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Sunlight filters through the forest canopy to illuminate several redwood trees at Lompico Headwaters, by Orenda Randuch

A Stewardship Story: Return to Nature

Surviving since nearly the age of the dinosaurs, redwoods are resilient—but only 5% of them have survived the last century and a half. Human impacts have left redwood forests struggling to recover. Together, we are carefully caring for the redwood forests you protect, resetting their natural systems, and helping them return to nature. Take a peek behind the trees at how you have helped the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz mountains–some of the most biodiverse and threatened on Earth–this year.

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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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Amah Mutun Land Trust Native Stewardship Corps members Marcella and Esak wear bright yellow hard hats as they sift soil during cultural landscape research amidst bright green post-fire regrowth several feet high from the ground contrasting starkly with the back drop of blackened tree trunks from the CZU Fire rising above at San Vicente Redwoods, photo by Ian Bornarth

Indigenous Stewardship at San Vicente Redwoods: Past, Present, and Future

After the CZU Fire an opportunity arose to study post-fire effects, survey a baseline of reemerging plants, and help Amah Mutsun Tribal Band members look for eco-archaeological clues to how the Awaswas-speaking peoples lived on and cared for this land. Dive into their research at San Vicente Redwoods as they look into Indigenous Stewardship of the past and help plan for the future.

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

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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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

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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Stems of native seedlings bare from winter rise out of black cone shaped pots at the UCSC Greenhouse by Orenda Randuch

The Seedling Saga

Plant a native plant and habitat is restored! Right? The saga of these seedlings, five years in the making, offers a look at the deceptively difficult process and planning that come before planting and the seemingly endless problems that stand between their roots and restoring native habitat.

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Semperviresn Fund staff on a trail at Camp Jones Gulch by Canopy Dynamics

NEWS: Camp Jones Gulch Protected

Sempervirens Fund and The Y of San Francisco finalize permanent protection of Camp Jones Gulch, including old-growth redwoods in the Santa Cruz mountains.

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Story of a Seedling

Seeds–the size of a tomato’s–can grow into the tallest trees on earth, restore the footprint of a decimated forest, and help support life–of plants, animals, and people–for thousands of years. But it won’t be easy. Many challenges lie in waiting first. Read on for the story of a redwood seedling plucked from its home to grow safely, only to return and valiantly help restore the forests and habitats of San Vicente Redwoods.

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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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