Posts Tagged ‘old growth’
Why Cut Redwoods?
More than a decade ago, Sempervirens Fund was confronted with a choice: do we actively manage the forests we protect to improve their health, or do we continue to protect the redwoods as we have for more than a century and allow nature to heal on its own timeline? Active management to restore the forest would include the need to cut down trees for the benefit of the forest. With the increasing urgency to help redwoods recover from past human impacts and prepare for accelerating climate changes ahead, we collaborated with Bay Nature Magazine and author Audrea Lim to look at the shift in our redwood revolution and explore the outcomes.
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Growing Old-Growth
An old-growth redwood is huge. One of the largest living things to ever grace the planet. And their size isn’t just impressive, it’s important. In the Santa Cruz Mountains very few old-growth redwoods remain, but you’re helping to grow the old-growth of tomorrow, today. Together, we’re restoring redwood forests faster for the trees, for wildlife, for the fight against climate change, and for future generations.
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Recording Redwoods: Sounds of the Forest
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Field recordist, Thomas Rex Beverly, found an answer to the age-old philosophical question, and so much more, on his quest to capture the sounds of the redwood forest. Among the protected old-growth redwoods of the “Valley of the Giants” at Camp Jones Gulch, Thomas records the subtle sounds of nearly silent spaces. Follow his Curiosity Stories quest to hear the redwood forest as you never have before.
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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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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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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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NEWS: Sempervirens Fund Acquires Properties for New Entrance to Big Basin Redwoods State Park; AB 2103 Advances in State Legislature
Sempervirens Fund announces key Saddle Mountain acquisitions for conservation and future Big Basin visitor services; and announces that AB 2103 (Pellerin), which prioritizes land acquisition at Big Basin following CZU fire, moves forward in the state legislature.
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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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Sempervirens Fund permanently protects 120 acres in Santa Cruz mountains’ Upper Zayante watershed
Late in 2023, Sempervirens Fund permanently protected 120 acres in Santa Cruz mountains’ Upper Zayante watershed. The Isabel Upani conservation easement, donated to Sempervirens Fund by private landowners, guarantees protection of the more than 67 acres of redwood forest.
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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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