SAVING RICHARDSON GROVE

Signs along Highway 101 north of San Francisco repeatedly tell drivers they’re traveling the “Redwood Highway” — but only at Richardson Grove State Park, just north of the Humboldt County line, does the reason for that name finally become clear. At Richardson Grove, the highway narrows to a two-lane road winding between ancient redwood giants along the South Fork of the Eel River. These massive trees, rare remnants of the redwood forest that once blanketed the river valleys and hillsides of the Coast Range from southern Oregon to Big Sur, provide crucial habitat for old-growth-dependent species like the marbled murrelet. Vanishing salmon and steelhead still return to the park’s streams to spawn.  And countless highway travelers can pinpoint Richardson Grove as the gateway to the redwoods — indeed, as the fabled “Redwood Curtain” itself.

All this is now threatened by a proposal to widen and realign Highway 101 through Richardson Grove State Park. The California Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration are poised to approve a project that would slice through the root systems of the grove’s ancient trees, all in the name of bringing huge commercial trucks to the remote North Coast. Well-connected developers, seeing opportunities for more big-box stores and rural subdivisions in Humboldt County, desperately want those bigger trucks on the roads. Yet this highway-widening project threatens both the biological integrity and the iconic character of Richardson Grove — a state park that for years many people have taken for granted as protected from degradation.

The Center has joined with local American Indians, environmental organizations, and community members in urging the California Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration not to give the green light to destruction of Richardson Grove.  We won’t let the Redwood Curtain be sacrificed to big trucks and the big-box stores that will follow close behind.