Mosses are not particularly competitive; they do not crowd out other species. They find a foothold where there are the proper resources: moisture, a place to tuck their rhizoid roots. The range from which they can acquire nourishment is limited. Humans are on the opposite end of that spectrum, able to move resources long distances, at increasingly devastating costs to one another and to ecosystems.
Tag: redwoods
Winter Issue 2023
6 Million Acres to Go
California, the most biodiverse state, hopes to stave off the Sixth Extinction by protecting 30 percent of its lands and waters by 2030. How’s that going?
Parks
In the Wake of Wildfire, Big Basin Redwoods State Park Partially Reopens to the Public
Big Basin State Park is not the lush, shady ancient forest it once was. In August 2020, 97 percent of the old-growth forest nestled in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains burned in the devastating CZU Lightning Complex fire. … Read more
Summer Issue 2021
Redwood Memory
Old redwood trees have seen fire many times in their lives. It’s because of their fire scars—not in spite of them—that the redwood forest thrives.
Summer Issue 2021
Finding Signs of Recovery in Santa Cruz’s Redwood Forest
Before the CZU Complex fires of 2020, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park had not seen fire for a hundred years. Signs of recovery in the park are as varied as the redwood forest ecology itself.
Essays
The Generosity of Trees
I find myself awakening to the wonder of time — the deep, slow, earth-time of trees, and dirt, and rocks — and to the aching grief of human greed and misunderstanding.
Stewardship
Save the Redwoods Reaches Deal for 564-Acre Cascade Creek Forest Near Año Nuevo
Save the Redwoods League has agreed on a deal to acquire 564 acres of redwood forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains, creating a new connection from Big Basin to Año Nuevo State Parks and protecting the headwaters of Cascade Creek. … Read more
Winter Issue 2020
Howell Mountain Forest Opens in Napa, a First in 110 Years
Pacific Union College Demonstration and Experimental Forest in Napa. Trail: 4.5 mi, 370 ft elevation gain, loop
Fall Issue 2019
The Impossibility of Describing Nature …
In his 1979 book The Tree, British novelist John Fowles characterizes nature as “an experience whose deepest value lies in the fact that it cannot be directly described by any art … including that of words.” Undeterred by the impossibility … Read more
Summer Issue 2018
The Discovery of the Oldest Redwood South of Mendocino Marks a New Era
The mammoth McApin Tree is not just the venerable elder in its grove. It’s thought the giant redwood holds within its fire-charred rings the surrounding forest’s formative secrets.
