Redwood National Park is home to the world’s most magnificent trees, some standing well over 300 feet tall. Their immensity is humbling – and evokes a sense of astonishment with the age of the world.
The discouraging fact about this park is that it was established in 1968, only after 90% of the redwood trees in the area had been logged. It was established in attempt to save what little remained of some of the world’s oldest living creatures. In 1850, old-growth redwood forests covered over 2,000,000 acres of the California coast. The Northern region was quickly inhabited by logging companies and lumbermen. Their clear-cut logging practices were completely unobstructed, and the more than 2,000,000 acres was quickly reduced to a fraction of that number. By the 1920’s, the importance of still-standing trees outweighed the value of lumber, and area State Parks were soon established to help preserve these natural wonders. By 1968 Redwood National Park was established and in 1994, RNP had partnered with the three surrounding state parks (Jedediah Smith, Del Norte and Prairie Creek) for cooperative forest management purposes and to go forth with old-growth forest preservation as a single unit.
Our travels in the park took us through Jedediah Smith State Park as well as the Lady Bird Grove and Tall Trees Grove. All areas of the parks were truly incredible, and as I said before, very humbling to be standing amongst. Coast Redwoods can reach heights of nearly 380 feet, be about 2,000 years old and have a base diameter of over 20 feet…you can’t help but feel like a minute speck on the world in comparison to these colossal trees.
The future of this park is even more promising than the present. Parts of the area contain barren land that was logged decades ago. Those areas will be home to future giant coastal redwoods and sequoias, while the present groves will continue to grow. It’s comforting knowing that our future generations will get to experience this park with just as much fascination as we had.