Save The Redwood League

As I am unable to permanently add this wonderful organization to my blog, I have decided to just create a post for them.

Save the Redwoods League protects and restores redwood forests and connects people with their peace and beauty so these wonders of the natural world flourish.

Since 1918, Save the Redwoods League has saved ancient redwood forests and redwood ecosystems to ensure that current and future generations can feel the awe and peace that these precious natural wonders inspire. They also save redwoods because they are rare — their natural range is only in central and northern California and southern Oregon — and because they are Earth’s tallest and some of the oldest and most massive living things.

The coast redwood reaches higher than a 30-story building and can live more than 2,000 years. The coast redwood’s relative, the giant sequoia, can live more than 3,000 years and is Earth’s largest tree by volume, with trunks as wide as 30 feet (about as long as a large school bus). Also known as the Sierra redwood, the giant sequoia’s natural range is only in 75 groves on California’s Sierra Nevada.

After 150 years of logging and real-estate development, approximately 5% of the original 2 million acre coast redwood forest remains.

Even though they have survived for millennia, these giants still can be cut down for lumber or to make room for poorly planned residential and commercial real estate development.

Since Save The Redwood League's establishment more than 90 years ago, with their members' and partners' support, they have protected more than 189,000 acres and helped develop 63 redwood parks and reserves for everybody to enjoy.

They help to save the redwoods by:

Protecting redwoods by purchasing forests and the landscapes that support them at fair-market value from willing sellers. They donate or sell this land to California State Parks and other government agencies, which protect the forests as parks and reserves for everybody to enjoy. Save the Redwoods also protects redwoods by making land preservation agreements. These contracts between landowners and the League limit uses of property to protect qualities such as ancient trees, habitat for threatened species and recreation.

They restore logged forests to their majestic state by, among other efforts, removing roads, creating wildlife habitat and removing small trees that were planted too close together in post-logging reforestation efforts. This tree removal promotes faster growth of larger trees and other old-forest characteristics such as a dense canopy, clear-running, fish-filled streams, and abundant animal species that rely on old forests.

They inspire current and future generations to save redwoods by awarding education grants to organizations that help thousands of children and adults better understand and appreciate these trees.

Through their science and planning work, they learn what redwoods need to survive and then award research grants, and develop science-based plans to save redwoods throughout their natural range.

For more information on Save The Redwoods League, visit http://www.savetheredwoods.org/

Coast Redwood Germination and Growth

Three Redwood Relatives

The Coast Redwood has only two close relatives, the Giant Sequoia and Dawn Redwood. Although the Coast Redwood has been cultivated elsewhere, this tree naturally achieves its majestic heights and lush groves only in one place in the world -- a 450-mile strip along the Pacific Coast of North America. The trees prosper in this mild climate zone, where winter rains and summer fog provide an even temperature and a high level of year-round moisture.  

Redwoods are a hydrostatic marvel. They can siphon water upward to great heights, fighting gravity and friction every inch of the way. And during the dry summers in California, the coast redwoods actually create their own "rain" by condensing heavy fog into drenching showers that provide welcome moisture to the roots below.

In addition, scientists believe that redwoods take in much of their water directly from the air, through their needles and through canopy roots which the trees sprout on their branches. Lofty "soil mats" formed by trapped dust, needles, seeds and other materials act like sponges to capture the water that nurtures these canopy roots. Moisture from fog is thought to provide 30% to 40% of a redwood's water supply. 

Young redwoods use sunlight so efficiently (3-4 times more than pines) that they can grow even in deep shade. But with full sunlight and moist soil, a redwood sapling can grow more than 6 feet in a single growing season!

The coast redwoods are the tallest living species on Earth. Often they can reach heights of 300-350 feet and diameters of 16-18 feet. More than a dozen trees exceeding 360 feet in height are now growing along the California coast.

The redwood's thick bark, with deep furrows running the length of the trees, is a rich reddish brown. It is this bark that gives the redwoods their excellent fire-resistant quality. 

Coast Redwood Needles

The dark green leaves are needle-like and grow flat off the branches. Small cones, usually about an inch long, hang from the branch tips.

Redwood Seeds

Redwood cones release tiny brown seeds when mature. (They're so small that it takes about 125,000 to make a pound!) A single tree may produce six million seeds in a year. Of these seeds, less than 5% germinate, and of these, very few actually grow into seedlings. Redwoods are also capable of sprouting from the roots of parent trees, from dormant buds in the burls at the base of a tree, or from fallen trees. As well, if a tree is cut or burned, a family circle of trees ("fairy ring") may sprout up from the stump. These sprouts, because of already established root systems, grow more vigorously than seedlings and so are the more common form of reproduction. In fact, successive generations of sprouts are really "clone trees". Thus the genetic information of an individual redwood may be thousands of years old, dating back to the first parent. Will grow in USDA zones 7-10.