As devastating wildfires tore through the Santa Cruz Mountains, officials reported Thursday afternoon that historic structures at Big Basin Redwoods State Park had burned to the ground.
On Wednesday night, California State Parks issued a statement noting that the 18,000-acre park had “extensive damage,” but did not elaborate further.
The park itself has been closed indefinitely while the CZU August Lightning Complex – a group of fires triggered by this lightning earlier this week – is on fire.
WILDFIRES RAGING OF NORTH CALIFORNIA SIZE AT LEAST 5 DEATHS
On Thursday, Superintendent of the Santa Cruz District for State Parks Chris Spohrer confirmed that parkers were only able to gain short access to the central area of the park and that the historic headquarters, lodge, ranger office, nature museum, shop, maintenance shop and multiple park dwellings and campgrounds were destroyed.
“From what she described, it was a fire with high heat, high intensity,” Spohrer told The Mercury News. ‘Many of the hood,’ they noted, were burnt. But it is too early to say what the long-term damage to those trees will be. ”
All campers, rangers and visitors were safely evacuated from the flames, along with the surrounding communities.
Founded in 1902, California’s oldest state park is home to more than 1 million visitors worldwide each year. The headquarters were built in 1936 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps using local redwood logs and stone. It is registered with the National Register of Historic Places.
Remarkably, Big Basin gave rise to the movement to preserve coastal forests – the world’s tallest trees – from a century ago and many consider its establishment a catalyst for the Golden State’s park system.
Some of the towering redwoods found in the Big Basin are more than 300 feet long and some nearly 2,000 years old.
While redwood bark is heavily fire resistant, intense fireworks can drop their cambium or seriously damage it – a layer of material beneath the birch that transports water and nutrients.
Many other parks with redwoods near the CZU Complex have also been closed until further notice, including Portola Redwoods State Park, Butano State Park, Rancho del Oso Unit, Año Nuevo State Park, Castle Rock State Park and Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.
The Big Basin Redwoods State Park headquarters and visitor center will be burned to the ground during a blaze in Boulder Creek, California, on Thursday, August 20th. (Randy Vazquez / MediaNews Group / The Mercury News via Getty Images)
On Friday, Cal Fire announced that the CZU complex had burned up to 50,000 acres and destroyed 20 structures containing 0%. There are currently 12,000 firefighters working to put out two dozen large fire extinguishers and that has been there 560 new wildfires burned in the past week with more than 771,000 acres in total.
President Trump on Thursday set fire to the California wildfire, which has now claimed the lives of six people and forced tens of thousands out of their homes.
“I see the forest fires starting again,” he said at a rally in Swing, Pennsylvania. “They’re starting up in California again. I said, ‘You need to clean your floors, you need to clean your woods.’ There are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they are, like, so flammable, you touch them and it goes up. “
“Maybe we should just pay them because they do not listen to us,” Trump added.
Most of California’s wildlife is federally managed.
“I’ve been telling them this for three years now, but they do not want to listen,” he said. “‘The environment, the environment,’ but they’ve had massive fires again. ‘
While not all fires are bad – they are a normal part of many western ecosystems – the coronavirus pandemic has also had an impact on the way state-introduced firefighters can use to respond.
California declared a state of emergency on Wednesday.
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Apparently at this week’s Democratic National Convention, Govin Newsom claimed that the disaster was the latest example of climate change.
Newsom called for denial of heat waves, and called on climate change deniers to experience the fires for themselves.
‘The hots are getting harder. The droughts are getting drier. Climate change is real, ”he said, appearing via phone video against a background of redwoods. “If you deny climate change, then come to California.”
