Plant a tree, see some fish

Volunteers can help restore habitats to area

Volunteers pick out trees from the nursery in the Mill Creek Addition to be planted as part of restoration efforts in the addition last year. Submitted

The public is invited to help plant trees in the Mill Creek Addition of Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park at 10 a.m., meeting at the gate on Hamilton Road. Taking a break from tree-planting to look at spawning fish is encouraged.

Mill Creek is premier spawning habitat for salmon and steelhead, said Rachel McCain, superintendent’s secretary of Redwood National and State Parks. Spawning chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead trout were all seen Monday on Mill Creek by McCain, who will be one of the facilitators this weekend.

McCain started helping with the restoration efforts in the Mill Creek Addition when she was in the Natural Resource Club at College of the Redwoods. The public has been invited to get dirty and help since 2008 as a way of educating people on the projects going on.

“It’s a good way to get people involved with restoration,” McCain said.

Since the addition was purchased in 2002, the parks and other groups have planted trees to stabilize old logging roads and try to return the area to a late seral forest (old-growth or mature forest).

“The whole point is to accelerate natural forest succession,” McCain said.

By planting conifers now, the idea is to skip the step when hardwood, deciduous trees would dominate the area.  In a natural succession, deciduous trees like maples and other broad-leafed trees, which like lots of sunlight, might be the primary species until coniferous trees like coast redwoods, Douglas-firs or cedars grow tall enough to block the sunlight for the deciduous trees, McCain said.

The trees planted are grown in a nursery on site at the Mill Creek addition, managed by Dan Burgess, the other facilitator this weekend. Only seeds from the area are used to grow the trees to be planted, maintaining the genetic composition of the area, McCain said.

On Saturday, the plan is to plant trees in the Mill Creek riparian areas (creek or river banks), which should be great for taking a gander at spawning fish, McCain said.

Bring sturdy boots, work gloves and a shovel (gloves and shovels can be provided if necessary). For more information, call Dan Burgess at 464-7441, ext. 225.

In addition to this weekend, there will be another tree-planting, fish-viewing opportunity Feb. 18.

The event is held in cooperation with College of the Redwoods, Save the Redwoods League, Redwood National & State Parks, and Rural Human Services.

Reach Adam Spencer at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it