Park History article #2
This article was in the park files. The author's name is unknown. It provides a historical perspective on some of the early watershed restoration efforts in the Bull Creek area of the park following the large floods of 1955 and 1964. The article was copied word for word and may contain outdated word usages. The watershed restoration techniques mentioned in this article may no longer be in use. It is provided for its historical value only.

The Bull Creek Problem

It is hard to imagine that the gravelly land you see in this area today was once a pristine creek that flowed through the magnificent flats of Rockefeller Forest. The last five and one-half miles of Bull Creek, drains a watershed of 26,520 acres, most of which has been logged and/or burned. These two factors have resulted in what is known today as the “Bull Creek Problem.” It is one of the most serious land management problems facing the California Department of Parks and Recreation today.

Between 1945 and 1955, these were accelerated logging practices and disastrous fires on the 18,843 acres of privately owned land within the Bull Creek basin. Following this was an unusually heavy and prolonged rainfall in December 1955 and January 1956 which created major flood conditions in Bull Creek and its tributaries. The flood poured tons of gravel, rocks, and debris down the creek channels to the little valley of Bull Creek townsite. A log deck awaiting sawing was swept by the flood just below the Bull Creek town and jammed the creek. The log jam that was backing up the strong currents of the flood suddenly collapsed and masses of the debris swept through Bull Creek into the center of the Rockefeller Forest.

This flood, and subsequent smaller floods, severely changed the landscape of the Bull Creek townsite valley, destroying homes and developments. The flood waters tore away streamside vegetation and hundreds of trees fell into the Bull Creek streambed.

In 1959, the Governor and the State Department of Parks and Recreation recommended that the entire Bull Creek watershed be purchased for inclusion into the park to control the erosion of the creek and to protect a primary feature of the park. The State and the Save-the-Redwoods League then initiated action to purchase the private lands of the upper Bull Creek basin. Since 1962, the state and the League cooperatively acquired 15,000 acres of private lands on Bull Creek’s upper basin, which are now part of Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Since then, a management program has been initiated for the protection of the Bull Creek Flats of the Rockefeller Forest and for the full enjoyment of the park by visitors. This program consists of positive bank protection to protect the bank from further erosion, annual shaping of the channel to keep gravels moving through, fire prevention, channel clearance, and area clean-up.