Summer in the Redwoods

Another old car decaying in the woods

Summer is in full swing in the redwoods. It's been mostly foggy and cloudy most mornings along the coast since July started. Clouds may or may not burn off by mid day. When I drive south for work, the marine layer dissipates right when I reach Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I don't know what that means for the trees exactly. Are they getting enough summer time moisture?

I noticed last night the mosquitoes were not as bad. Maybe we've passed the peak season for them. They seemed to be swarming just a week ago. The Eel River is looking pretty low right now too.


*****UPDATE*****
I just happened to read an article this morning called "Big Trees" in the July 17, 2014 edition of the North Coast Journal. Part of the article interviews Steve Sillett, professor and Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Ecology at Humboldt State University. The article states:

Sillett  made a potentially unpopular statement when the talk turned to bolstering the old forests to withstand climate change. There's talk, he said, of what happens if there's less fog in the future. But actually, he said, there's been a decline in cloud cover for years, and redwoods are thriving.

"With a decline in cloud cover there's a spike in wood production," he said. "Redwoods in Humboldt show wood production that is 40 percent higher now than it's been in the last several hundred years. The most pronounced is in Redwood National Park. ...Why? More light availability. So is that climate change?"

Climate change, in this case anyway, is not a simple "bad" thing, he said. "There's good and bad."