October 26, 2022 — The Surface Transportation Board, the federal entity that regulates railroads, issued another ruling on the Great Redwood Trail this week, deciding that the agency can convert 176 miles of line to a trail. The Great Redwood Trail Agency will be allowed to railbank the track, which means filling it in with aggregate or dirt so that the railroad ties serve as a frame for the trail.
The track runs from Commercial Street in Willits, where the Skunk Train depot is, to just outside Eureka. Robert Pinoli, the President and CEO of Mendocino Railway, the Skunk Train’s parent company, did not know what the Agency’s plans regarding the depot are. Representatives for the Agency and the State Coastal Conservancy, which is now in charge of the trail, have not addressed our question about the depot.
Last week, the Surface Transportation Board rejected Mendocino Railway’s bid to purchase thirteen miles of track from the depot to Longvale.
A few hours after the Surface Transportation Board’s Monday- afternoon approval to railbank the line, Senator Mike McGuire held a virtual Town Hall to unveil the first step of the trail’s “master plan,” a process he expects will take two to three years before building the trail can begin.
Karyn Gear, of the State Coastal Conservancy, is the Executive Director of the Great Redwood Trail Agency. The Conservancy has been involved in conservation projects on the shoreline as well as inland rivers bearing anadromous fish. Gear spoke about her organization’s role in the planning process.
“The Conservancy was asked by Senator McGuire and the Legislature to take a leadership role in doing the master planning for this project, and also to help be the interim staff for the Great Redwood Trail Agency,” she began. “The Legislature appropriated ten million dollars to the Conservancy to do just that, to help move this project forward. So the first thing we did, after we started looking for additional staff with expertise to work on this, was to start to develop a request for proposals to look for consulting firms to help with the master planning process.” The Conservancy settled on Alta Planning and Design, which has offices all over the state.
McGuire insisted that there is plenty of money for the project, announcing that, “We have the funding sources for all of the trail master plan, and we have money in the bank for construction. We were able to secure ten and a half million dollars in state funds to pay for the staffing and master plan of the Great Redwood Trail. This is going to take us through the next several years of hard work and planning the trail. And a half billion dollars, five hundred million dollars, has been secured for the State Coastal Conservancy for projects that will help us fight our climate crisis and build trails of statewide significance. That includes the Great Redwood Trail.”
McGuire and members of the Trail Agency hope that private landowners alongside the trail will take advantage of opportunities to offer hospitality services and amenities to trail users. Wild camping will not be allowed, but the senator enthused about one site that he said has already committed to providing a campground.
“Eventually, what you’re going to see are authorized camping spots throughout the trail,” he said. “In fact, just last year…the state, along with the Wildland Conservation Board, just purchased the old Lone Pine Ranch,” a remote forested property on the eastern bank of the Eel River, on the border of Mendocino and Trinity counties. It was formerly owned by Dean Witter, who bought it in the 1940’s. It stayed in his family until his heirs decided to sell it to conservation groups.
The Conservation Fund’s website says that, “For many years, our partners at The Wildlands Conservancy owned a 3,000-acre portion of the Lone Pine Ranch. But in 2019, they sought our help to protect the remaining 26,000 acres…The support for this project has been tremendous with the help of Governor Newsom, Secretary of Natural Resources Crowfoot, the Center for Biological Diversity, California Wildlife Conservation Board, and the California State Coastal Conservancy.”
McGuire described the property as “some of the most spectacular land that you’ve ever seen. It’s 30,000 acres. It will have 12 miles of riverfront trail. That’s going to be our first authorized campground. You’re going to have restrooms there, be able to stock up on provisions and water. This is a game changer for the trail.”
Deven Young, with Alta Planning and Design, which is preparing the master plan, said that the design could include enhanced access for CalFire vehicles, though McGuire pointed out that trail users are not among the main culprits, when it comes to human-caused fires. And McGuire referred to a ranger service that he hopes to deploy along the trail to pick up trash and assist travelers. Young spoke about ideas to create solar-powered hotspots that would enable hikers to call in emergency responders if someone gets hurt.
“A lot of it comes down to wayfinding in and around the corridor itself,” he said. “It’s remote. So demarcating and outlining and creating points along the corridor is really critical. As part of that wayfinding, we’ve actually found remote, really rugged trails have a lot of success using things like bluetooth beacons” with tiny solar panels along the trail, which allow hikers to have cell phone access and call for help.
Timelines and exact figures are not available yet. And it will take a separate ruling from the Surface Transportation Board to allow railbanking south of Willits to Ukiah, and on to Cloverdale. Carol Hart, Chairwoman of the Great Redwood Trail Agency, is pushing to make it happen within a lifetime.
“And I really hope, for our eighty-year-old plus people who have tuned in, that they are going to get out on this trail,” she enthused. “They are going to get to see the phenomenal Eel River Canyon, and the Founders Trail, and enjoy what this trail will have to offer.”
