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Fuel for Fire: Framing Forest Resilience Three Years After the CZU Fire

August 18, 2023

Three years after the CZU Fire, the resilient land is recovering and fire-adapted species are restoring green to the landscape. But these lush signs of nature’s rebirth after fire can quickly become fuel for the next fire. How can we restore these ecosystems from a damaging past for an uncertain future? Take a look through a trained lens to witness the intersection of natural resilience and cutting-edge stewardship techniques.

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A black and white photo from Sempervirens Fund’s historic archive shows three men—in early 20th century suits consisting of dark colored trousers, white collared long-sleeved shirts with ties, dress shoes, and a few accessories like suspenders, vests, and hats reminiscent of fashion just after the turn of the century—sit casually atop a rock outcropping rising above the surrounding brush and forest like a spire as the view of forested mountainsides fade off into the distance behind them.

Castle Rock State Park Legacy

July 25, 2023

Sempervirens Fund supporters like you have helped to create, expand, and keep Castle Rock State Park open over the decades. And we’re not done yet. Delve back in time to see how you’ve helped reimagine Castle Rock State Park as we look to what’s next.

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Seven members of Disabled Hikers donning face masks and hiking gear, which for some members include mobility devices like wheel chairs and canes, and a fluffy caramel colored dog on leash are lined up for a group photo in the sun with a lush redwood canopy behind them, by Orenda Randuch

Conservation, Eco-Ableism, and Reclaiming Limitations

June 7, 2023

For far too long, our world has been shaped by ideologies that both imagine, mark, and limit certain bodies for inclusion and exclusion from public space and the greater natural world. Eco-ableism is a core component of the creation of public lands. The outdoors won’t truly be a safe and inclusive space if we do not also address ableism and long-held assumptions about disability.

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Lupine blossoms, deep royal blue on the bottom and white on top, amidst spring green grasses, fill the frame, by Orenda Randuch

Beyond the Bloom: Superblooms in the Santa Cruz Mountains

May 31, 2023

Our resident biologist and natural resource manager Beatrix Jiménez-Helsley takes us on a photo essay into the rarer side of the superbloom and why its waning in some habitats and just getting started in others—a phenomenon that just may be the saving grace for redwoods and the species that rely on them as our climate continues to change.

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Redwoods and Climate Part 4

May 10, 2023

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

April 4, 2023

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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A rough barked trunk of a redwood tree looms large rising up from the lower left to the sky textured by the leafy canopy of the surrounding forest cast golden orange and dark green tones

Earth Month of Action

March 31, 2023

As we grapple with a changing climate, the need to take action for the 52nd Earth Day on April 22 feels more urgent than ever. We have put together a calendar of 30 actions—from planting a native garden to experiencing forest bathing—you can take throughout the month to protect the natural world close to you. Learn about this week’s actions to help make a bigger impact together!

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Thin white threads of mycelium cross, tangle, and create a web woven through dark soil, photo by Kirill Ignatyev

A Tangled Web: Redwoods, Colonialism, Eugenics, and Climate Change

February 15, 2023

Many people may not realize when walking among redwood forests that their conservation is tied up in a natural and social history that is as complex as the trees are visually spectacular. It is precisely the traits that give the redwoods their splendor that led to one particularly nefarious argument for their conservation—the then-emerging field of eugenics. Read on to learn more about how eugenics is entangled with the history of redwoods conservation.

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DEIJ Reading List

February 15, 2023

As we work to achieve our mission to protect redwoods and create public access to lands, it is critical to center Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) across all of our work. As we move forward on this journey, our staff have shared some of the books that have served as guideposts for their own DEIJ journeys as we embark on this work together.

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