Big Basin Will Never Be The Same

[@csn583]

If anybody wants to live this video, go to the recently reopened Fall Creek and you can go from untouched (near Felton) through creeping ground fire up to the worst crown fire scorched-earth (up near Empire Grade). This is intense, and the music fitting. I've been doing trail crew work since last year and there's tons of hopeful regrowth in the redwood-dominant areas, but this is the worst of anything I've seen. China Grade and Eagle Rock are pretty bad but better regrowth. I have fond memories of going up over Chalk and down Henry Creek in the before-times. Just once, wish I'd gone more.

[@gregorybraithhunter]

I'm grateful--in the saddest sense of the word, but still, for your documentation of this land that we all enjoy.

[@leslielaveroni2375]

Can you do one of these videos every 6 months? My family and I love this place. Would love to see how the forest is regrowing.

[@routinebeauty273]

Working on it!

[@margaretWestminster]

Well done !! Thank you for showing the before and after journey.

[@fleafrier1]

Very cool video even if it is depressing as hell. This starts at the top of Henry Creek trail right? I hiked this same route in July of 2020 on a loop from Waddell Beach. So glad I got to see it one last time. This was one of the best trails in San Mateo county. Thanks for doing this.

[@gauravsss]

Thank you for sharing the video highlighting the stark contrast of the landscape.

[@superrocketpilot]

You know, as awful as this is, I can't help but be even more heartsick for what the wild animals endured. Just awful.

[@mattclark1278]

...nothing ever comes back 'the same', but this certainly won't for 40+ years, which is a lot of peoples' lifetimes. Here's to hoping it comes back to some form of beautiful for the younger generations...

[@WildflowersCreations]

Thank you so much for this. It very much is going to help in documenting our State Parks story and history. I will be using it personally in teaching this to my godson. In Boulder Creek on our hikes many areas still look the same as they did after the fire, he asks when families will be able to move back home and when the forest will be like it was. There hard economic and natural questions to answer.

[@dlbarch]

Spectacularly well done!

[@cyb3990]

Thank you for this!

[@Initial__B]

damn that's sad, rip skyline to sea trail you were fun

[@wallspc]

I like the video but the word never in the title is very over dramatic. I live in Santa Cruz, look into the burn history, part of the CZU area burned in the 60s, and just all about all of it, including the park structures burned back in 1904 in a fire that was described as burning into the old growth canopies similar to what CZU did. The old growth survives these fires as they have for 2000 years with the fire scars to prove it. The smaller trees and brush like what is in this video gets recycled into the earth. The soil samples all over the state point to fires being a consistent part of the forest cycle since well before humans arrived. That trail has burned in the past and re-grew to become what you documented in the before video. I can already see a few green sprouts in the after video, it will come back it's just a matter of time. It's sad that we have a huge section of forest that went from lush to fire burnt but this is part of the natural cycle and it's temporary. The nutrients from the burnt down trees will replenish the soil for the next generation of forest.

[@brianhansen5380]

I hear that, but I would offer that climate change has made the frequency and severity worse. I'm hopeful we can reverse course in some ways, but in others, this will be the new normal and what has happened before will be altered in ways we cannot foresee.

[@routinebeauty273]

Thanks for watching and thanks for this feedback. I personally interpret the title in a different way and thus do not find it to be over dramatic. I see it both broadly as a stark reminder of the impermanence of all things and more specifically about our rapidly changing climate and the ways it effects the local places we know and love. Though I am not a scientist, I am aware the history of wildfires in the area, the management of those fires, and the fire-adapted ecology that characterizes it. Big Basin will grow back and regenerate, we know this. However, my concern (and thank you Brian Hansen for commenting in this vein already) is that as the forces of climate change and drought conditions evolve, fires will be more frequent and more intense than those of natural origin. At what point will these new patterns interrupt and overrun that natural cycle and actually create large areas of forest death? In this sense, Big Basin for us, our children, and our grandchildren will never be the same and in my opinion, "over dramatic" doesn't exist in terms the urgency of addressing climate change on an unprecedented scale.

[@WildflowersCreations]

@@routinebeauty273 My thought exactly and teaching this urgency to not only our children for why we need to change our daily habits, but more importantly to convince those in power why we need to act now before mankind's actions since the industrial revolution can't be reversed. Our carbon footprint has consequences, what we do to the earth, water, and air has consequences.

[@WildflowersCreations]

See my answer regarding climate change above. Regarding human scars on our mountain if you take the Roaring Camp train through the mountain they point out a scared section on the other side of Felton that was logged that still hasn't grown back. You can see this section if you look for it and know where it is driving around, it's quite large. Yes it's logging not a fire, but in a way it's the same it resulted from humans, both are scars we can look at and learn from. One is from the 1880s to 1890s making it over 130 years old, and that part of the mountain still isn't the same.

[@lelac4410]

Looks like this was filmed in the "sand hills". I know forests can grow back, pending climate change impact on regeneration. My concern, seeing this, is for the erosion that will come with the next atmospheric river's deluging rainfall.

[@MayaFreedom25]

Sad, hard to watch, and hopeful for regrowth.

[@dennisverhines6215]

Which trail is this? Looks like chalk mountain area

[@fleafrier1]

First bit looks like Henry Creek trail. Definitely chalks area.

[@wooac]

Is this trail open?

[@csn583]

No, only the short nature trail near Hwy 1 is open.

[@nickbono8]

You’re right, it will never be the same. But that’s ok because nature isn’t stagnant. Fire is a natural process and that environment is adapted to it. Enjoy the beauty of regrowth.