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Monitoring Wildlife for Healthy Forests

While the size and majesty of a coast redwood often dominates the landscape, like all ecosystems, there is so much more than meets the eye–a complex, delicate, and intricate web of life comprised of the reciprocity of thousands of life forms from the microorganisms in the soil, fungi and insects, to the plants, trees, and wildlife. What can monitoring wildlife on the land, water, and air tell us about recovery and recreation in the forest? Read on to learn more.

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Bats of the Redwoods

Love them or hate them, bats are an important part of our ecosystem. They help control insect populations and even pollinate some flowers. And like all of us at Sempervirens Fund, they find solace in and spend a lot of time among the redwoods. Read on to learn what one researcher discovered about bats of the redwoods.

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San Vicente Creek: Restoring a Stronghold

Mill Creek had been blocked since early in the last century by a 12-foot-tall, 25-foot-wide dam a quarter mile upstream from its confluence with the main aquatic thoroughfare, San Vicente Creek. In September 2021, that dam was removed, giving Mill Creek another half mile of free flow. The story of removing Mill Creek’s dam is a story about the pieces that fit together to bring life and vitality to an ecosystem.

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San Vicente Creek Flow By Ian Bornarth

Mill Creek Dam and the San Vicente Watershed

An old dam has denied endangered Coho salmon their critical spawning ground and redwood forests their nutrients for over a century in the Santa Cruz Mountains. This is the story of bringing down a dam to restore the southernmost habitat for Coho and coast redwoods.

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Executive Director Sara Barth looks up at the fire damage to a massive old-growth redwood in Big Basin Redwoods State Park in September 2020 just weeks after the CZU Fire scorched some 86,000 acres, by Ian Bornarth

CZU Anniversary

On August 16, 2020 a climate-fueled-weather event sparked the most catastrophic fire ever recorded in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Over the next month, fire raged through the region impacting lives, communities, parks, and some of the most ancient and beloved remaining coast redwood forests in the world. A year later, we look back at the CZU Fire.

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Fire Creates Forest Resilience

On February 27, 2020, Sempervirens and its partners Peninsula Open Space Trust and Save the Redwoods League teamed up with Cal Fire to perform a prescribed burn on the San Vicente Redwoods property, protected by you since 2011. Cal Fire crews managed to burn nearly 22 acres, connecting to a 7-acre area burned in fall…

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Restoring San Vicente Creek to Save Endangered Salmon

Restoring San Vicente Creek Saving Endangered Salmon Sempervirens Fund is helping save critically endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead through the restoration of San Vicente Creek in San Vicente Redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains near the small coastal town of Davenport. Read on to learn about these critical regional efforts. Donate Now Caring for…

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