Courtesy of the Bureau of ForestryRedwood Forest in California
Courtesy of the Bureau of ForestryRedwood Forest in California
Courtesy of the Bureau of Forestry
Redwood Forest in California
Much has been said and written concerning the sizes and ages of these two largest trees of America—indeed, with the exception of the Australian eucalipti, we might say of the world. It is said that some of the latter surpass the redwood in height, though a redwood tree was discovered within recent years on the Eel River, California, whose stupendous height reached nearly three hundred and fifty feet,thus surpassing in that dimension, at least, any previously recorded measurements of the big tree. The ages of the sequoias have been more difficult to determine, but it appears that in the beginning they were exaggerated. The mature redwood, doubtless, is apt to be several centuries younger than the big tree; but so excellent an authority as Mr. John Muir has said of the latter that “these giants under the most favorable conditions probably live five thousand years or more, though few of even the larger trees are more than half as old.”
The redwoods are great lovers of moisture. In the valleys and canyons near the ocean they bathe in the ascending fog and stand dripping with condensed vapor. We shall come uponthem in dense groves, where the day is a continuous twilight and the trees surpass in their combined massiveness even the red firs of Oregon. At other times we shall find them mingling in more open forest with lowland firs and hemlocks, or, in their northern range, with the splendid Port Orford cedar. The light enters these more open forests and calls forth much beautiful young growth and shrubbery: the rhododendrons of California, with large and showy purplish blossoms and evergreen leaves; western dogwoods, that might at first glance be mistaken for the eastern species; barberries and familiar hazels; and ferns and violets.
Devastation in the Forest
Devastation in the Forest
The reader must not infer, of course, that such scenes are necessarily of common occurrence in the forest; butthey are more agreeable to contemplate than those that have been despoiled of their attractions. It should be remembered that if we traveled through these forests we should often find fresh signs of human interference: sections of trees lying prone on the ground, abandoned as useless by the lumberman; stripped crowns that stood in the way of falling trunks, and debris of bark and slashings. We should also notice the track of the forest fire among the stumps and charred treetrunks, and here and there the dying tops of standing trees that were unable to withstand the flames. Finally, in dry and semi-arid regions, particularly in sections of the Southwest, we should notice still another danger that threatens our forests:the excessive or ill-timed grazing of sheep, which trample to death the young tree seedlings as they pass over the ground in great herds and devour the last vestiges of vegetation, thus leaving a bare and dry forest floor, upon which the old trees subsist with difficulty through the prolonged droughts of summer.
Courtesy of the Bureau of ForestryWhere the Sheep Have Been
Courtesy of the Bureau of ForestryWhere the Sheep Have Been
Courtesy of the Bureau of Forestry
Where the Sheep Have Been