News Release

Inflation Reduction Act to invest for restoration and resilience in Redwood National and State Parks

Date: August 8, 2023
Contact: Patrick Taylor

CRESCENT CITY, Calif. – Redwood National and State Parks will implement a project to restore the iconic redwood forest this year with $8 million from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). This project is part of a nationwide effort to restore natural habitats and address climate change impacts. In 2023, President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act will provide $52 million to the National Park Service to fund projects throughout the country related to ecosystem resilience, restoration, and environmental planning needs.  

This project restores degraded watersheds and critical habitat for endangered fish within Redwood National and State Parks in Northern California. IRA funding will be used to accelerate large-scale restoration in the Prairie Creek watershed, including forest thinning, restoring the natural slope, and stream rebuilding. The project will be implemented by the Redwoods Rising collaborative, an ambitious public/private, landscape-level restoration initiative between the National Park Service, California State Parks, and Save the Redwoods League to accelerate watershed restoration across 43,280 acres of park lands. Since 2019, Redwoods Rising has restored thousands of acres of parklands by leveraging funding from private philanthropy, state, and federal fund sources to implement high priority restoration in two watersheds simultaneously. This project, under Redwoods Rising management, will engage Tribal groups, youth, and local contractors to implement forest and watershed restoration through 2026.  

The project was strategically placed between two of the largest remaining old growth Redwoods stands in the park to help connect these forest stands with healthy habitat for fish and wildlife. Specifically, this project will implement forest thinning in second-growth forests to accelerate the development of old growth forest conditions which will create more resilient and healthy forests while improving the forests’ ability to capture carbon and reducing the risks of catastrophic wildfires. The project also proposes to remove miles of legacy logging mitigating catastrophic landslide risk while restoring stream health and enhancing critical wildlife habitat.
The entire project advances national priorities including fighting climate change, augmenting fire resilience in forests, increasing carbon sequestration, while ensuring ecosystem services such as clean water. Redwood forests are the most productive carbon sinks on the planet and the investment in this project will assist in the overall fight against climate change.  

“Investments from the Inflation Reduction Act amplify the extraordinary work already being completed under the Redwoods Rising Collaborative to heal the unhealthy forests and historic road scars left from decades of large-scale forestry activities in two thirds of the park,” said Steve Mietz, superintendent of Redwood National and State Parks. “This funding will bolster the park’s existing efforts to create a sustainable restoration economy by providing good paying jobs to Tribal members and others in the local community. The visiting public for centuries to come will enjoy the rejuvenating power of the redwood forest this funding helped restore to its former glory.”  

The projects announced today infuse much-needed funding to put people to work addressing critical ecosystem needs to restore healthy and resilient park lands while benefiting communities surrounding parks. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, the National Park Service is working to address the impacts of the climate crisis, including intensifying drought, wildfires, flooding and legacy pollution in national parks and other public lands. Resources are making significant strategic investments to repair critical facilities and infrastructure and enhance conservation through ecosystem restoration and recreation opportunities.   

See Redwoods Rising - Redwood National and State Parks (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) for more information. 

The full lists of fiscal year 2023 projects are available online: IRA Restoration and Resilience projects and BIL Ecosystem Resilience projects. 

www.nps.gov

About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 425 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.