President’s letter

Resilient Future Edition of Redwoods magazine

Dear Save the Redwoods League Friends,

Four years ago, when the League embarked on its second century and launched a new era of redwoods conservation, we knew that protecting the redwood forest meant much more than just saving the last of the remaining old growth–just 5% of the original iconic forest. We knew that our resilient future was tied directly to the fate of the expansive young redwood forests that surround those few remaining old-growth groves. More than 1 million acres of redwood forests remain unprotected in commercial management, representing a pivotal choice for our generation. How we choose to invest in and steward the redwood forests will have an outsized impact on our fight against climate change, the resilience of our landscapes, the biodiversity of our future, and the health of our communities.

“What happens when you let an unsatisfactory present go on long enough? It becomes your entire history,” wrote Louise Erdrich in The Plague of Doves.

Right now, we can work to transcend the unsatisfactory present and reset the history of the redwood forests. We are making the choices, the investments, and the changes needed to set this critical forest ecosystem and its amazing parks on a new trajectory, and inviting everyone along on that journey.

In this Resilient Future Edition, we spotlight the ways we are advancing toward a more resilient future. We present the Montgomery Woods Initiative, an opportunity to protect Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve, help it heal and grow, and create welcoming and memorable shared experiences for our communities. We continue to sound the alarm for the urgent threats of climate change and severe wildfires to the remaining giant sequoia groves, and we support the Save Our Sequoias Act as a proactive and necessary answer to the emergency. As we work toward improving redwood parks to benefit all people, we offer resources for disabled folks to enjoy the most accessible redwood parks, meticulously vetted by a leader in disability justice, Syren Nagakyrie of Disabled Hikers.

When the League and our partners opened the new trail to the Grove of Titans in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park earlier this year, a tribal councilmember from the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation noted that their opportunity to share the story of this place today in the Tolowa language—the language of the original caretakers of this land—was only possible because the League protected the forest nearly a century ago, saving it from the unsatisfactory present of early 20th-century logging and resetting its history. Together, today, we are starting a new and extraordinary chapter in a redirected history of the coast redwood and giant sequoia forests, consciously turning the unsatisfactory present into a healthy, resilient, inspiring future.

It depends entirely on the choices and investments we make today, and how effectively we inspire others to join us in accelerating the pace and scale of conservation in the redwoods. As the stories in this issue illustrate, we have hit our stride, and we are ready and able to do the hard work of protecting and restoring the forests at scale and connecting all of us with their peace and beauty.

Thank you for your support. I hope you enjoy this Resilient Future Edition of Redwoods Magazine.