Fern Watch, an effort to monitor drought and climate change in redwood forests, has sprouted an exciting new extension. An outdoor science class for homeschoolers, led by Elaine Esteban, began their own fern-monitoring project in British Columbia.
The sword fern, one of the most common redwood forest plants, has become prominent in my life over the past few years. This is mostly due to the League’s Fern Watch project, which monitors the health of sword ferns throughout the redwood range. Even though these ferns are common, little is known about their ecology and how they respond to climatic change.
Summer solstice reminds me of nature’s seasonal cycles and excites me for what’s to come. The study of these seasonal cycles, phenology, is used by the League in our science and education programs.
For many of us, time on the trail is a treasured respite from the constant connectedness of our day-to-day lives; a chance to get away from technology and be unreachable for a while. But there are many who see that …
As an environmental educator, there is nothing better than seeing young people making observations and asking questions out in nature. Questions like, “Why do you think that bay tree and redwood are growing so close together?”, “Why are the tanoaks …
I stumbled across a sea of sword fern that is showing signs of drought during my annual field campaign last month. Along the Damnation Creek Trail at Del Norte Redwoods State Park, the typically green carpet of sword fern was undeniably …
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 …
Last Friday, three school buses motored up into the Oakland Hills with 140 ninth graders from Oakland Tech High School. These students joined us to visit Chabot Space & Science Center and explore the coast redwood forest just beyond. Despite …
The best part of the year for any field ecologist like myself, is the stretch of long summer days spent outside collecting data. Over the past two months, I journeyed into the coast redwood forest to take measurements in our …
All gifts matched up to $100,000 for ‘O Rew Redwoods Gateway!
