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Free Driftwood Collection Permits Available for North Slough of Redwood Creek in Orick, Calif.

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Date: April 26, 2010
Contact: Laura Denny, 707-465-7750

 Redwood National Park will offer free permits for the gathering of
driftwood in the North Slough of Redwood Creek. These permits will
allow the public to gather up to three pickup truck loads of driftwood under the specific conditions, listed below. Most of the driftwood has been waterlogged from the ocean or slough for at least one year. Driftwood has been moved out of the channel of the North Slough to reduce winter storm accumulations that affect water flow.

Permits will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis on Wednesdays and Fridays from April 28 through May 14, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Park’s South Operations Center in Orick. Permits will not be issued over the telephone.

Driftwood gathering will be permitted on the following dates only:
Wednesday, May 5; Thursday, May 6; Saturday, May 8; Tuesday, May 11; Thursday, May 13; and Saturday, May 15, 2010. Permits will be limited to four per day.

Park personnel will be on site during collection times to issue permits if the permit limit has not been met for that specific day and to provide direction to permittees. The boundaries of the designated wood collection area will be marked by red flagging.

Hidden Beach parking lot is located approximately 2 miles west of Orick, California on Hufford Road. The final one mile of road to North Slough is a narrow gravel road. The following conditions apply to all driftwood gathering permittees:

  1. Quantity will be limited to three pickup truck bed loads of driftwood per permit.
  2. Only dead and down wood may be gathered.
  3. Use of commercial-sized vehicles, A-frames, boom trucks or other large equipment associated with commercial wood harvest will not be permitted. Wheelbarrows are allowed.
  4. Only street legal vehicles may be used to load and transport wood.
  5. Wood hauling trailers must be licensed and in good working condition.
  6. The permit must be in your possession while gathering and transporting driftwood.
  7. Permittees must be safety conscious at all times. Redwood National Park will not accept liability or responsibility for damage incurred by permittee.
  8. Pets are not allowed in the collection area.
  9. Any willful damage to resources incurred in the removal process may result in the issuance of citations and assessment of rehabilitation costs.

This driftwood permit program may be cancelled, suspended or modified at any time due to safety concerns,weather conditions or lack of available wood.

For more information on free driftwood permits, please phone 707-465-7761.

This News Release can also be viewed, downloaded, and/or printed here (PDF, 36.83 KB)

Did You Know?

Trail through Stout Grove.

While oceans contain most of Earth's carbon, about half stored on land in Redwood National and State Parks is in soils. The amount of carbon in the upper two meters of soil alone is ~14 million metric tons. That's equal to 1% of total U.S. emission in a year!