Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I sure have a lot to be grateful for this year. Our work at the League has never been more diverse or more important; and more than anything, I am thankful to have the opportunity to …
Did you ever want to be a scientist but think it’s just for professionals? Love the redwoods but don’t know how to help? Lucky for you, the League has a project that can solve both these problems. As part of …
Last week, the sky around the Bald Hills area of Redwood National Park was hazy beyond the normal shroud of fog. Smoke filled the air. The forest was burning. Water trucks stood at the ready, fire crews and park staff …
A new research study published in Nature (found here; and excellent summary is here) got me thinking about the work we do to restore redwood forests. Basically, the idea behind the research is this: species perform many roles beyond just …
Today is World Dictionary Day, and in honor of that I’d like to discuss a few words that are used a lot in our conservation science work. They are: Precision, Accuracy, and Bias. These may seem familiar, but they have …
Ever wondered how big that tree in your backyard is? There are many ways to measure the heights of trees, but most of them unfortunately require lots of time, money, and specialized equipment. There is one method, however, that needs …
Marbled murrelets haven’t had an easy century. With their oceanic feeding grounds impacted by commercial fishing and the occasional oil spill, and their ancient forest nesting grounds mostly lost to the axe and the saw, these shy creatures have had …
RCCI’s nursery experiments and tree ring analyses are essential to understanding the past and future of the redwood forest, but it is the trees themselves that tell us about its present. By establishing 16 large plots in old-growth forests throughout …
The first phase of the Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative was based upon understanding how past climate has affected the ancient redwood and giant sequoia forests. To do this, the research teams relied upon the science of dendrochronology: the analysis of …
Last week, I spent some time wondering broadly about our recent RCCI results, and just whether we could say for certain that 1) climate change is spurring an increase in redwood growth, and 2) if that change is “good” for …
I’ve spent much of the past week thinking about our Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative, and what our recent results mean for the future of the redwood forest. As with any good scientific research, the first phase of RCCI raised far …
Each year, we at the League are fortunate to be able to help shape and develop new knowledge about the redwood forest. Through our research grants program, we sponsor several teams of scientists who are working to answer a wide …
Depending on whom you believe, the ancient and legendary city of Atlantis was forever lost beneath the waves after a volcano, war, or dust-up between the gods, and its disappearance gave rise to centuries of speculation, storytelling, and exploration. If …
In the gray-green dim of the redwood forest, a flash of blue ignites the dusky understory. A Steller’s jay alights upon a tanoak limb, chattering madly. The brightness of its feathers seems incongruous with the dark of the forest, a …
Along with spring, summer, autumn and winter, California has a fifth season – fire season. After a couple of dry winters, the current fire season in California is predicted to be one of the most intense on record. Habitats from …
With all the talk these days about ticks and Lyme disease, it’s good to know that at least some creatures are looking out for us. Blue-belly lizards (also known as the western fence lizard, or Sceloporus occidentalis) are a common …
In an early version of a now-famous passage, John Muir wrote, “When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the …
Conservation work comes in all shapes and sizes. Protecting, restoring, and sharing the redwood forest with the public is a broad mission, and we look to achieve it through a diversity of efforts. Sometimes the League’s projects are as obvious as …
Sometimes when I tell people about new research the League has sponsored, like this recent study describing the links between forest condition and salamander populations in recovering redwood forests, I get a look that I know means, “That’s pretty neat, but …
Here are the most likely reasons why some trees take on this curious growth form.
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