Yosemite National Park’s Mariposa Grove of Giant sequoias is expected to reopen this fall after a multiyear restoration. In addition to red giants standing higher than a 30-story building, visitors will find new, wheelchair-accessible trails and boardwalks, roads converted into hiking trails, and an interpretive display of a fallen ancient giant.
T. A. Barron, a member of the Save the Redwoods League Council, is the best-selling author of over 30 novels, children’s books, and nonfiction nature books, including the Merlin Saga. He said the redwoods inspire him as an enduring symbol of conservation and are a recurring and central theme in his work.
On the magnificent League-owned property called Stewarts Point, the spectacular Sonoma County Coast and the mighty redwood forests are iconic elements of California’s identity. And forever intertwined with these inspiring landscapes is the cultural richness of the Native American tribes that have lived for thousands of years along the coastal bluffs and forested waterways. Take a look at this treasured land.
Save the Redwoods League is leading research to fully sequence the coast redwood and giant sequoia genomes — for the first time — utilizing conifer genetic sequencing techniques unavailable until now. By the end of this five-year project, the genome sequences and the screening tools developed will allow researchers to quickly assess genetic diversity in redwood forests to inform management plans that restore the health and resilience of these forests throughout their natural ranges as they face environmental stressors such as climate change.
Last winter’s intense wind and rain brought down giants throughout the redwood range, including the Pioneer Cabin Tree, an iconic “drive- through sequoia” in Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Seeing any of these towering giants fall is sad because we have so few left. But under the surface of the sadness lies a brighter, long-term scientific view.
Thanks to our generous donors, California voters and the State of California Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB), Save the Redwoods League is set to complete the first phase of our Mailliard Ranch project, which protects three-quarters of this majestic property from development and subdivision. Protection of the ranch will secure the stability of the regional forest ecosystem.
Save the Redwoods League thanks our community for responding to our call for public comments on what Giant Sequoia National Monument means to them. Comments from League supporters were counted among a record-breaking 2.8 million after the Trump administration ordered a review of certain national monuments.
In California’s northwestern corner lies the Prairie Creek Scenic Corridor, a patchwork of public and privately held lands surrounded by Redwood National and State Parks, home of the world’s tallest trees. The League and collaborators have been working toward a vision of protecting the corridor from development, reconnecting the parks’ ancient redwood groves, restoring prime wildlife habitat and creating an innovative visitor center.
