no shortage of invigorating sights to see this season.
The regenerative nature of spring means so much more this year than ever before. This past year presented major challenges for our nonprofit and for our parks. But we’re emerging from those dim realities with new energy, fresh perspectives, and optimism about the future. Thanks to the generosity of our donors and supporters, we’ve started this year with a strong foundation. We’re ready to support our public lands in new and innovative ways.
We’ll continue to keep in touch throughout the year to share exciting updates about our work. Keep an eye out for our 2020 Impact Report, which will be arriving in your inbox soon. Our work would not be possible without support from friends like you. Thank you.
Joanna Di Tommaso Maggetti
Executive Director
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Redwood Resilience Fund raises $66K - Matching funds still available
After a spring and summer of closed visitor center stores and a reduced ability to fundraise, RPC needed help to be ready to serve our public land partners in 2021. Friends of the Redwood Parks answered the call in December -- with several friends raising a matching challenge fund of $25,000 to encourage others to donate. After that initial $25k was reached, a family conservation foundation put up another $20,000 to match donations received after January 1st 2021.
So far, donors have given $66,000 to the “Redwood Resilience Fund” and there’s still $11,000 in matching money left to double gifts received this spring. Please help us use it all!
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TRAIL BLAZERS: Grove of Titans Progress Report
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One of the only things that hasn’t been slowed down by the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be the trail crews working on the Grove of Titans project. The effort to restore the area around this grove of ancient redwoods in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park — and give visitors access to the area — is on track to be done this summer.
We recently checked in with California State Parks Park Maintenance Supervisor Dee Dee Cathey about the project. Cathey oversees the crews’ working on the trails and boardwalk that make up the most visible part of work at Grove of Titans.
Read more about how friends of RPC led the way to protect the Grove of Titans
Cathey says the pandemic was just one of the obstacles the workers have had to overcome, “wild fire, landslides, emergency responses and harsh winter conditions,” have all stood in the way. But the work has stayed on schedule despite it all. The latest roadblock was a literal one, with Highway 101 closed off and on for weeks due to a massive rockslide. The highway is the main road between the crews and the project site.
The trails being built and rebuilt are up to a mile from the nearest road, “This required the transportation by hand of 73.1 tons of construction materials, which is a combination of plastic mud sills, FRP (fiberglass) stringers and serrated (steel) grating… (and) we have transported 9,820 cubic feet of aggregate base.” All. By. Hand!
Cathey and her crews have an obvious pride in the work they are doing. Even in the rundown of the trail work they have listed, “two beautiful overlooks one 12’x12’ and the second 12’ x 16’” among the statistics.
Cathey and RNSP Deputy Superintendent Brett Silver both say the trail and walkway portion of the Grove of Titans Project will be complete this summer. We are looking forward to welcoming you back to this special part of Redwood National and State Parks soon.
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Trail crew members installing recycled plastic retaining wall December 2019.
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About Grove of Titans
In Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park there is a stand of massive, ancient redwoods that have become known as the Grove of Titans. The Grove was not on any official trail and was once a secret to the wider world. But as more visitors became aware of the area through online postings and GPS coordinates, a damaging network of “social trails” developed. The result was a virtual ‘LA freeway’ of improvised trails that left the forest floor trampled, bark stripped from the base of trees, dumping sediment in nearby salmon streams and exposing redwood roots.
Redwood Parks Conservancy’s friends and donors spearheaded a project beginning in 2017 to protect this sensitive habitat and make visitor access possible. In partnership with Save the Redwoods League, California State Parks and the National Park Service, we collectively raised more than $3.5 million. The partners developed a plan to repair existing trails and eliminate the social trails, allow responsible access to the area, provide trailhead amenities and develop educational materials to discourage off-trail use.
Work began in Fall 2019 and most of the project is expected to be completed by the end of June 2021.
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Watch Live Stream April 24 – Northcoast Lifeguards Tryouts
Redwood Parks Conservancy donors support the Junior Lifeguard program on north coast beaches. The program is run by our State Parks Lifeguard team, bringing hundreds of young people to the beach each summer to learn about the to be be safe and confident around this rugged coast.
For the first time, the CA State Parks Northcoast Lifeguards program will live stream their try-outs and qualification trails. Friends of Redwood Parks Conservancy are invited to be in the audience to see these lifesavers in action.
We’ll send a separate invite to all our subscribers and members for the Facebook live stream Saturday, April 24th.
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Tolowa Dunes Stewards volunteer Donna Thompson stands above a pile of invasive Scotch Broom removed in a recent work day at Tolowa Dunes State Park.
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18 Years at Big Dune nan-ts’vn:
a Tolowa Dunes Stewards Milestone
Eighteen years ago, Donna Thompson, John Mertes and Susan Calla volunteered to come pull invasive European Beachgrass at Big Dune nan-ts’vn (mountain in Tolowa Dee-ni’) in Tolowa Dunes State Park. Those three volunteers, pulled in by State Parks’ staffer Laura Julian, would become the core of the Tolowa Dunes Stewards, a group that has helped restore more than 75 acres of rare, native dune habitat in Tolowa Dunes State Park and Lake Earl Wildlife Area.
What the group has accomplished in nearly two decades shows what tenacious volunteers can do when they work together. It also illustrates how we all need to be stewards of public land, not just the people in the uniforms and flat hats. Since agency budgets have been slashed, work like what the Stewards are doing is vital to habitat restoration.
Tolowa Dunes Stewards (TDS) hosts regular educational trips and field days in the dunes and estuaries. But organizing to remove non-native invasive plants is still their defining work after 18 years.
“Invasives are the biggest problem, and if we all don’t do something, they will take all this land over,” says Sandra Jerabek, director of TDS. The group has at least 2 work days each month, all year, to remove European Beachgrass, Scotch Broom, Tansy Ragwort, and possibly the baddest of them all, English Ivy, from the dunes and nearby lands.
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Zoom in on this! An overview of volunteers working at Big Dune nan-ts'vn. The little tufts are native dune plants beginning to sprout.
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“European Beachgrass takes over native habitat and will push the rest of plants and animals out,” says Jerabek, “English Ivy covers the ground, and will also get up into Sitka Spruce, other heritage trees, into redwoods further inland.” She explains that the weight of the plants in windstorms will even topple trees. All invasive exotic plants displace native plants, which in turn reduces food and habitat for native insects, birds and other animals. Because of the encroachment of English ivy, the Stewards are now working to remove it in redwood parks like Jedediah Smith Redwoods too.
The stubbornness of their opponent makes the successes at Tolowa Dunes and Lake Earl even sweeter. Volunteers are seeing native plants recover in the area known as Big Dune and in the south Lake Tolowa area. A volunteer reported last month that Tolowa Coast Wallflower (Erysimum mensiesii ssp. concinnum ~ Rare 1B.2) “is spontaneously coming up EVERYWHERE that the European grass has been removed” and other endangered native dune plants are sprouting up in areas recently restored.
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Volunteer Janet Gilbert with Tolowa Coast Wallflower
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Even through the pandemic, the Stewards are seeing 10 to 15 volunteers show up for work days. “these are the most wonderful people in the world,” Jerabek continues, “people who are motivated to give back to nature and make a difference.” Most volunteers these days are retired or semi-retired. Before COVID — and hopefully again soon — a large contingent of high school age volunteers regularly helped. The Stewards record around $100,000 in volunteer labor in a typical year.
Many visitors come to the northern coast of California to experience the old growth redwood forest ecosystem. Jerabek makes a good case to explore further, “There is such an incredible diversity of species and habitats here, these open moving sand dunes, the estuary, coastal lagoons, marshes, dune ponds, forests and sloughs,”
“And that brings with it such diversity of life. There have been 320 bird species recorded here. The area is home to 500 vascular plants and 400 mushroom species!” Not to mention the abundant animal life: porcupines, river otters, Roosevelt elk, bobcats, beavers, the rare Oregon Silverspot Butterfly and many others.
“It’s just a joy.” Jerabek ended, “every hike you take you see something new.”
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What Can You Do?
- If you live in Del Norte County or are visiting, join a “Dune Explore and Restore” day or other Tolowa Dunes Stewards’ event. Information at their Facebook page or 707-954-5253. - No matter where you are, plant native plants! Avoid using invasive plants where you live and try to eliminate them from your landscaping.
- You can donate to Tolowa Dunes Stewards through at RPC's website. |
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