Storm Patrol: Stopping Roads From Burying Habitats

Legacy Logging Roads

The 1978 Redwood Act that expanded Redwood National Park, and the 2002 addition of the Mill Creek watershed to Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, marked turning points in how we manage "nature parks". These park additions were landcapes previously altered and damaged by decades of timber harvesting. Redwood National and State Parks inherited hundreds of miles of logging roads and hundreds of old road culverts. When these culverts or roads fail, the damage to downhill habitats can be terrible.


 

 

This rusty culvert caused the hillside to collapse, and it sent a landslide into redwood trees below.

NPS

Over the past decades during rainy winter storms, some legacy logging roads and their culverts have failed. Even though it might sound like a small thing, these collapses have led to entire hillsides sliding away. These failures then destroy downslope forests and bury streams and rivers under mountains of sediment. Entire habitats can be wiped out in one of these infrequent events.

Since 1978, Redwood National Park has removed and stabilised over 250 miles of logging roads, yet about 100 miles of at risk roads remain. Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park also has removed about 70 miles of logging roads, but more than 250 miles of roads are left.

Storm Patrol is a simple, but important way to monitor, and try to maintain these legacy logging roads. This winter-crew is funded by Save The Redwoods League, and the work they do is part of a much bigger restoration project called Redwoods Rising.

 

• 

  Making Sure the Plumbing is Working

  (Episode 1). Find out who Storm Patrol is, and how their work is important in protecting the hills, forests, rivers, and endangered salmon species of Redwood National and State Parks.

  Duration:

  5 minutes, 4 seconds

 

• 

  A Shovel-load of Prevention

  (Episode 2). Armed only with shovels, these two "Storm Patrollers" are doing simple, but vital things to protect the parks' resources. Their success is sustaining safe hillsides for as long as possible.

  Duration:

  4 minutes, 3 seconds

 

• 

  GIS and Boots-on-the-Ground

  (Episode 3). Discover the ways that Storm Patrol monitors complex and potentially destructive processes in the hills of Redwood National and State Parks.

  Duration:

  7 minutes, 41 seconds

 

 

Return to Restoration at Redwood webpage