It Takes a Forest ℠

Students hold reference documents while studying plants in a redwood forest

Redwood Rides take off

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A new Save the Redwoods League program is coordinating free bus rides to redwood parks for organizations serving Black, Indigenous, and people of color as well as low-income communities. Redwood Rides removes the largest barrier preventing underrepresented communities from visiting …

A female California State Parks naturalist interpreter in park ranger fatigues gives her presentation before a tablet on a tripod on which she is livestreaming a virtual program to Facebook.

Bringing redwoods to the people

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The pandemic presented both a daunting challenge and the opportunity to take a flying leap toward an idea that had long been in the making. Since early March, the North Coast Redwoods District’s interpretation team has been delivering five to 10 PORTS programs each week, as well as daily Facebook live programs to the general public.  During this period, more than 5,000 students have received coast redwood-related PORTS programs, and their Facebook Live presentations have been viewed over 250,000 times. As to how his team came to the decision to hold daily events in the middle of a national crisis, Robbins deadpanned: “We just decided to do it.”

Pacific fisher

Spotted: The Elusive Pacific Fisher at Red Hill

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These nocturnal critters are mid-sized carnivores in the weasel family. Females have home ranges up to 10 square miles, and males have even larger home ranges since they mate with multiple females.

California red-legged frog

New Study Shows Habitat Corridors Increase Biodiversity

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Imagine this: There’s an amazing neighborhood farmers’ market that’s a safe and easy walk from your house. You shop for fresh local produce there every week, until one day, the market is relocated to a spot that’s just out of reasonable walking distance. To top it off, there’s now a six-lane freeway that you’d have to cross to get to it. Your habitat has just been fragmented.

Sam Hodder with one of the giant sequoia at Alder Creek.

We Have to Save This Place

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And now, we can announce the pending acquisition of the largest unprotected sequoia grove. Alder Creek is located near Camp Nelson off Highway 190, and is surrounded by the Giant Sequoia National Monument. It’s no exaggeration to call Alder Creek a crown jewel of the giant sequoia. In both size and conservation value, it is comparable to the famous Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park’s iconic giant sequoia stand.

Apprentices and field leads on a field tour of the Greater Mill Creek project area as part of their orientation. Photo by Ryan Thompson

Our Redwoods Rising Apprentices Had a World-Expanding Summer—and So Did I

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As the manager of the Redwoods Rising Apprenticeship program, I don’t get out in the field very often, but I get to see growth in the apprentices in snapshots. It’s remarkable to me how a short 11 weeks can contribute to a young person’s life. I’m so grateful that I can help to provide an invaluable experience to people only just beginning their careers.

A stand of trees, mostly Douglas fir, burned by the Usal Fire this week on Shady Dell. Photo by Richard Campbell

Good News/Bad News Following Fire at Shady Dell

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If you’ve been following our social media over the last week or so, you’ve heard about the Usal Fire, which started July 27 and burned about 180 acres. About 150 acres of the fire took place on our Shady Dell property. The fire is now almost completely contained.

Sequoia National Park. Photo by Anthony Ambrose

Startling Report Highlights Issue of Air Pollution Among National Parks

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According to a recent report from the National Parks Conservation Service, that last part of the equation is problematic at several national parks, including Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks. Startlingly, the report names Sequoia and Kings Canyon as among the parks with the worst air pollution in the country, meaning that the parks “had unhealthy air for most park visitors and rangers to breathe for more than two months of the year, mostly in the summer months.”

NBC Nightly News: Go inside a secret grove of centuries-old California redwoods

Go inside a secret grove of centuries-old California redwoods

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There’s a magical place in Sonoma, California where hundreds of acres of centuries-old redwoods have gone untouched. The land was owned by the Falk family for generations, until they recently sold it to Save the Redwoods League to preserve, with plans to allow the public in.

We and our partners used controlled burning to reduce non-native vegetation on a League-protected property.

A Look Inside a Prescribed Fire

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Save the Redwoods just led a team of researchers and land stewards from all over California to learn about using prescribed fire (controlled burning) on private lands. Take a peek behind the scenes to see how we use fire as a tool to reduce hazardous buildups of combustible vegetation and improve the health of our forests across League properties and the redwood range.

Help protect native redwood forest plants such as this slink pod. Photo by Paolo Vescia

Botany Bill Fosters Power of Science

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Your voice is needed to support the new Botany Bill (H.R. 1572), which promotes plant research, improves staffing of trained botanists on federal lands, grows the market for native plant materials, and supports federal programs to protect rare, endangered, and native plants such as those species found in our redwood forests. Botanical science research is an essential element in our fight against climate change.

Which Redwood Forest Animal Are You?

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Take our redwood animal personality quiz and see which member of the redwood forest resembles your personality best.

Save the Redwoods League and California State Parks, PORTS Giant Sequoia program

The Power of Partnerships and Global Outreach

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Park Interpretive Specialist Jenny Comperda reports on the nearly 10,000 students who experienced the giant sequoia forest through virtual field trips at Calaveras Big Trees in 2018-19.

Wildlife Wonders: Cameras Find Forests Teeming with Life

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The League’s wildlife cams at Cape Vizcaino (Cape Viz) in Mendocino County caught animals in action playing, prancing, grazing, and generally doing what animals do. The property provides habitat to a variety of wildlife including (but certainly not limited to) American black bears, ospreys, black tailed deer, and pumas living among stands of old-growth coast redwoods, grasslands, chaparral, and a scenic, rugged coastline.

Parks without Borders: Real-time Adventures with Giant Sequoia

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Park Interpretive Specialist Jenny Comperda reports from Calaveras Big Trees State Park, where 10,000 students from around the world experienced the giant sequoia forest through the League’s virtual field trips.