Actually, it was more of a grand closing trip because the new park would not have enough money to pay for rangers to work there and so visitors were not allowed... The entire Mill Creek area will become a HUMAN-FREE zone... Fantastic! Let the earth heal and let the buildings, roads and pavement return to the earth.
ranger and SRL leaders gave welcoming speeches.
This is the abandoned sawmill.
This mill was huge... and a town for the millworkers to live in was next to it.
abandoned homes.
pumphouse and the Mill Creek.
Mill Creek
clearcut area after a few years.
short bushes replace the redwood trees.
view from the top of the logging road. Ranger points out boundaries of park.
the logging roads will not be used and so they will wash away into the creek. silting the salmon's habitat.
contrast the clearcut area with the forest...
clear boundary of park.
children exploring the clearcut devastation.
Mill Creek, California.
walking down the road. gregvan bringing up the rear.
we met some nice people on the tour.
what the forest looked like before logging.
Mill Creek vista...
The Save the Redwoods League has a very effective plan. They simply
purchase forests and donate the land to the State of California for use as
Parks. In the late 1800's they donated Big Basin State Park in the
Santa Cruz mountains behind San Jose. Since that time they have been very
successful in collecting donations. Paul Allen of Microsoft is a big
donor. His donations along with hundreds of other people allowed the
league to purchase the Mill Creek watershed near Crescent City. We went to
visit the grand opening. The mill closed down after all the high profit
trees were logged and the remaining land was sold to the SRL. There is
an abandoned mill, town and miles of logging roads.
Visit the official website of Save the Redwoods League.
http://www.savetheredwoods.org/
Surfer in Crescent City...
"enhanced" to use the strange camera color error... the sky was Yellow... go figure.