What Is a Conservationist?
onAs we at Save the Redwoods League begin to focus on managing and restoring land as much as on acquiring it, we will need to ask ourselves hard questions about what it means to be a conservationist these days. Chief …
What Is Our Land Ethic?
onLike many in the land conservation arena, I often use the term “land ethic” in discussing the vision and work of Save the Redwoods League and our partners. As the League approaches its 100th anniversary, I’ve been thinking a lot …
“Right” and “Wrong” Redwoods?
onWhen we want to restore forests, it’s as simple as just planting some redwoods, right? You may be surprised to hear that the business of replanting a forest is a bit more complicated than that. When we work to restore forests, we try to make sure that the forests we rebuild are as close as possible to those that were lost — and there are also very practical reasons for doing so
Growing Future Giants From Tiny Seeds
onLast 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 …
What Do the Winter Olympics and Redwoods Have in Common?
onWell, they’re both part of a rapidly-changing world. It’s more than a little scary to watch the Winter Olympics this year and see the bare, snowless mountains in the background and the spectators in T-shirts lining the race courses. Scarier …
Conservation, Then and Now
onFor 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, …
Conservation Easements, Part 2: Monitoring and Enforcement
onLast month, I explained the nuts and bolts of conservation easements, a super important tool in land conservation and one that we at Save the Redwoods League use often. This month, you can learn about what happens next: monitoring and …
The Future of Redwood Conservation
onMuch has been said about the importance of old-growth redwood forests. Their superlative beauty, their mind-bending longevity, their capacity to sequester carbon, and their ability to inspire peace, awe, and contemplation are all reasons why our commitment to their protection …
What IS a Conservation Easement, Anyway?
onConservation easements are an incredibly important tool we use to help protect land. They can be confusing to understand, so my next few blogs will focus on different aspects of conservation easements to explain the concept and show why land …
Critical Conservation at Strybing Botanical Garden
onNot many people know this, but I can trace my career as a redwood conservation scientist back to Strybing Botanical Garden in San Francisco. It was during a field trip to Strybing in 1998 that I sat and sketched plants …
Opportunity Comes in All Shapes and Sizes
onWhen thinking of redwood conservation, the mind doesn’t naturally jump to a vast expanse of pavement. Save the Redwoods League is hoping to change that. We have just acquired the Orick Mill property in Humboldt County that includes 45 acres …
A Passion for Redwoods, a Commitment to Parks
onThis year we mark the 70th anniversary of the death of John McLaren, one of America’s great park leaders. Born and raised in Scotland and trained as a horticulturalist, McLaren is responsible for much of the vision and construction of …
Shady Dell’s Smallest Wonder
onThe Lost Coast is a destination for intrepid hikers who enjoy the rough and uninterrupted coastline of Mendocino County. If you’re one of them, I recommend you take some time looking underfoot next time you explore the wilderness to see …
A Redwood of a Blog: How the Giant Trees Grow
onRCCI’s nursery experiments and tree ring analyses are essential to understanding the past and future of the redwood forest, but it is the trees themselves that tell us about its present. By establishing 16 large plots in old-growth forests throughout …
Revving Up Research
onEach year, we at the League are fortunate to be able to help shape and develop new knowledge about the redwood forest. Through our research grants program, we sponsor several teams of scientists who are working to answer a wide …
Is Save the Redwoods League Going into the Railroad Business?
onConservation work comes in all shapes and sizes. Protecting, restoring, and sharing the redwood forest with the public is a broad mission, and we look to achieve it through a diversity of efforts. Sometimes the League’s projects are as obvious as …
Building a City of Knowledge
onSometimes when I tell people about new research the League has sponsored, like this recent study describing the links between forest condition and salamander populations in recovering redwood forests, I get a look that I know means, “That’s pretty neat, but …
The Toughest Plants in the World
onIt’s not often that I hear about a creature more resilient than redwoods. After all, they grow faster, live longer, and reproduce more prolifically than just about any other tree. Be that as it may, some very small, unassuming creatures …
Pelican Recovery Brings Hope
onI grew up in Northern California and witnessed the inspiring recovery of an endangered species over the past few decades. As a frequent beach goer throughout my life, I remember it was unusual to see brown pelicans diving along the …
Clone the best, forget the rest?
onPeople are cloning the world’s oldest redwoods. Archangel Ancient Tree Archive is planting their clones en masse around the world in an effort to create robust forests of the future. They say these ancient clones will reverse deforestation across the …