Don't destroy redwoods along Hwy 1
The voters approved improvements to Highway 1; they did not vote to destroy the most beautiful redwood forest alongside the highway, the oak forest under the freeway bridge on Spreckels Drive or the riparian Aptos Creek under the freeway bridge; the most beautiful part of the scenic highway from Santa Cruz to Moss Landing. Now is the time to step up to stop this area from being made to look like a war zone. Alert your social media friends of this issue and tell your elected representatives and the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (SCCRTC) to implement a no-build alternative between the north and south train trestles.
Do you want to find out more about the redwood forest the SCCRTC plans to eradicate between the north and south train trestles on Highway 1 in Aptos in order to add two optional auxiliary lanes? According to the DOT Freeway Management Handbook 5.4.1, auxiliary lanes do not have to extend fully between widely spaced interchanges if it is not practical or necessary. The 1.4-mile stretch will do just fine without auxiliary lanes between the two trestles.
The SCCRTC has elected to eradicate 56 significant redwood trees of 24-inch diameters and larger, the majority of which are more than 36 inches and about 12 are more than 4 feet in diameter. Unlike the loggers who left the stumps where the new growth was sustained by the old growth root stock and have grown to 24 inches in about 120 years, the SCCRTC plans to rip their roots out of the ground so that no redwood trees will ever grow there again.
This redwood grove used to be contiguous with the forest of Nisene Marks. These trees have old-growth DNA such that two large ones of about 5-foot diameter have reticulated trunks or branches that go horizontally straight out and then straight up like a tree 30 feet off the ground. These trees reminded early residents of a moose's antlers and they named the road Moosehead Drive.
In 2019 the SCCRTC told Moosehead residents this beautiful single-lane frontage road through the redwood forest was in the Caltrans right-of-way. Since then, it has been moved into the SCC right-of-way. As a consequence, at the expense of taxpayers, the Santa Cruz County Public Works Department must at its expense remove and replace the new road instead of at the expense of the SCCRTC project that forced the unnecessary change.
In anticipation of this expense, Public Works seems to have been earmarking funds for this unwanted-by-the-residents road project and withholding repair funds from county roads in need of substantial repair since about 2019. The engineering drawing shown to the residents by the SCCRTC specifies that Moosehead Drive will be expanded from 9 feet to 20 feet, which requires the removal of around 20 additional heritage redwoods and necessitates construction of retaining walls from 12-35 feet.
The auxiliary lanes are superfluous when there is a reason not to stretch them from one interchange to another — if there is enough distance between them.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires mitigation measures to prevent significant, avoidable environmental damage by requiring changes to projects.
Despite the clear guidance from the DOT as to the optional length of an auxiliary lane and from CEQA not to cause avoidable environmental damage, the SCCRTC is continuing to pursue its plan to widen the freeway for the entire distance from State Park Drive to Rio Del Mar Boulevard, which will eradicate the Moosehead redwood forest with all of its attendant environmental benefits. In addition, the widening of the bridge over Spreckels Drive will virtually cover the backyards of several residents underneath and Aptos Creek will be cemented over to control water flow.
The SCCRTC is going to undertake a major timber harvesting operation of an iconic Aptos heritage redwood forest along Highway 1 and turn it into an LA-type freeway or crypt-like expanse. That section of the freeway will be ugly beyond comparison to what it is now.