Redwood Creek watershed studies: Summary of geomorphic research at Redwood National Park
Madej MA. 2021. Redwood Creek watershed studies: Summary of geomorphic research at Redwood National Park. Natural Resource Report. NPS/REDW/NRR—2021/2228. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/nrr-2284606
The story of Redwood National Park (RNP) is one of landscape disturbance, recovery and resilience, uniquely documented by 50 years of observations and measurements. Old-growth coastal redwood forests (Sequoia sempervirens), encompassing the tallest trees in the world, once stretched along 450 miles of California coastline. By 2016, following widespread timber harvest, only 5% of the original primeval redwood forests remained, much of it protected within Redwood National Park. This report summarizes decades of studies of physical processes, both natural and human-influenced, affecting the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in Redwood National Park. The long-term monitoring has provided a rare opportunity to assess how a forested watershed responds to and recovers from large-scale perturbations. These studies have been used by many agencies and organizations to guide management decisions on forested lands, and results have been widely cited nationally and internationally. Coastal redwood has long been considered an iconic species in California. Efforts to establish a national park to protect uncut stands of redwoods began in the early 1900s, but it was not until 1968 that the U.S. Congress approved the creation of Redwood National Park. Redwood National Park encompasses redwood forest stands in the downstream third of the Redwood Creek watershed, a steep basin where unstable geology and high rainfall produce a landscape highly susceptible to the effects of land use and large storms. Even after Park establishment, widespread logging continued upslope and upstream of Park boundaries. Large floods combined with recent timber harvest exacerbated naturally high erosion rates, resulting in severe erosion and sedimentation impacts on Park resources. In the 1970s, many studies meticulously documented the damage from land use activities outside of Park boundaries. So, to better protect old-growth redwood trees from excessive erosion and sedimentation associated with timber harvest and road construction, Congress expanded Park boundaries in 1978. As part of the 1978 legislation, Congress instructed the National Park Service to “…conduct erosion and sedimentation studies in the Redwood Creek basin.” This unique mandate from Congress led to the establishment of a federal scientific team to examine an extensive array of hillslope and river channel processes that might affect the health of the redwood ecosystem. Consequently, the Redwood Creek watershed is one of the few sites in the United States that has a long-term (> 45 years) monitoring program of river channel responses to hillslope disturbances.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Madej, Mary
- Date of Issue
- 2021-02
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/nrr-2284606
- Units
- NRSS , REDW
- Keywords
- carbon budget, channel changes, channel monitoring, cold pools, floods, Geomorphology, land management, land use, landslides, large in-channel wood, longitudinal profile, riparian, road removal, sediment budget, sediment load, sediment pulse, sediment size, stream temperature, tall trees grove, timber harvest plan, watershed processes, watershed restoration, watershed studies
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Geomorphology | Stream/River Channel Characteristics , Ecological Framework: Water | Hydrology | Surface Water Dynamics , Ecological Framework: Human Use | Non-point Source Human Effects | Non-point Source Human Effects , Ecological Framework: Landscapes | Extreme Disturbance Events | Extreme Disturbance Events