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Tall Trees Access Road and the Skunk Cabbage Trail Road are CLOSED to vehicles.
Effective June 3, 2013, these closures are necessary due to key vacancies in park staffing, including heavy equipment operators required to grade and maintain these roads. Access to the Tall Trees Grove is still available via 8 mile hike. More »
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Miners Ridge and Ossagon backcountry camps closed indefinitely.
Backpacker sites avail. during summer only at Gold Bluffs Beach Campground (8 sites avail.; free permit req'd; $5 fee paid on site) and year-round at Elk Prairie Campground (hiker/biker sites avail., first-come, first-served; $5 fee paid on site). More »
Marbled Murrelet
Murrelet in winter plumage. Their range in the ocean goes to two miles
out from the shoreline. U.S. Fish and Wildlife
From Forest’s Edge to the Edge of Extinction continued:
Nearby, a Steller’s jay hops along the forest floor scavenging for any morsel of food. Aggressive and incredibly intelligent — they can remember hundreds of different food locations — jays and their fellow corvids (ravens and crows) flourish at the ecologically-rich edges of the redwood forest.
The edges of this once unbroken forest have increased a hundred-fold in a hundred years. Highways, logging, cities, campgrounds, and picnic areas open broad boulevards into the heart of the redwood forest. Thus exposed, murrelet chicks and eggs make easy meals for crafty corvids. As the forest edge expands, the marbled murrelet lives today on the edge of extinction. 
Steller's jays circle high above the trees cruising sites where they have found
food before, most often places where humans left food scraps. During flight, they may see movement in a murrelet nest. This spells doom for the egg or chick. Illustration by Gary Bloomfield
Don't Help a Good Bird Go Bad! Marbled Murrelets: The resident population of marbled murrelets lives mainly at sea, yet travels inland to nest. Like small torpedoes, the nesting pair flies 60 to 98 miles per hour into the ancient coast redwood forest to find a large moss-covered limb. The moss provides a ready-made nest and the immense limb keeps all ages of murrelets from falling out of the tree at the slightest breeze. One robin-size adult flies to the ocean at dawn and dusk for food, actually flying through the watery depths in search of smelt and anchovies. Corvids: You can hear the yackety-yak of the American crow, Steller’s jay, or common raven as they fly overhead. Opportunists, they are always looking for an easy meal. e.g. trash, scraps, livestock feed, and bird feeder food. Corvid memory is even better than a bear’s. Once one of these birds has received a food reward, it will return many times, circling the site over and over. What’s the connection? While the jay, raven, or crow is repeatedly flying over a previous food site, the bird may spy a murrelet nest high in the redwood forest canopy. The adult murrelets are camouflaged, resembling a redwood branch, but any movement of them or their babies and the corvid will zero in, making a meal of chicks and eggs and disrupting nesting patterns of the adult murrelet pair. We need your help! Corvid numbers are on the rise while the marbled murrelets are on the decline. Most of the murrelet population in California nests within Redwood National and State Parks. Endangered in California (and federally-listed as threatened), the murrelets need your help now! Please follow these guidelines while hiking, camping, and picnicking. Help prevent the death of murrelet chicks and eggs:
Corvids are just as important to the parks' ecosystem as murrelets and predation by corvids is a natural process. However, feeding patterns that change because humans alter the environment are not natural. Thanks for your help. 
One adult incubates one egg while the other adult flies back to the ocean
to catch fish. They switch off, flying to the sea at dusk and dawn. Murrelet Facts
Publications/Posters/Multimedia These publications and posters can be used free-of-charge for educational purposes only and with the credit line, Courtesy of the National Park Service. murrelet color poster - murrelet children's poster 4th grade - murrelet children's poster 7th grade - murrelet exhibit - murrelet magnet art - bulletin board sign - bulletin board sign2 - murrelet postcards This video clip shows a murrelet feeding its chick on high (over 150 feet) in an old-growth conifer. |
Did You Know?
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!