giant sequoia

Happy Anniversary to Our State Tree

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Today marks the anniversary of the adoption of the coast redwood as California’s state tree. In my opinion, no tree could better represent the golden state. For a little history on state symbols you have to go back to the …

A giant step for understanding redwood tree rings

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Today, Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative scientist, Allyson Carroll, shares her perspective on how she decodes the history of redwoods from tree rings. Imagine finishing a massive puzzle, one involving nearly half a million pieces and taking years to complete… it feels …

League supporters Victoria Reeder and Roy Williams recently celebrated their wedding amongst the redwoods at Big Basin State Park.

Love in a Redwood Forest

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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 …

Stories from Calaveras Big Trees

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I was at Calaveras Big Trees State Park over the weekend for an event celebrating the grand opening of the new visitor center and commemorating the 150th anniversary of California State Parks. I was there to speak at the event, …

U.S. Cavalry with the Fallen Monarch tree, Mariposa Grove, 1899. In the days before park rangers, the army administered the national park.

War, the White House and Redwoods Conservation

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The roots of redwoods conservation extend back more than 150 years, all the way to President Abraham Lincoln. In 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln signed The Yosemite Valley Grant Act that transferred federal lands in the …

View California’s Drought from Space

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The last 12 months in California have been the driest on record since weather records began in 1885.  NASA’s Earth Observatory recently showed us just how seriously the drought is impacting Californian vegetation statewide from the redwood forest to grassy …

Save the Redwoods League introduces a new free travel guide for parents and kids

Editor’s Notes: The Family Guide to the Giant Sequoias

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For almost a year now we’ve worked on developing and producing the first-ever family guide to the redwoods. Initially we were going to produce a single edition, but after the writing and editing were underway, we soon realized that we …

A Redwood of a Blog: How the Giant Trees Grow

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RCCI’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 …

RCCI researchers Chris Wong and Wendy Baxter monitor the seedlings. Photo by Anthony Ambrose.

The Seedling-Drought Experiment and Its Surprising Result

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Last week, I spent some time wondering broadly about our recent RCCI results, and just whether we could say for certain that 1) climate change is spurring an increase in redwood growth, and 2) if that change is “good” for …

Climate Change Discoveries Make Media Splash

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You may have heard about the surprising discoveries of the League’s Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative (RCCI) program, which drew unprecedented media coverage yesterday. Did you see the coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, the …

Fire-suppressed sequoia grove – note the large fire scar on the giant sequoia on the right.

Setting Fire to the Forest

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We’ll do all the law’s allowin’/Tomorrow I’ll be right back plowin’/ settin’ the woods on fire —Hank Williams In a recent post, I discussed the role of natural disturbance in creating the forests we see today. This week, I’d like …

Giant sequoia cones. Photo by Mark Bult

Finding Patterns in the Redwoods: It’s Easy as 1, 1, 2, 3…

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Nature’s patterns are everywhere.  Sometimes they’re obvious – we mammals, for instance, almost always have five fingers and five toes on each hand and foot.  Sometimes these patterns aren’t nearly so apparent, but they’re still there nonetheless. The Fibonacci sequence …

Mariposa Grove, Yosemite.

“Success”

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That was Saturday’s word of the day, according to our guide, National Park Ranger Dick Ewart. Dick led a group of 15 of us on a hike through the lower Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias in Yosemite National Park.  He …

Giant sequoias in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite.

Grove Protected by Lincoln Offers Historical Perspective

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Next week will be my second visit in eight months to the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park.  That makes me a lucky guy.  My wife Joanne and I visited the Grove in May, while our traveling …

(c) 2012 National Geographic

Large Old Trees at Risk

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Open up the 2012/12 issue of National Geographic to see photos of an incredible giant sequoia and the phenomenal diversity of plants and animals that live with this redwood in the forest. On the backside of the fold-out photograph of …

Giant sequoia in Wasserburg, Germany

Redwood Stories

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We regularly receive stories about the redwoods from League members and supporters.  Recently we received one from a member who joined the League in 1947.  The story made me wonder if humans are sowing the seeds of a much broader …

A researcher climbs a giant sequoia at Mountain Home Grove next to a burned giant sequoia that remains alive with two vigorous sprouts near its broken top. Photo credit: Bob Van Pelt

Burned out but not fading away

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It’s fairly difficult for me to imagine living for 3,000 years. Yet giant sequoias live for millennia, standing tall in a single location as the years, decades, and centuries tick by. They are pounded by rain, snow, sweltering heat, lightening, …

Giant sequoia snag.

Giant Sequoia Snags

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A giant sequoia can grow for more than 2,000 years and in that time easily earn its reputation for being one of the most massive trees on Earth. While the giant sequoia’s sheer size is certainly amazing enough, these giants …

Giant Sequoia

25 Years of Controversy amid the Monarchs

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I just got back from a trip to see the cinnamon-colored giants of Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest in the southern Sierra. It was a real treat to explore a giant sequoia grove for the first time, especially when accompanied …