John Montague: Finder of the Tallest Trees and a Dedicated Supporter

John Montague and his daughter.
John Montague and his daughter.

When redwoods enthusiast John Montague first volunteered at Save the Redwoods League, he began by assisting with chores at the office. He’s so dedicated to the forest that soon after he volunteered out in the field, mapping, taking measurements, and identifying notable trees under the League’s direction.

Montague has helped out in other ways, too. A League campaign to purchase and protect old-growth redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains, for example, inspired him to make a generous financial gift.

“Redwoods give me so much,” Montague says, “and the League felt like a great way to give back.”

Montague has a busy life outside the redwoods. He’s a family man, with a wife and young daughter. He’s creative director and co-founder of Moosetache Games, a Berkeley-based company whose mission is to “bring people together and infuse fun into each and every day.” Two card games he invented, Hike and Rowboat, recently won awards. He’s also founder of Scope Dog, a film financing company that specializes in documentaries and independent features.

But he always finds time for the redwoods. In the past two years he’s located 116 of the 220 redwoods that were known to be over 350 feet tall, including the tallest of them all: 379-foot Hyperion. Thanks to his exploratory efforts, there are now four new redwoods on that list of the loftiest, for a total of 224.

The numbers are satisfying, but so are the places the trees take him. “Few things are better for the soul than a day in a redwood forest,” Montague says.

Learn more about volunteering at the League.

About the author

Since 1918, Save the Redwoods League has protected and restored redwood forests and connected people with their peace and beauty so these wonders of the natural world flourish.

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One Response to “John Montague: Finder of the Tallest Trees and a Dedicated Supporter”

  1. M. D. Vaden

    The 220 “known” redwoods noted in the article makes really brings into perspective the extensive experience of Michael Taylor and Chris Atkins who spent decades discovering, locating and measuring most of those during their many years in the coast redwood parks. They are both introduced in the best-selling book The Wild Trees by Richard Preston.

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