THE STATISTICS OF THE COAST REDWOOD

FACT

WHERE

COMPARE

Tallest Tree: 379 feet

Redwood National and State Parks

As tall as a 37-story building

Widest Tree: 26 feet

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

The length of 2 Volkswagen Beetles

Remaining old-growth forest: 5% of original, 120,000 acres

From southern Oregon to Central California

The size of San Jose

Total protected redwood forest: 23% of From southern Oregon to their range, 382,000 acres Central California

The size of Houston

Privately owned redwood forest: 77% of their range,1,256,000 acres

From southern Oregon to Central California

The size of 4 Rio De Janeiros

Where they can be found: The northern boundary of the Coast Redwoods is defined by two copses on the Chetco River on the western border of the Klamath Mountains, 15 mi. north of the California-Oregon border The largest and tallest populations are in Redwood National and State Parks and Humboldt Redwoods State Park with the majority located in the more massive Humboldt County The southern boundary of its territory is the Los Padres National Forest's Silver Peak Wilderness in the Santa Lucia Mountains of the Big Sur area of Monterey County, California

The southern most copses is in the Southern Redwood Botanical Area, just north ahead of the national forest's Salmon Creek trail

Major uses back in the day: In the 1906 Earthquake, a lot of wood was needed to rebuild houses, etc., but then the logging companies looked at the Coast Redwoods as alternatives Due to the rich wood, Coast Redwoods were immensely used for building purposes The logging industry started to log as many Redwoods as they could for more profit, making the trees scarce in parks The trunk of a redwood is larger, tougher and less desirable near the ground than a little higher up How the loggers would strip all the wood: Back in the day scaffolds were used to raise the fallers up to where they avoided the problems with the base of the trunk Fallers, (the men who cut the trees) wedged springboards into the sides of the trunk to provide a place to stand and cut After a tree was cut a bucker cut off the limbs and cut the trunk into good lengths so it could be easier to use Then a peeler went to work removing the bark from off the log Work was planned with the seasons so that the sap would be running in the trees when they were cut making the peeler's job easier Taking the bark off in the woods made it easier to pull the tree along the skid road to the mill A sniper rounded the lead end of the log so it wouldn't dig in as it was pulled The Science of a Coast Redwood:

All of the internal life exists in 3 layers of the tree, phloem, xylem, cambium They are found just beneath the bark, in a moist sleeve (all 3 things form the sleeve) However long it grows, the real cells/inners equal about to only a couple pounds which are spread between the roots and the leaves Without noise, this tree does extraordinary things On a very hot, this tree would absorb up to seven hundred gallons of water in the roots to the leaves The xylem, phloem, and the cambium also generate cellulose, and lignin But since the layer is just the size of a thin layer of a sleeve, makes the tree very vulnerable to organisms

How they reproduce: Coast redwood reproduces both sexually and asexually by sprouting of buds, layering, or lignotubers Seed creation begins at 1015 years of age, and massive seed crops occur habitually, but sprouting potential of the seed is low, typically under 15%

The sprouting potential may discourage seed predators, which do not want to waste time sorting empty seeds from edible seeds Sempervirens can also reproduce asexually by sprouting from the root apex, stump, or even fallen limbs; if a tree falls over, it will regenerate a new offspring along the trunk, so many trees naturally grow in a straight line Sprouts originate from passive buds at or under the surface of the bark The passive sprouts are activated when the main adult stem gets damaged or starts to die off Many sprouts immediately flare up and develop around the trunk of the tree Within a short period after sprouting, each sprout will grow its own root system, with the stronger sprouts forming a ring of trees around the parent root apex or stump This ring of trees is called a "fairy ring" Sprouts can achieve heights of 8 ft in a single growing season

What animals that can be found near: Raccoons and skunks Black bears Roosevelt elk Deer Squirrels Porcupines Weasels Mink Rare ringtail cats Marbled murrelet Northern spotted owl Mollusks Yellow banana slug