Calaveras Big Trees State Park reopened today after being closed since a wind storm on Dec. 1 caused heavy damage from fallen trees.
None of the park's treasured giant Sequoia trees were felled by the storm, which brought winds exceeding 80 mph. But the entrance station and an employee house were damaged by fallen trees and are now being repaired.
The park along Highway 4 in Calaveras county had 70 trees knocked down in the North Grove Campground alone, smashing picnic tables, food storage boxes, and small bridges, according to the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Many more trees came down in other areas of the park, including one that crushed a boardwalk on the North Grove Trail.
"This extreme, yet natural event did not harm the overall ecological resources of the park," Patty Raggio, a State Parks environmental scientist, said in a statement.
The North Grove area of the park is once again open to the public. The rest of the park is closed for the season, as is normal during winter.
There are still miles of fire roads and tons of debris to be cleared. Some trees opened craters in paved roads when they fell.
For more information, call the park visitor center at 209-795-7980 or visit the state parks website.
.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
• Read more articles by Matt Weiser
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.