Into the Redwoods

 

California's Coast redwoods, Sequoia sempevirens, are among the largest and oldest living organisms on earth. Fossil records show that redwoods grew during the Jurassic period, at least 200 million years ago. They are exceptionally long lived. The oldest known coast redwood dates to 480 BCE.

Up North in Eureka in Humboldt County on the coast is Sequoia Park, a grove of redwoods with a Sky Walk. This Sky Walk is 100 feet above the ground and offers a different view up into the canopy of these majestic giants. I had long wanted to go up there - it's an four hours drive to Eureka - and when Kaefer was here in February we finally made the trip up there.

But first - breakfast. We started very early in the day and arrived in Ukiah just in time for a breakfast treat and some really good coffee at Black Oak Coffee Roasters. This beautiful cup of delicious coffee hopefully qualifies as a drink for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday.

Very soon we were back on the highway, winding our way up into the mountains. The heavy marine layer got lighter and finally broke off completely. A beautiful sight!

This is an area deep in the forested mountaineous area with absolutely no reception - here, you can still find these things in the reast areas on the side of the highway. Remember those?

It was late morning that we arrived at Sequoia Park. We got our tickets and walked over to the Sky Walk. Oh, what a sight!

Redwoods can reach an age as much as 2,500 years. The trunk diameter is as wide as 29 feet (8.8 m) and its height as high as 380 feet (115.8 m). For such tall trees, redwoods have surprisingly shallow roots, seldom more than six feet (1.8 m) deep. But what they lack in depth, they make up for in width. The root system of a mature old growth redwood can be more than 300 feet (91 m) in diameter. This root system and its shallowness can be a real challenge in an urban setting, where people unfortunately have planted these trees without taking its height and root system into consideration. Eventually, they will buckle up sidewalks and streets and can even damage the foundation of buildings. Simply taking out a redwood is not that easy - they are protected and require a special permit for removal which is quite expensive. Best solution: don't plant one in your backyard or in front of your home - it doesn't belong there in the first place. (When we were looking for a home to buy, a redwood in the garden or next to the house was a no-no for us; now, we have a small redwood grove across the street.)

This was the comfortable, sturdy part that is also wheelchair accessible. It slowly makes its way up into the trees.

Then there were the not so sturdy parts - the real fun part, high up among the trees.

We were able to get a close look at the bark of the trees. There were signs requesting not to touch the trees, just use our eyes. I just hope everybody respects that.

Before logging began, these massive and majestic trees covered more than 1,500,000 acres from Big Sur to just past the Oregon border along a coastal corridor less than 40 miles wide. Today only a tiny fraction of that ancient forest remains, much of it in Humboldt County. 

Redwood has been woven into the fabric of life on the North Coast for hundreds of years. First Nations peoples revere the trees and traditionally relied on them for shelter and canoes. Euro-Americans harvested redwoods in almost unimaginable quantities to build towns and cities across the West (our home is built of redwood), all but eliminating original old growth forests.

Looking down and looking up...

Redwoods are fire resilient. Large trees are able to survive moderate intensity fires, but if their crowns are scorched, leaves can be damaged or killed. Fire damaged redwoods have the astonishing ability to regrow their crowns and sprout new trunks from their base. You can imagine how important this is in our landscape that experiences wildfires every year.

Even though it was a sunny and moderately warm day (after all this was in February), it was quite chilly in the redwood grove. We felt the dampness hanging around and lowering the temperature quite a bit. However, the redwood canopy teems with life. Plant species normally found on the ground take root in soil formed from decomposed redwood needles, twigs and bark flakes. Lichen and mosses grow on the thick bark. Insects and birds flit among the branches and animals scurry about, some communting to the forest floor, others permanent residents.

Simply put, it is fascinating.