Restoration

Mill Creek

Mill Creek is a 25,000-acre temperate rainforest located on California’s North Coast, just south of the Oregon-California border. Home to ancient redwoods, hundreds of native plant species, and two critical salmon-bearing streams, Mill Creek was identified as a priority for protection in the 1920s. However, its owners chose to harvest all but 200 acres of the ancient trees, and re-planted for future harvest.  

Mill Creek presents extraordinary challenges for maintaining and restoring wildlife and fish populations. The legacy of decades of intensive industrial timber management threatens the ecological integrity of the natural systems that support Mill Creek’s wildlife and fisheries. A once-complex ancient forest mosaic was converted into a forest dominated by a dense, even-age conifer plantation with limited structural and biological diversity. High road densities threaten to choke the creeks with sediment, destroying salmon and trout spawning and rearing habitat.

Acquisition of Mill Creek was a crucial first step in protecting the land and its phenomenal habitats; ongoing restoration work is essential to the area’s long-term protection. Mill Creek presents a premier opportunity to combine cutting-edge forest restoration techniques with the restoration of wildlife habitat, providing protection and opportunity for recovery of critically important salmon and steelhead populations – including the federally listed coho salmon – and wildlife such as the marbled murrelet, northern spotted owl, mountain lion, Pacific fisher and marten. 

The key goal of ecosystem rehabilitation is to promote self-maintaining ecosystem processes by reducing the footprint of past land use activities and advance the development of old-forest characteristics. Achieving this goal will optimize benefits to indigenous fish and associated wildlife habitat, while providing opportunities for compatible public park use, research, and education. 

Much has been accomplished since the forest was protected in 2002 – forest restoration work has been completed on over 1,600 acres, 34 miles of severely eroded logging roads have been removed, in-stream habitat quality for salmonids has been improved, habitat monitoring has shown that salmon populations are strong, and public access has increased.