Video: Coast redwoods showing regrowth in Big Basin Redwoods State Park

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Hi I’m Paul Ringgold I’m with Save the Redwoods
League and we’re here at Little Basin which is

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part of Big Basin State Park and we wanted
to point out some of the what’s the recovery

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that’s happening in the coast redwood
this is on the edge of the burned area

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the facility itself was completely destroyed
but of course you can see that the forest

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is already recovering this is again due to the
prolific ability of coast redwood to re-sprout

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and these sprouts are basically happening
through little buds called epicormic buds

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that are throughout the… just at the edge of
the bark and the cambium in redwood that lie

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dormant until there’s some event that triggers
them to sprout that can be a severe drought

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oftentimes you’ll see this happening when the when
the tree is responding to a really significant

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stress fire is a classic example of that the
stress of the fire the fact that all of the living

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foliage on the tree was destroyed prompted
signals were sent to these epicormics to sprout

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put new green shoots and leaves back out onto the
trees so that it can continue to photosynthesize

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and continue to survive so these trees I would
say there’s just there’s no doubt that these

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trees will survive based on the prolific
sprouts that you see throughout the trunk

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out onto the branches in some cases see some
of these trees you can see the leaves were not

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the needles were not completely burned off
in the fire they were singed but killed but

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you can already see the green sprouts
coming out underneath them in the foliage

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looking out into the meadow here you can see same
thing happening on those trees in the distance

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it’s very typical in coast redwood after
what would otherwise be referred to as

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a stand replacement fire where all of
the above ground vegetation is killed

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in coast redwood you see these sort of a bottle
brush type of form happening with all of the

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epicormic sprouting that’s happening

While Big Basin Redwoods State Park (and Little Basin, which is part of the larger park), remains closed following the fires last year, a team from Save the Redwoods League recently was able to tour the landscape to see how the coast redwood forest is recovering. In this video, The League’s Paul Ringgold shows how the coast redwoods use epicormic growth to recover following a major fire event. It’s amazing to see all that green emerging from the base of the trees and the trunks.

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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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5 Responses to “Video: Coast redwoods showing regrowth in Big Basin Redwoods State Park”

  1. Ramona Raybin

    The epicormic buds were new to me as well, once again demonstrating to us how resilient and amazing the redwoods are! Thanks for taking us to Big Basin to see this.

    Reply
  2. Denise Garone

    What an encouraging, uplifting and day making video. Thank you Paul for educating us while giving us such wonderful news.

    Reply
  3. Shirley Vernale

    thank you for this report. heartwarming.

    Reply
  4. Janis Reed

    I’ve known for years that redwoods were resilient. However, the “epicormic buds” thing is new to me! These are truly remarkable trees… and hopefully indestructible. Thanks for this inspiring learning moment!

    Reply
  5. Dennis Tapley

    Future embodied in epicormic buds. Thank you.

    Reply

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