Overview
The reserve was established in 1999 (H.R. 2107, Title V. Sec.501). The reserve was created after a 15 year effort to save the ancient ecosystem (with some trees estimated at over two thousand years old), from being clearcut. Almost 60 per cent of what is now the Reserve was harvested by mostly clearcutting with over 35 miles (56 km) of road construction and over a hundred stream crossings which greatly degraded watershed ability to store and filter water runoff. The untouched portion, however, is dense, old-growth forest with pristine watershed conditions.
This reserve of 7,472 acres (30.24 km2) is public land and is under the stewardship of the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Of the total area, 3,088 acres (12.50 km2) are old-growth redwood stands surrounded by 4,384 acres (17.74 km2) of previously harvested timberlands. The reserve is located about 6 miles (9.7 km) southeast of Eureka, CA.
According to the BLM, "the reserve is set aside to protect and preserve the ecological and wildlife values in the area, particularly the stands of old-growth redwood that provide habitat for the threatened Marbled Murrelet, Northern Spotted Owl, native salmon stocks, and other old growth forest dependent species..." As well as the stream systems that provide habitat for the threatened coho salmon. Other forest trees in the Reserve include Douglas-fir, tanoak, Sitka spruce, western red ceder, western hemlock and red alder. There are limited distribution ( CNPS list 4) plants in the Reserve including the heart-shaped twayblade and Kellogg's Lily.
The Headwaters Forest Reserve is one of the few remaining refuges for the endangered seabird the Marbled Murrelet. Marbled Murrelets make their nests on large redwood tree branches between March 25 and September 15. The seabird nesting can be disastrously disrupted by human activity. Visitors are restricted from entering the forest during breeding season, approximately June 25 to August 1.
It is the only forest reserve in the United States and is managed as a nature reserve of the BLM's National Landscape Conservation System.
Read more about this topic: Headwaters Forest Reserve