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Lassen Volcanic National Park
Center for the State of the Parks: Park Assessments
Published November 2009
Lassen Volcanic National Park in northeastern California—just 165 miles from the Sacramento airport—is home to a multitude of animal and plant species. More than 700 flowering plants provide food, cover, breeding sites, and shelter to an excess of 250 mammal, bird, fish, amphibian, and reptile species in the park. Many invertebrates, such as butterflies and other insects, also live there. The park’s human history dates back at least 7,500 years. The Achumawi, Atsugewi, Mountain Maidu, and Yahi/Yana tribes all lived in the area before European colonization and westward migration. For the descendants of these traditionally associated peoples, the entire park is considered sacred. The region’s human history also includes Euro-American settlers who traded furs, prospected for gold, homesteaded, and ranched livestock. NPCA's Center for State of the Parks recently completed a review of Lassen Volcanic National Park’s natural and cultural resources and determined that they are in "fair" condition. Challenges facing the Park Service include previous human activities—fire suppression policies, construction of roads, and the drainage of wetlands—that have degraded important habitat in the park. Critical staff positions such as the cultural resources manager remain vacant, preventing oversight of the park’s archaeology, ethnography, historic structures, and museum collections. Despite these challenges, the Park Service has made great strides in restoring the park’s wetlands, addressing fire management with prescribed burns, and organizing and preserving 35 historic photograph collections.
