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An illustration of hands cupping acorns, cones, and wildflowers with flames dancing up to silhouetted redwood trees against a dark orange sun on a smokey background, by Jane Kim, Ink Dwell

The Opposite of Redwoods

Redwoods drew artist Jane Kim to California more than 20 years ago and today she returns the favor, drawing redwoods to help people better connect with and draw inspiration from the natural world around us. The more she learns about redwoods as Sempervirens Fund’s first Forest Fellow, the more she contemplates people as redwoods’ exact opposite. Get a sneak peek at her new art and how she hopes celebrating redwood adaptations can inspire us to adapt to our ecosystem rather than change it.

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A branch of oak leaves changing from greenish-yellow to rusty orange hangs above a view a green canyon to the forested slopes of the Santa Cruz mountains beyond from Castle Rock State Park

Fall and Winter Hikes

As thermometers and leaves drop, crisp air and leaves beckon us outside to appreciate a different side of the Santa Cruz mountains’ wild beauty – colorful leaves, sparkling creeks, migrating birds, curious mushrooms, and of course banana slugs and elephant seals. If you’re looking for trails and places to enjoy the change of seasons this fall and winter, you’re in luck! Our staff are revealing their favorite places to go in the Santa Cruz mountains now.

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The shady, flat dirt Redwood Grove Loop trail edged by a low fence and sun dappled redwoods leads into the old-growth grove of trees at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, by Verónica Silva-Miranda

Healing Under Redwood Groves

“I’ve known for years that I struggled with high blood pressure, I would feel a pressure in my arm or my hands would start to throb or go numb. I learned to step away from what I was doing at that time and sit in a quiet space, close my eyes and think about what brings me peace; the redwood forest.” Hit the trail with Verónica Silva-Miranda, Latino Outdoors volunteer, to learn how the forest helps her navigate health challenges in her photo essay.

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Epiphytes, including different species of lichen and moss, grow in different shapes and shades of green on an old growth redwood called Methuselah in the Santa Cruz mountains, by Orenda Randuch

Lichens

You may know redwoods hold mini ecosystems on their branches, but did you know a lichen on just one of those branches is a micro ecosystem of its own? Climb into the hidden biodiversity of redwood forests with lichenologist and curator of The Lichenarium at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Dr. Rikke Reese Næsborg.

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Looking up a sun-dappled, lush forested slope covered in redwoods, ferns, and mosses at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, by Orenda Randuch

2023 News: What You’ve Made Possible

Without supporters like you, fewer forests would be protected and habitats restored, and they would be less resilient to fires, floods, and the increasing threats from our changing climate. You have made so many amazing things happen this year for redwood forests, and the people, plants, and creatures that need them. Thank you for protecting forests that help protect us all! Here are a few of the moments you made possible in 2023.

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Marbled murrelet fledgling beak with a small white “egg tooth” spike at the tip, by Alex Rinkert

Close Encounter: Monitoring Marbled Murrelets

An endangered elusive, young seabird was found on the ground in one of its harshest habitats–the Santa Cruz mountains–where they and the redwoods they rely on are both at the end of their range. Read the story of this rare encounter and how monitoring marbled murrelets in the redwoods can support these dwindling species where they bear the brunt of climate change impacts and how you can help.

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Redwoods and Climate Part 4

In the final part of the redwoods and climate series by Julia Busiek, we explore research about how climate change is already affecting redwoods across their range, and how it informs our new plan to save redwoods, and the plants and wildlife that rely on them, before its too late.

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Looking up from the burled base of an old-growth redwood trunk the plate-like bark stretches up to a reiterated trunk stemming off and growing up toward the green canopy above where the sun shines through younger trees rising up to meet the blue sky, by Canopy Dynamics

Ancient Trees in a Modern World

Can thinking of redwoods differently help us give care to young things that might grow old in the face of climate change before it’s too late? Thanks to historian and author Jared Farmer, we are expanding our vocabulary for describing and understanding what he calls “Elderflora,” which is also the title of his new book that trace’s ancient plant life’s intersection with our modern human world.

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