Save the Redwoods League says Caltrans mitigation falls short for Last Chance Grade
Caltrans has opened the Last Chance Grade review period while Save the Redwoods League calls its mitigation plan too small for a tunnel that could cut 144 mature trees, including 16 protected redwoods.
Is Caltrans trying to push through a minimal mitigation package for a project that would reshape one of the North Coast’s main transportation lifelines and cut into old-growth redwoods?
That is the fight now sharpened around Last Chance Grade, where Save the Redwoods League says the agency’s proposed compensation for environmental damage falls far short of the scale of the tunnel project. Caltrans released its final environmental review on May 29, and the federal comment period is now set to run through July 6, leaving one last public window before the plan advances further.
The project centers on a 3-mile segment of U.S. Highway 101 in Del Norte County, between Wilson Creek and 10 miles south of Crescent City. Caltrans selected Alternative F, a 6,000-foot tunnel, in June 2024, saying it would be the longest tunnel in Caltrans history and could cost about $2.1 billion in 2031 dollars. If construction begins in 2030, Caltrans says the tunnel could open as early as 2038.
Save the Redwoods League argues the mitigation package Caltrans attached to the final EIR/EIS does not come close to matching the harm. The league says the project could require the removal of up to 144 mature trees in Redwood National and State Parks, including 16 protected centuries-old redwoods, some as wide as 8.9 feet across. Caltrans’ proposal offers two options through Redwoods Rising: funding for land acquisition and restoration across 335 acres, or restoration work alone across 670 acres. The league says that amounts to less than half of 1% of the tunnel project’s projected $2.7 billion budget.
Ben Friedman, speaking for Save the Redwoods League, called the package “deeply flawed.” The league says the issue is not whether the tunnel exists, but whether the mitigation meaningfully offsets the loss of irreplaceable forest.
Caltrans says the project is meant to solve a long-running instability problem on a stretch of highway affected by landslides, coastal erosion, seismic risk and climate pressures. Project materials say a full one-year closure could cost Del Norte County up to 3,800 jobs and $456 million in economic activity, while an emergency detour could stretch 449 miles and take about eight hours.
The dispute now moves through the federal review process with tribes, local officials, residents and regulators still able to press for changes. Save the Redwoods League has worked on Last Chance Grade with Congressman Jared Huffman’s stakeholder group since 2015, and Caltrans says that group has included tribes, environmental groups, lawmakers, agencies and business interests. For Humboldt County, the outcome will shape both the coastal route drivers rely on and the future of a redwood landscape that cannot be replaced on any human timeline.
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