Fire Management

Fire Education and Information

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  Living With Fire

  Read Why Redwood Park Managers Use Fire

  Fire is a natural part of California. We are managing it to benefit the parks' resources.

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  Prescribed Fire Videos

  See Fire Activities In The Redwood Parks

  A series of videos that show how prescribed fire is used here.

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  Fire: Havoc or Healthy?

  Fire Operations in National Parks

  Since the late 1950s, national parks have successfully used fire as a management tool. Find out more.

 

Wildfire Information and Impacts

September 15, 2022. Redwood National and State Parks has implemented Stage I Fire restrictions:

• Dispersed backcountry camping along Redwood Creek is permitted. Permittees may use small portable stoves and have fires on gravel bars along Redwood Creek.
• Backcountry permittees may use small portable stoves and have campfires at designated primitive campsites at Little Bald Hills, DeMartin, Flint Ridge, Gold Bluffs Beach, Elam Creek, and 44 Camp.
• The lighting of fires on beach wave slopes of Redwood National Park is permitted. Fires must not be on or within vegetation, or near driftwood piles.
• Fires are permissible in park-provided grills and at designated sites in picnic areas and campgrounds. All burning material must be fully contained within the grill.
• The burning of trash or food waste is prohibited.

Learn about any fire restrictions to our east and south at the Six Rivers National Forest and Smith River National Recreation Area.

Wildfires in Southern Oregon and other parts of Northern California get a lot of media attention. It is recommended that you check CA road conditions, as well as the current wildfire information before you start traveling here.

California is a very large state and during fire season news reports may make it seem that the whole state is burning. That is not the case. Redwood National and State Parks is located hundreds of miles north of San Francisco and what the media refers to as "Northern California fires". During fire season, concerned visitors wonder if wildfires are impacting us - and whether it is safe to visit. Normally even in the busiest of fire seasons, there is nothing for our staff to report apart from "It's all quiet here".

The 2021 fires in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks were more than 500-miles from our location. The "fires in the redwoods" as seen on the news in August 2020 were 400-miles south of us at Big Basin Redwoods State Park and at other locations south of San Francisco.

 

Stay Upto Date With Fire News

The following sites provide upto date information on smoke / air quality, wildfire locations and size, and current conditions at the redwoods - and across the nation.

• InciWeb is the national Incident Information System which has upto date information about wildfires across the USA.
• California Fire Incident Information provided by CalFire.
• Look at smoke and fire maps for this area. Use "Orick, CA" to locate Redwood National and State Parks.
• Air quality information is provided by the North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District.
• Alerts and current conditions at Redwood National and State Parks.
• Official news releases from Redwood National and State Parks.
• The parks' Facebook and Twitter sites.
• Signup for Humbolt County Emergency Alerts
• Signup for Del Norte County Emergency Alerts
• Check state-wide driving conditions and travel alerts at California QuickMap and Oregon TripCheck

 

Prescribed Fire In The Redwood Parks

Since time immemorial, humans have used fire to manage landscapes now within the parks' boundaries. Learn about how and why we use prescribed fire in the parks.

 

Prescribed fire in the Bald Hills.

NPS Photo / G Litten

Photos and Videos

On Flickr we have high quality photos of recent prescribed fire operations in Redwood National and State Parks.

We also have series of prescribed fire videos made in the park.

 

Fire Management Planning

Fire Management Plan FONSI Press Release (2005) (Microsoft Word document, 35 KB)

Link to the 2010 FMP.

The 2010 Fire Management Plan (FMP) has guided fire management actions in the national park. Actions in the 2010 FMP include increasing the total acres of prescribed fire from about 4,400 acres to about 6,800 acres, with new prescribed fire units in the Crescent and Enderts Beach areas south of Crescent City to restore grasslands and reduce alien invasive plant species; elarging shaded fuel breaks near Orick and Hiouchi; and constructing a new break around the Howland Hills Outdoor School in Del Norte Country. To request copies of the 2010 Redwood National and State Parks fire management plan, please e-mail us.

Learn about fire operations in the National Park Service.