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December 18, 2009


Ask any visitor to California's North Coast who has driven the Redwood Highway north from San Francisco, and they'll be able to tell you exactly where they passed through the fabled "Redwood Curtain." At Richardson Grove State Park, just north of the Humboldt County line, Highway 101 narrows to a two-lane road winding through a dim, lush grove of ancient redwoods. These huge trees provide crucial habitat for endangered birds like the marbled murrelet; threatened salmon and steelhead still return each year to spawn in the creeks running through the park.

This iconic gateway to the redwoods is now gravely threatened by an ill-advised and unnecessary highway project. Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration are on the brink of approving a proposal to widen and realign the portion of Highway 101 passing through Richardson Grove. Construction of the new road would cut through the vital root systems of the ancient redwoods, threatening the integrity of the grove and further jeopardizing the imperiled species that rely on old-growth redwood forests for their survival.

The point of the project is to make it possible for larger trucks to access this portion of Highway 101. Powerful business interests itching to bring big-box stores and runaway urban development to Humboldt County desperately want those larger trucks on the highway. This just adds insult to injury: The project will not only blow an even bigger hole through Richardson Grove, but could also spur new development that will forever alter the character of the North Coast.

Behind the future Redwood Curtain, travelers might find just one more
big subdivision and one more big-box strip mall.

Please take a moment to tell Caltrans and the highway administration not to approve the Richardson Grove Improvement Project. Thus far, these agencies have ignored the project's threats to endangered wildlife and ancient redwoods, failed to look at other alternatives, and downplayed the growth-inducing effects of opening Highway 101 to oversized-truck traffic. This cathedral grove is far too important to both vanishing forest species and human visitors to be sacrificed for the short-term gains of a few powerful commercial interests in Humboldt County.

reprinted by permission from the Center for Biological Diversity





Randell H. Iwasaki, Director
California Department of Transportation
P.O. Box 942873
Sacramento, CA 94273

Walter C. Waidelich, Jr., Division Administrator
Federal Highway Administration
650 Capitol Mall, Suite 4-100
Sacramento, CA 95814

Charles Fielder, Director
Caltrans District 1
P. O. Box 3700
Eureka, CA 95502


Dear Sirs,

The Richardson Grove Improvement Project should not be approved. Widening and realigning Highway 101 through the grove will damage the root structures of ancient redwood trees, threatening one of California's few remaining cathedral redwood groves. This project will also forever alter the character of Richardson Grove State Park, which for decades has served as the "gateway to the redwoods" for countless awestruck travelers.

The draft environmental impact report and environmental assessment for the project is such a deeply flawed document that it cannot serve as the basis for an informed decision. As numerous comments have already pointed out, the document ignored potential alternatives, failed to provide critical information about impacts to endangered species, improperly declined to address the project's potential climate impacts, and downplayed the far-reaching effects of allowing STAA truck traffic into southern Humboldt County. Caltrans also failed to prepare a full environmental impact statement for the project, which is likely to have significant environmental impacts and has generated intense public controversy.

Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration should deny this project as proposed. The risks to imperiled species like the marbled murrelet and the ancient redwoods upon which they depend are simply unacceptable. The project could also facilitate big-box development and urbanization, forever altering the human and natural environment of Humboldt County. Richardson Grove is too important to be sacrificed to big trucks and the big-box stores that will follow close behind.

Thank you,


This article can be found online at www.treesfoundation.org/publications/article-385

Forest & River News is produced by Trees Foundation.