Lacks Creek to see intermittent closures for restoration work through August 2026

Campers, hikers and riders heading into Lacks Creek this summer will run into intermittent closures as the Bureau of Land Management blocks roads, trails and campsites from late April through the end of August 2026 for restoration work and road improvements.

The affected landscape is the 8,673-acre Lacks Creek Recreation Area, about 20 miles northeast of Eureka and 15 miles inland from the Pacific Coast. BLM said the work zone will include forest thinning, oak woodland restoration and prairie restoration, and that heavy equipment will be active throughout the project area.

The agency said the project is expected to produce about 1.6 million board feet of timber across roughly 100 acres of forest health and fuels treatments. That work is aimed at removing dense stands of Douglas-fir that have moved into prairie and oak woodland habitat, part of a broader effort to lower catastrophic wildfire risk and restore more open conditions that historically depended on frequent fire.

BLM warned that some recreation opportunities will remain open, but weekday operations may still limit access to specific roads, trails and campsites. Visitors are being urged to watch for posted closure notices and stay clear of active work zones, a reminder that a trip to Lacks Creek this summer could change quickly if crews are on site.

The recreation area sits on a complicated patch of land. BLM says the public land at Lacks Creek is completely surrounded by Tribal and private lands, with the eastern boundary shared with the Hoopa Valley Tribe. That geography has made coordination central to the project, which BLM is carrying out with the tribe as part of a longer restoration push on ancestral lands.

The work also builds on earlier investment. In 2023, BLM announced $100,000 in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for improvements at Lacks Creek and said the Arcata Field Office and partners had invested more than $4 million in CAL FIRE Forest Health Program grants for habitat restoration and recreation access. The Hoopa Valley Tribe has said its forestry department manages more than 87,000 acres of timberland, and its work at Lacks Creek is tied to fire resilience, Tribal co-stewardship and protection of cultural and commercial resources.

BLM says the habitat there supports elk, bears, mountain lions, bobcats, deer and Pacific fishers, while the watershed provides cold-water tributary habitat for threatened coho salmon and steelhead trout. For anyone planning a summer trip into that part of Humboldt County, the safest assumption is that access will be partial, unpredictable and subject to change through August.