How Your Seedling Gifts Help Heal Forest

Thanks to your gifts through the seedling planting program, more than 2,000 redwoods and 2,600 Douglas-firs have been planted in the last two years to restore logged forests in and around Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Ancient redwoods were logged heavily for decades, but your donations make possible the effort to heal these lands. These plantings are a timeless commemoration of your loved ones. Your gifts also support education programs that bring the wonder of the redwoods to young students.

League grants totaling $140,000 to the California State Parks Eel River Sector support the planting of seedlings in disturbed areas such as old logging roads. Your gifts also support other restoration efforts, such as thinning dense stands where trees were planted too close together after logging. Without thinning, trees will continue to struggle and compete with one another for growing space, light and water. Thinning these stands helps accelerate redwoods’ growth so that the area will resemble an ancient forest sooner.

Your gifts also protect redwoods by inspiring new generations of forest caretakers. Because of your help, Humboldt Redwoods State Park interpreters have been able to teach more than 1,200 students about redwood forests. These students came from 20 schools in Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties in 2011 alone. The programs teach kids how special the redwoods are in engaging and memorable ways-and the impact is evident. Teachers reported that their fourth-grade students “talked about it in class afterward and explained to each other what they had learned,” and as one student enthusiastically reported, “I had a tree-rific time.”

With your continued support, the legacy of the redwoods will keep growing-and today’s seedlings will be cared for by the stewards of tomorrow.