# Redwood National and State Parks
**Redwood National and State Parks** (RNSP) is a jointly managed complex of one national park and three California state parks in Humboldt and Del Norte counties on the far north coast of California, established to preserve primeval coast redwood (*Sequoia sempervirens*) forests together with the prairies, streams, seashore, and woodlands associated with them.[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) The parks contain some of the tallest and oldest known trees in the world and preserve the largest remaining contiguous ancient coast redwood forest in the world in its original forest and streamside settings.[2](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/134)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Total parklands | 138,999 acres (federal 71,715; state 60,268), excluding submerged lands and public roads[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) |
| Ancient forest | 38,982 acres of old-growth coast redwood, about 35% of all ancient redwood forest remaining in the world[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) |
| Establishment dates | Prairie Creek Redwoods SP 1923, Del Norte Coast Redwoods SP 1925, Jedediah Smith Redwoods SP 1929; Redwood National Park October 2, 1968, expanded March 27, 1978[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) |
| Cooperative management | National Park Service and California Department of Parks and Recreation signed an agreement in May 1994 to manage the four parks cooperatively[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) |
| World Heritage Site | Designated September 5, 1980 under criteria (vii) and (ix)[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) • [2](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/134) |
| Coastline and trails | 37 miles of coastline; 170 miles of hiking, 44 miles of horse, and 54 miles of bicycle trails[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) |
| Restoration scale | About 80,000 of the parks' 120,000 acres of redwood forest were commercially logged before protection; Redwoods Rising aims to restore old-growth characteristics across the landscape[3](https://home.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/redwoodsrisingfaqs.htm) |
## The parks and their creation
The three state parks were assembled in the 1920s from old-growth sections purchased from private logging companies by citizen groups such as Save the Redwoods League and the state government.[4](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/restoration-main.htm) Congress authorized Redwood National Park on October 2, 1968, adjacent to the three state parks, to protect some of the last remaining old-growth stands.[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) • [5](https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=24724) In 1968 the park covered 22,646 hectares, with the three state parks embedded within its boundaries.[2](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/134)
**The 1978 expansion.** Even after the park's creation, widespread logging continued upslope and upstream of its boundaries. Large floods combined with recent timber harvest exacerbated naturally high erosion rates in the Redwood Creek basin, where unstable geology and high rainfall make the landscape highly susceptible to land-use effects. To protect old-growth redwoods from excessive erosion and sedimentation associated with timber harvest and road construction, Congress expanded the park in 1978, acquiring 19,281 hectares for a total of 41,927 hectares.[2](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/134) • [6](https://irmadev.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2284606) The 1978 legislation also directed the [National Park Service](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-park-service) to conduct erosion and sedimentation studies in the Redwood Creek basin, which produced one of the few long-term river-channel monitoring programs in the United States, running more than 45 years.[6](https://irmadev.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2284606)
In May 1994 the National Park Service and California Department of Parks and [Recreation](https://www.edgepedia.org/recreation) signed an agreement to manage the four redwood parks cooperatively, sharing adjacent lands, staffing, and visitor services.[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) • [7](https://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/upload/REDW-Visitor-Guide-v-12-25.pdf) Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park expanded again in 2002 with the addition of 25,000 acres in the Mill Creek watershed, land purchased by Save the Redwoods League and donated to the state park.[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) • [4](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/restoration-main.htm)
## The forest and its setting
Coast redwood is a surviving remnant of a group of trees that has existed for 160 million years and was once found throughout many of the world's moist temperate regions, now confined to the wet regions of the west coast of North America.[2](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/134) The parks' redwoods exceed 350 feet in height and reach up to 2,000 years in age.[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) The 16,442 hectares of old-growth redwood forest within the World Heritage property preserve some of the largest remaining contiguous ancient coast redwood forest in the world.[2](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/134)
The parks protect more than redwood groves. Primary habitats include coast redwood forest, freshwater streams, prairies, oak woodlands, and coastal and near-shore marine environments, drained by the Smith River, Klamath River, Redwood Creek, Prairie Creek, and Mill Creek.[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) The parks record 816 plant species (621 native, 195 exotic) and 202 native resident wildlife species, including Roosevelt elk and black bear as the most commonly seen large mammals, plus more than 400 migratory and resident bird species. Seven listed threatened species occur: western snowy plover, marbled murrelet, northern spotted owl, coho salmon, [Chinook salmon](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinook-salmon), steelhead trout, and [Steller sea lion](https://www.edgepedia.org/steller-sea-lion).[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm)
Old-growth versus second-growth is the central ecological distinction in the parks. Old-growth stands have wide open spaces and a few massive trees per acre, with multilayered canopies, large snags, and slowly decomposing fallen logs that shelter insects, salamanders, and fungi. Second-growth stands, which grew after clearcutting, are crowded with skinny trees, sometimes as many as 10 times the number per acre found in old growth, often including planted Douglas-fir.[3](https://home.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/redwoodsrisingfaqs.htm) • [4](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/restoration-main.htm) Species such as the marbled murrelet and Humboldt marten require old-growth conditions to survive, and less than 5% of the historical range of these forests remains.[3](https://home.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/redwoodsrisingfaqs.htm)
## Logging legacy and restoration
RNSP is unusual among parks in that many of its ecosystems were degraded when they were protected. In 2018, 55% of the parks' forests, more than 70,000 acres, were second growth; only about 30%, roughly 40,000 acres, was old-growth redwood.[4](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/restoration-main.htm) More than 38,000 acres, 70% of the Redwood Creek watershed lands added in 1978, were heavily disturbed timberlands, and that acquisition included 415 miles of failing and abandoned logging roads. The 2002 Mill Creek addition brought 329 more miles of logging roads. When these roads fail they trigger landslides that can destroy hillsides of old-growth redwoods, and decades of logging buried creeks and streams under debris and fill, decimating trout and salmon habitat.[4](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/restoration-main.htm)
Restoration has been the park's primary resource management goal since the 1978 Redwood Expansion Act. Work includes thinning dense second-growth forests, removing or re-occupying old logging roads (more than 300 miles removed so far), restoring rivers and streams, removing invasive plants such as European beach grass, and a prescribed burning program to restore prairies and maintain old-growth forests.[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) • [4](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/restoration-main.htm)
**Redwoods Rising.** In 2018 the National Park Service, California State Parks, and Save the Redwoods League formalized a landscape-scale restoration collaboration with a Memorandum of Understanding signed April 28, 2018. Its mission is to protect old-growth stands, restore redwood forest ecosystems, and ensure the long-term health of the parks' roughly 120,000 acres of forested public lands, beginning with over 8,000 acres of previously logged forest in the Prairie Creek watershed and over 25,000 acres in the Mill Creek watershed. The long-term goal is to restore forests of giant coast redwoods across all 120,000 acres.[3](https://home.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/redwoodsrisingfaqs.htm) Managers also place large wood in streams, expand riparian buffers, and upgrade failing culverts to improve fish habitat for species including coho salmon and steelhead.[3](https://home.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/redwoodsrisingfaqs.htm)
Restoration also serves carbon goals: coast redwood forests can store at least three times more carbon above ground than any other forests on Earth, and because redwood wood resists rot, that carbon remains stored long after a tree dies.[3](https://home.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/redwoodsrisingfaqs.htm)
## People and recognition
The Yurok, Tolowa, and Chilula peoples historically lived on the lands now within the parks, and their traditional lifeways continue today.[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) The parks also preserve cultural resources from later eras, including at least nine historic orchards, the Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery (one of only three surviving historic hatcheries in California), Lyons Ranch, and the Klamath River Radar Station B-71, a rare surviving World War II early-warning radar station.[8](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/historyculture/index.htm)
UNESCO inscribed the parks on the World Heritage List on September 5, 1980, citing both the forest's superlative trees (criterion vii) and the ecological processes of the largest remaining contiguous ancient coast redwood forest (criterion ix).[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) • [2](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/134) The property also falls within the California Coast Ranges Biosphere Reserve, designated in 1983.[9](https://whc.unesco.org/document/115693) In 2013 Redwood National Park signed a Sister Park Agreement with Parque Nacional Alerce Costero in Chile, whose parks share similar ecological and cultural relationships to their lands.[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm)
## Visiting
Five visitor centers serve the parks: Hiouchi, [Jedediah Smith](https://www.edgepedia.org/jedediah-smith), Crescent City Information Center, Prairie Creek, and Thomas H. Kuchel.[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm) Activities include hiking through old-growth groves, scenic drives such as the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway and Howland Hill Road, wildlife viewing, and backcountry camping, which requires permits and is limited to designated sites or listed dispersed locations.[10](https://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/things2do.htm) • [11](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/news/upload/REDW-Visitor-Guide-v-0-20_508-2.pdf) Some areas require reservations: the Tall Trees Access Road is limited to 65 day-use vehicles and 15 backcountry camping vehicles per day, and driving to the Fern Canyon trailhead requires a vehicle reservation between May 15 and September 15.[12](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/management/superintendent-s-compendium.htm) • [13](https://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/conditions.htm) Drones are prohibited on both national and state park lands.[11](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/news/upload/REDW-Visitor-Guide-v-0-20_508-2.pdf)
Visitation generated $30.9 million in spending in communities near the parks in 2022, supporting 406 local jobs.[1](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm)
## References
1. [Park Facts, Redwood National and State Parks, National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/park-facts.htm)
2. [Redwood National and State Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Centre](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/134)
3. [Redwoods Rising FAQs, National Park Service](https://home.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/redwoodsrisingfaqs.htm)
4. [Restoration at Redwood, National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/nature/restoration-main.htm)
5. [Connection To The Past, California State Parks](https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=24724)
6. [Madej, M.A. (2021). Redwood Creek watershed studies: Summary of geomorphic research at Redwood National Park. NPS/REDW/NRR—2021/2228](https://irmadev.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2284606)
7. [Redwood National and State Parks Visitor Guide](https://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/upload/REDW-Visitor-Guide-v-12-25.pdf)
8. [History & Culture, Redwood National and State Parks, National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/historyculture/index.htm)
9. [Adapting to change: the state of conservation of World Heritage forests in 2011, UNESCO](https://whc.unesco.org/document/115693)
10. [Things To Do, Redwood National and State Parks, National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/things2do.htm)
11. [Redwood Visitor Guide 2025, National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/news/upload/REDW-Visitor-Guide-v-0-20_508-2.pdf)
12. [Superintendent's Compendium, Redwood National and State Parks, National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/redw/learn/management/superintendent-s-compendium.htm)
13. [Current Conditions, Redwood National and State Parks, National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/conditions.htm)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Parks, protected areas, and geographic heritage sites › Protected natural areas › United States national parks and NPS units*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license