Of all the existential threats California parks face 鈥� dwindling budgets, more visitors and costly, long-deferred maintenance 鈥� now comes a climate-driven conundrum: When is a park no longer a park? When its namesake trees disappear in a barrage of lightning strikes? When its very land is washed away by ever-rising seas?
The California Department of Parks and Recreation is coming to terms with this dilemma after a climate-reckoning moment last August, when more than 97% of , California鈥檚 oldest state park, was charred by a lightning-sparked wildfire.
The shock of it was almost greater than the devastation: of iconic, giant trees, hadn鈥檛 been hit by such ferocious blaze in living memory. The fire incinerated buildings and roads along with many trees; it was the most unexpected, indiscriminate and comprehensive destruction of a California state park, ever. Established 119 years ago, Big Basin remains closed.
Although all state agencies face the threat of climate change, state parks 鈥� with the depth and breadth of their 2,300 square miles of land 鈥� are singularly jeopardized. Caretaker of the nation鈥檚 largest state park system, the department is responsible for all of its historic structures, roads, bridges, land, beaches, forests, water, plants and animals.
鈥淓very bit of California is going to be impacted by climate change. It鈥檚 going to affect every person in the state and every acre of land in the state,鈥� said Jay Chamberlin, chief of the state parks鈥� natural resources division. 鈥淪tate parks are not only vulnerable, but some are uniquely vulnerable.鈥�
Managing California鈥檚 nearly 300 parks will now require a top-to-bottom rethink: How to make public land more resilient to wildfires, rising seas, drought and extreme weather. The price tag for arming state beaches, thinning forests, moving restrooms and visitors鈥� centers, and other climate-resilience projects has not been calculated. But experts say if the money isn鈥檛 spent now to protect parks from rising seas and intensified fires, the damage and costs will multiply.
鈥淭here鈥檚 needs to be a climate resilience plan for every park unit,鈥� said Rachel Norton, executive director of the nonprofit California State Parks Foundation. 鈥淭his is what鈥檚 coming: Drought, fire, sea level rise, loss of habitat for species. There鈥檚 a lot more work to be done to understand the scope of the potential threat.鈥�
In particular, making California鈥檚 state parks resilient to and flooding is critical; the agency manages about a quarter of the state鈥檚 coastline. Although the state鈥檚 climate change response is ongoing and frequently updated, a comprehensive sea-level rise plan for parks is being finalized, officials said.
鈥淓very bit of California is going to be impacted by climate change. State parks are not only vulnerable, but some are uniquely vulnerable.鈥�JAY CHAMBERLIN, CHIEF OF THE STATE PARKS鈥� NATURAL RESOURCES DIVISION
Chamberlin said the agency is transitioning 鈥渢o a stance where we consider climate in everything we do.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 talking about planning our capital investment, the vehicles we purchase or how we plan projects. When it comes to coastal issues, do not build in harm鈥檚 way. If a building needs roof repair, harden it if it鈥檚 in a wildfire zone. We are believers in building resilience into everything we do.鈥�
The legislature is watching to see what the parks department comes up with.
鈥淚 tend to think, is there an engineering solution or a technology solution to this?鈥� said Luz Rivas, a Democrat from Arleta who chairs the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.
Rivas, who has a degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an advanced degree from Harvard, wonders if California can apply its ample brainpower to come up with solutions.
鈥淲e are very fortunate to have many research institutions and national labs working on this. California is a leader in climate change policy but also technology. I think we should meld the two.鈥�
Forest fires of the future
Even those deeply familiar with every woody acre of Big Basin Redwoods 鈥� home to ancient trees of such stature that many are named and curated 鈥� the aftermath was unsettling.
鈥淕oing back into the park for the first time, it was very hard to believe what I was seeing,鈥� said Chris Spohrer, state parks superintendent for the Santa Cruz region. 鈥淭o see what a fire of that intensity could do was disorienting. The landmarks were gone, the colors were monochromatic. It took several visits for it to sink in, to get your bearings. It was shocking.鈥�
Even though the bulk of the contents of Big Basin was damaged or destroyed, the idea of the park, a celebration of the tallest living things on the planet, remains intact, officials say. While redwoods were burned, their bark is thick and fire-resistant, so park managers expect many of the big trees to survive, although other species, such as Douglas Firs, are not as hardy.
But things will be different. Managing a park to be resilient to fire is going to require change in a fundamental way in the decades to come: Visitors will have to alter their definition of a healthy park to include the sight of fewer trees and more prescribed burning. Managers may have to reduce the forest in order to save the park, and consider building future visitor centers and other facilities out of more fire-resistant materials like metal or concrete rather than charming but flammable wood.
Beginning in 1900, the , a nonprofit conservation group, purchased about 17,000 acres of redwood forests and transferred them to the state, essentially creating Big Basin Redwoods. The organization also manages its own adjacent forests for climate resiliency by thinning and conducting controlled burns to reduce abnormal density of old-growth stands.
That work paid dividends during the blaze, resulting in low-intensity fire that cleared out overgrown vegetation but spared the giant trees on the group鈥檚 land, providing an object lesson for the adjacent park.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no one quick fix to any of this,鈥� said Laura McLendon, the Sempervirens Fund鈥檚 director of land conservation.
To survive climate change, she said, California鈥檚 forested parklands must be aggressively managed for fire using an array of approaches. 鈥淭here needs to be a suite of activities 鈥� fuels reduction, reintroducing fire to the landscape where it has historically occurred, rethinking where we develop and the materials we use.鈥�
The complexities of extreme weather played a role in the Big Basin fire. Coastal redwoods are historically shrouded in cool, moist fog, providing a wet blanket that spared the region the catastrophic fires that plague the rest of the state. That fog has been significantly reduced and the region鈥檚 nighttime temperatures have risen.
Twenty-two state parks were hit by fire last year, according to the State Parks Foundation. Climate scientists say California can expect and more damaging megafires.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no one quick fix to any of this.鈥�LAURA MCLENDON, SEMPERVIRENS FUND鈥橲 DIRECTOR OF LAND CONSERVATION
In Southern California, fires driven by late-summer winds regularly scorch state parks. More than half of parkland in the Santa Monica Mountains was damaged in the 2018 Woolsey Fire, with the popular beach retreats of Leo Carrillo and bearing the brunt of the blaze. Historical sites were lost as well as employee residences and campgrounds. Will Rogers State Historic Park, a popular hiking retreat, has been hit by fire, and up the coast, Point Mugu State Park was nearly destroyed in 2013 by the Spring Fire, which burned more than 80 percent of the park and left it vulnerable to flooding.
Climate change鈥檚 impacts require adapting to a new and sometimes unfriendly climate, and 鈥� the buzzword of the moment 鈥� into the state parks鈥� nearly 1.5 million acres.
Sarah Newkirk, director of disaster resilience for The California Nature Conservancy, said it 鈥渦sed to be about bouncing back.鈥� But now, 鈥渋nstead of bouncing back to the original configuration, we need to learn to bounce back better.鈥�
Rising seas, rising threats
A new model estimates that, under mid to high sea-level rise scenarios, 31 to 67 percent of Southern California beaches may completely erode by 2100 without large-scale human interventions. Statewide damages could reach nearly $17.9 billion from inundation of residential and commercial buildings under (20 inches) of sea-level rise, which is close to the 95th percentile of potential sea-level rise by the middle of this century. A 100-year coastal flood, on top of this level of sea-level rise, would almost double the costs.California鈥檚 Fourth Climate Change Assessment (2018)
Darren Smith doesn鈥檛 need to read a report about climate change to understand the threats to state parks. He鈥檚 living it every day.
Smith, who is the natural resources manager for the park department鈥檚 San Diego Coast District, is fighting water 鈥� from all sides.
鈥淲e are being squeezed,鈥� he said, gesturing to the ocean on a recent visit to . The sea鈥檚 powerful wave action throws rocks and boulders up on the beach, cobbling it with smooth stones that crowd out sand.
Turning, Smith points to the cliffs behind him and the city of Carlsbad on the other side of a highway. El Nino-powered storms create runoff that gushes over bluffs or percolates into porous sandstone, carving fissures that pockmark and destabilize the cliff face. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have anywhere to go.鈥�
As for a park campsite on a promontory affording a magnificent view of rugged coastline, 鈥渋t鈥檚 a goner,鈥� he said.
The Pacific Ocean is inexorably rising on the beaches he manages, slamming into bluffs and undermining parking lots, campsites and restroom facilities. On the ever-shrinking state beaches, Smith and his crews fight to preserve all-important 鈥渢owel space鈥� as well as public access. Staircases that lead down to the beach are in rusty decay and battered by waves.
The parks department is on a penny-pinching budget 鈥� $858 million for 2021-22, down 34% from the previous year because of one-time bond appropriations. Coronavirus closures cost the agency lost revenue from entrance fees and concessions.
The state is facing even worse sticker shock when considering the system-wide costs to respond to climate change. Smith said the agency can spend $3 million just replacing one beachfront staircase.
Experts say the state can no longer throw good money after bad and must plan for managed retreat 鈥� a wholesale push away from the sea. In Southern California, state park facilities are moved back from the shore in order to preserve them. Smith said a handful of beach-facing parking lots in his district have already been lost or moved.
In one case, not only does the public lose convenient access to a beach, but the state lost the parking lot鈥檚 annual $400,000 in revenue and spots for more than a million cars.
In some places, where the state beach is a narrow strip of land hemmed in by a road or highway, agency officials have to get creative, buying or swapping property from neighboring cities in order to move out of harm鈥檚 way.
Elsewhere, beach parks are being reconfigured by massive sand-moving projects. On a recent day, a parking lot served as a staging area for heavy equipment and excavators preparing to sculpt sand reclaimed from a nearby lagoon.
In Encinitas, an experiment in restoring a is underway, an example of so-called soft armoring. Rather than piling up massive mountains of rock or pouring concrete to keep the sea at bay, the park built a dunes system anchored by native plants. The undulating sand dunes now provide an invaluable function, absorbing and slowing encroaching waves and providing habitat for an array of animals and plants.
The dunes are not only stabilizing the sand and preserving the beach, but on the landward side they prevent sand drifts from accumulating on the adjacent road. 鈥淚f it wasn鈥檛 for this project, (it鈥檚) guaranteed we would have lost some of the highway,鈥� Smith said.
Smith said the parks agency is keenly aware of 鈥渨hat climate change is doing and will do in the future.鈥� But he said, 鈥渨e can鈥檛 keep up.鈥�
Parks are threatened by other aspects of climate change, too: Extremes of heat and cold stress facilities and operations. Drought threatens animals鈥� habitat and makes trees more susceptible to .
Chamberlin, the parks鈥� resources chief, said future investments will be assessing whether a proposed facility is going to eventually be underwater or vulnerable to fire.
Whether its fire or water, climate change will continue to eat away at California鈥檚 parks 鈥� and the agency鈥檚 budget.
鈥淭he state parks system represents the most profound investment on the part of all Californians and reflects our collective passion to protect the natural environment,鈥� said The Nature Conservancy鈥檚 Newkirk. 鈥淭he state parks system has a real role in providing a good example of resiliency.鈥�
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