If you are an amateur naturalist like me, you take pleasure in being able to identify plants and animals as you hike through the forest. I’m still trying to learn the names of common redwood forest plants, and I always …
When I am driving north on Highway 101 through Humboldt County and know my destination is the James Irvine trail at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, it’s hard to contain my excitement. This week, Orange Coast shares the history of how …
For almost a hundred years, Save the Redwoods League has been protecting and restoring redwood forests and enabling people to connect with their peace and beauty. Photographers and painters began connecting people to redwoods decades earlier, beginning with Carleton Watkins’ …
In my last blog I introduced you to Betty Thompson, a 66-year-old woman from Georgia with cerebral palsy, who was about to realize her lifelong dream of seeing the redwoods. In June, Betty and her friends embarked on a weeklong …
This week, I celebrated 10 years of coast redwood forest research and had the pleasure of climbing into an old redwood at the Grove of Old Trees in Sonoma County. This little-known forest is where I learned to climb …
It’s no surprise the redwoods inspire people in many different ways. The biodiversity of plants and animals inspires scientists, the towering red-hued trunks of the trees inspire artists, and the fallen logs and clear creeks inspire an adventurous spirit in …
Good news is not always easy to come by in regards to the redwood forest. Whether it is the threat of development, water diversion or unsustainable logging, bad tidings are all around us. Even though they’re not always obvious, there …
Sweltering summers are perhaps the best time all year to experience the redwood forests in Humboldt County the way locals do, as natural water parks. The Eel River, a federally designated Wild and Scenic River along the Avenue of the Giants, and Redwood Creek, which is surrounded by the world’s tallest trees in Redwood National Parks, have plenty of kid-friendly swimming holes.
A report that will chart the course for the future of California State Parks (CSP) is closer to its final form. The Parks Forward Commission met in San Francisco last Wednesday to discuss the most recent draft of the Parks Forward …
It’s not often that salamanders make the New York Times. But last week, the ‘Science’ section featured an article on a study investigating the role of salamanders in the global carbon cycle. Basically, salamanders are among the top predators in …
Lichens contribute such beautiful colors to our redwood forests, growing elegantly on trees, fallen logs, and rocks. Each lichen you see is actually a symbiotic partnership — algae or cyanobacteria wrapped up in a fungal package. Thanks to canopy biologists Rikke Reese Næsborg, Cameron Williams, Marie Antoine, and …
What are your fondest childhood memories? It’s often the small moments we share with loved ones, like sitting around a campfire and watching the stars, that stick with us for life. And you don’t have to shell out the big …
This time last week, our intrepid research partners were ascending up into the tall trees of Cathedral Grove at Muir Woods National Monument. This historic first climb was part of BioBlitz 2014, a massive effort throughout the Golden Gate National …
The Muir Woods BioBlitz is just a couple weeks away, and folks around here are getting excited. One of the hot topics of conversation around the Save the Redwoods League office is which species the scientists will find living in …
In 21 days we will have a major scientific event happening throughout the Bay Area: the 2014 National Park Service BioBlitz. Here at the League we are busy preparing for this 24-hour exploration of the ecologically diverse areas of the …
Last week’s blog began, perhaps a little cavalierly, with the assertion that growing big trees may be the easy part of redwood forest restoration, and so far as it goes that’s a fair assessment. It also may be a little …
For decades, the rallying cry of conservation has been, “Buy land — they’re not making any more of it!” And since 1918, that’s what Save the Redwoods League has done: bought land to protect old-growth groves for future generations. Now, …
Last week, Deborah Zierten introduced us to sudden oak death, a nasty fungal disease (known in scientific circles as Phytopthera ramorum) that is causing the widespread decline and death of tanoak, one of the most common tree species found in …
We may not have a typical white winter wonderland here in the coast redwood forest, but we do have spectacular displays of white leaves that appear this time of year. Half of the fern species that live in the coast …
I think I first really learned the meaning of the word “epiphyte” while working in the rainforest of Ecuador. There are epiphytes all over the trees in the tropical rainforest – one of the most famous is the orchid. But …
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