Both sides of the coin—the good and bad of Big Basin.
And Put Up a Parking Lot
Re: “Little Basin, Big Dispute” (Currents, Aug. 21): Thanks for your article about Little Basin and the Big Basin General Plan. Until recently I lived near Little Basin, and am quite familiar with the area described in the article.
Thanks to Teri Westra for drawing attention to the laughable claim of State Parks and public works officials that there is a usable emergency route out of the recently opened Little Basin campground area. Anyone who has ever actually been on the emergency route, the supposedly passable Pine Mountain Road, could tell those officials that there’s no way that two-wheel drive vehicles would make it out—not to mention the many RVs that are also now entering the campground via the main road, Little Basin Road, which itself is barely able to safely accommodate two small passing vehicles. I am concerned, like Westra, about the lack of attention paid by these officials to public safety in their haste to open Little Basin to the public.
However, this is not the only misguided aspect of the recently adopted Big Basin General Plan. Here's another: the plan also calls to evict an environmental education program, Exploring New Horizons Outdoor School at Sempervirens, from its site in order to construct a visitor center and parking lot. These facilities, which officials claim will help reduce congestion in the main Big Basin headquarters area, would be located three very hilly miles from the main area. The parking lot would do almost nothing to solve the problem of congestion in the main headquarters area, since there are no park trailheads at the proposed visitor center site; the main attractions and trailheads are all miles away in the headquarters area. So visitors would still continue on in their cars and need to park in the main headquarters area anyway.
Worse still, this pointless new construction would sacrifice a well-established environmental education program that serves thousands of students each year, including many fifth and sixth graders from nearby low-income communities who, thanks to the program’s scholarship fund, have a chance to visit the redwoods for the very first time. All for a parking lot that won’t actually do anything for parking problems in the park. Makes me think of that Joni Mitchell song. How about an article on this, too?
Rebecca Silver
Santa Cruz
FROM THE WEB
Leave Little Basin Campground Alone
Re: “Little Basin, Big Dispute”: I have camped at this site many times as an adult leader with my Cub Scout pack with my family and friends, and it is a wonderful place for young kids. I have camped many places, and this is one of the best maintained I have been to. I am frankly disgusted that a busybody would attempt to shut down this important resource under the guise of “fire safety” and deny hundreds of kids a wonderful opportunity to camp and enjoy the outdoors. Shame on you, and whoever wrote this insipid article.
Geoffrey Morgan
