Enviros: Caltrans Last Chance Grade plans have ‘inadequate' environmental mitigation

Caltrans has released its final Environmental Impact Report and Statement for the agency's Last Chance Grade project, a milestone for a much-needed infrastructure overhaul, but the environmental mitigation measures contained therein leave something to be desired according to stakeholder groups.

The Last Chance Grade Project, which intends to reroute a 3.5-mile-long section of landslide-prone, geologically unstable highway 10 miles south of Crescent City through a newly constructed 6,000-foot tunnel, will involve the removal of up to 144 mature trees from Redwood National and State Parks. That includes 16 protected old-growth redwoods, the largest of which are just under nine feet in diameter.

The project, as entailed in Caltrans' EIR, would mitigate environmental impacts by providing for restoration work on some 670 acres of forest in the area. Both the Save the Redwoods League and the Environmental Protection Information Agency released statements this week expressing disappointment with Caltrans' mitigation plan. The two nonprofit environmental groups have been actively involved in the initial phases of the project through Rep. Jared Huffman's (D-San Rafael) working group.

Good faith effort gone awry

Caltrans' process and its stakeholder engagement had previously been praised by EPIC Executive Director Tom Wheeler, who said that the project "should be a model for the government in pursuing other potentially contentious projects."

"Caltrans District 1 has done an amazing job of cultivating many types of stakeholders over the last 10-plus years alongside Rep. Huffman and this stakeholder group, and I think that … there's been a lot of reciprocity between Save the Redwoods League - understanding how committed Caltrans is to designing a project that avoids impacts to the Redwoods as much as possible," Ben Friedman, director of government affairs and public funding at Save the Redwoods League, told the Times-Standard via telephone Wednesday afternoon.

"… That being said, yes, I do think that Caltrans sort of stumbled in not engaging the full complement of stakeholders in the specific proposal around mitigation," Friedman said. "That's not to say there was none; … the framework for mitigation is a good one, but it's the scale thing that is lost."

Caltrans' EIR outlines two potential mitigation strategies, one of which outlines funding for 335 acres in land acquisition and 335 acres in restoration work funding; another would fund restoration work for 670 acres.

When considered using the cost calculus of the Redwoods Rising project, the partnership between the Save the Redwoods League and state and national parks that will undertake that restoration work, these mitigation efforts would represent an investment of up to $10 million, the league says, a tiny fraction of the project's $2.7 billion budget.

On background, a person familiar with the project told the Times-Standard that, depending on the cost of restoration work, which can vary from $4,000 to $16,000 an acre for Redwoods Rising, Caltrans may end up investing less than $3 million in mitigation efforts aimed at easing the ecological impacts of the project. In total, that means that the mitigation efforts for Last Chance Grade could represent a smaller investment than mitigation efforts on projects a tiny fraction of its size - projects like the recent $51.4 million Eureka-Arcata Highway 101 corridor improvements that entailed extensive mitigation measures on-site, to surrounding wetlands and riparian lands and even to Tuluwat Island, where Caltrans funded extensive eradication of invasive Spartina montevidensis over 179 acres of the island.

"What Caltrans is proposing at the moment is … approximately half of 1% of the overall project cost, and that's just not good enough in a place that represents these incredible old-growth coast redwoods in Redwood National and State Park, in a UNESCO World Heritage site," Friedman said. "This is an incredibly unique and special place where, if there are these unavoidable impacts that have to happen because of this important transportation project, Caltrans needs to sort of meet the moment as it relates to mitigation."

More than 144 trees

In their statement, Save the Redwoods League notes that "when old-growth redwoods are cut down, more than the trees themselves are lost."

"These forests provide critical habitat for vulnerable wildlife, like the marbled murrelet and the northern spotted owl, and store more carbon per acre than any other forest type in the world," that statement reads. "It takes hundreds of years to cultivate successful, mature coast redwood habitat, making the removal of any old-growth redwoods truly devastating."

EPIC's statement on Caltrans' project also notes effects beyond the loss of 144 trees.

"Removal of any individual tree is itself a great loss," EPIC's statement notes. "But removal also impacts the wider forest ecosystem by, among other things, creating new edge effects on more interior forest and impacting the vigor and health of remaining trees, thereby affecting the habitat value of the larger forest."

Hope for a mutually advantageous outcome

While both the league and EPIC have called Caltrans' initial mitigation plans inadequate, both have also expressed hope that the process (the Last Chance Grade Project will subsequently enter its planning phase) will eventually yield a more propitious mitigation plan.

"While EPIC is disappointed, this is tempered by the good work the agency has done to minimize impacts to the maximum extent possible," the group's statement said. "There is no good solution to the challenges of Last Chance Grade. Caltrans has thoroughly studied the problem, and the proposed tunnel is not only the safest and most reliable solution to keep Highway 101 open, it is also the least impactful of the alternatives studied. EPIC thus remains confident that Caltrans will deliver a project that can draw consensus support."

Save the Redwoods League's statement concludes: "We urge Caltrans to continue these discussions in good faith to ensure more appropriate mitigation for Last Chance Grade. Old-growth redwood forests are irreplaceable, and far more work is needed to properly calculate equitable compensation for these ancient trees than is reflected in Caltrans' current proposal."

Friedman noted that the project is at the beginning of a long process and said that the league planned to continue working with Caltrans.

"We very much look forward to continuing to work with Caltrans to come to a better solution for this mitigation package than is currently proposed," Friedman said.

The Times-Standard reached out to Caltrans and to the offices of Rep. Jared Huffman; neither was available for comment immediately.

Learn more

EPIC's statement can be read in its entirety at https://tinyurl.com/bdenjpmh. The Save the Redwoods League's statement can be found at https://tinyurl.com/yzv4prrc.

More information on the Last Chance Grade Project can be found at https://lastchancegrade.com.

Robert Schaulis can be reached at 707-441-0585.

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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 2:13 PM.