Name: Saving California's redwoods, one tree at a time
Uploaded: 2019-07-29T12:00:01.000Z
Duration: 5 min 5 s
Description: In an untouched forest in Northern California, Save the Redwoods League is using technology to protect some of the tallest and oldest living things on Earth

And all of our research, we can't find anything that kills a redwood. There are no parasites, there are no diseases, they're incredibly resistant to decay, they're resistant to fire. So in one of the most resilient ecosystems that the world has ever known, it took us maybe two human generations to take it within 5% of extinction. [MUSIC] My name is Sam hodder and I am president and CEO of [UNKNOWN]. My summer job all through college was building hiking trails in the mountains of New Hampshire. So while all of my classmates were heading to New York and DC for internships, I was Heading up into the woods in New Hampshire to work on hiking trails and that experience four summers in a row really inspired me and connected me to the fact that there's such an impactful connection between people and our communities and the outdoors. redwood forest is one of the oldest ecosystems Comes on the planet. In fact, our founder 100 years ago, called the redwood forest, the original face of nature. fossil records of redwoods go back 200 million years. They used to circumnavigate the whole northern hemisphere. But over the eons of time, they've been confined to just a narrow strip of about 50 miles wide. About 400 miles long along the coast of California. That's it. When gold was discovered in California in 1848, a forest that had been thriving here for millions of years, almost disappeared in a few human lifetimes. We cut down 95% of that ancient rhetoric. Forest. [MUSIC] The redwood parks that we've helped to save, go from Big Sur all the way to the Oregon border. So when we had an opportunity to acquire a 730 acre old growth forest, we jumped at the chance. The forest on the Harold Richardson Redwood reserve is pretty extraordinary. The whole forest itself the 730 acres is primarily original ancient, old growth forest. There's some pretty special trees on the property itself. There's one tree that's over 1600 years old It's nearly 19 feet in diameter. And the whole forest itself is dominated by trees that are, you know, over 500 years old. It's a pretty extraordinary landscape. It's nearly 19 feet in diameter. And the whole forest itself is dominated by trees that are, you know, over 500 years old. It's a pretty extraordinary landscape. Managing ourselves as a public open space. We've been doing a lot of research to better understand what's living out on the Howard Richardson reserve and to make sure as we design and build trails and welcome to the public to see the special place that we're doing so in a way that is first and foremost protecting the ecological diversity of. property. We are looking at one with potentially 1000 rings. And we're bringing technology to bear to help us do that. We've set up microphones around the forest to help us here the marble near lead. As they're commuting as it were from the old growth forest out to the ocean and back again To make sure that as we design places for public use that we're staying away from areas that marbled near let users habitat. We are climbing into the canopy to better understand what's living in the complex crowds of these ancient trees. [MUSIC] We've, in some cases, use drones to get up there and see what's going on up in the forest. Again so that we're able to keep Public access impact away from the more sensitive areas. We've done amphibian surveys to understand the full diversity of animals that are living on this property and because old growth, redwood forest is so rare, we found that this is an incredibly well populated landscape when it comes to sensitive flora and fauna. So how is climate change affected the redwoods?>> Well, so the rebels League has spent the last 12 years doing a redwoods and climate change initiative study. Our science team discovered that because of the incredible growth rate of the redwood forest and because of the woods, incredible resistance to the cave, Redwood hardwood Almost never rots a tree falls over the lie there for decades. Because of those two factors. The ancient coast redwood forests sequesters more carbon per acre than any other forest in the world by a long shot. That the end of the day the vast majority of the people who go to the redwood forest are there because They're inspire the redwood forest inspires people to be better stewards of the planet and they're not inspired yet it will be by the time they take a walk. [LAUGH] [MUSIC].