New Stamp Celebrates Redwood Forest

Now you can show your love of redwoods by buying the new $4.95 Priority Mail Redwood Forest stamp. The United States Postal Service dedicated the stamp in January at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, 5,500 acres of which Save the Redwoods League has protected with our members’ support.

5 Grants Foster Redwood Stewardship

Thanks to support from Save the Redwoods League members, more people of all ages will experience the redwoods and be encouraged to protect these ancient natural wonders. Our Education Program awarded five grants totaling $52,000 to support these California programs:

• California State Parks FamCamp® Program, which provides the North Coast State Parks Region with a trailer to help introduce low-income families to nature and camping.
• Del Norte County Visitors Bureau, which will lay the foundation for a Redwood Coast National Heritage Area in the North Coast Region. The designation would foster tourism and therefore more support to save redwoods.
• Muir Woods National Monument, which provides redwood education programs to visitors.
• North Coast Redwood Interpretive Association, which will organize fall salmon spawning field trips and a local salmon symposium.
• Scott Valley Unified School District, which will take Siskiyou County sixth-graders on a field trip to the redwoods.

Give the Redwoods Ongoing Support by Joining the Evergreen Society

Join the Evergreen Society today and the amount you designate will be automatically deducted from your credit card each month, quarter or year. These important gifts add up to a reliable source of income that our protection, restoration and education programs can count on. Questions? Contact our Membership Department at (888) 836-0005 x319 or membership@savetheredwoods.org.

Staff Member's Favorite Redwood Hike: Samuel P. Taylor State Park

In this recurring feature, our staff members share their favorite places to experience redwoods.

Name and Title: Jennifer C., Communications Manager

Favorite Redwood Hike: North Creek Trail, Samuel P. Taylor State Park, Marin County, California. See the park brochure for a map showing this trail and others.

Difficulty/Distance: Easy; less than a mile

Why I like it: North Creek Trail follows picturesque Laguinitas Creek past giant coast redwoods, offering great vantage points to see coho salmon that may spawn through February.

Best time to visit: November through February, when coho salmon swim up the creek from the ocean to reproduce. This month also is the time to spot redwood forest wildflowers such as the fetid adder’s tongue lily, giant trillium, redwood sorrel, miner’s lettuce and huckleberry.

Other places to visit nearby: Park in the lot at Shafter Bridge off Sir Francis Drake Boulevard at the east end of the park for more salmon viewing and interpretive signs. Walk to the north side of the bridge to see the Inkwells, multilevel pools where Laguinitas Creek meets San Geronimo Creek. The view of Laguinitas Creek from Shafter Bridge is pictured above in this newsletter.

Note: Read our Spring Bulletin 2009 to learn how our work to save redwoods also saves endangered salmon. Watch for a Bulletin e-mail or visit the Save the Redwoods League Publications page in April.

More park information and directions

Featured Photo

Be amazed by the scale of the ancient coast redwoods in the Stout Memorial Grove of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Several of the park's groves are named after lumbermen who donated their respective areas or preserved them until Save the Redwoods League could purchase them. Save the Redwoods has protected more than 5,500 acres in this park. Learn about events and activities in this redwood park and others. Julie Martin photo.

Featured Favorite Redwood Memory

"My mother took me to California when I was 9. There were two things I wanted to see: Disneyland and the giant redwoods. I remember the redwoods much more clearly than Disneyland. The trees helped me realize we are all one. When I think of that trip now, it is always like a great stained-glass window of trees and sunshine."

— Janice, member since 1997