Humboldt Redwoods State Park 3-30-13

This is the first salamander I have seen climbing on a redwood tree. The tree was a  51 foot, 7 in cbh monster.

Happy Easter! I drove up to Humboldt redwoods State Park yesterday to do a little more redwood exploring. It turned out to be an outstanding day, one of the best days yet. I started the day looking for an albino described in one of the posts below. After successfully locating it, I made my way back to where I left my redwood search last month. The area continued to be juicy for extremely large redwoods.

cbh 51 feet, 7 in. This is the tree where I saw the salamander in a crevice in the bark about five feet off the ground.

 Once again, I probably walked no more than a quarter mile down the creek. There were so many huge trees here that I spent the whole day in this one particular area. That means I have spent three days in an area probably no more than a half mile wide, and a half mile long. I was excited to read on line this morning that my suspicions were confirmed. The area I was in has world record biomass according to forest researcher Bob Van Pelt. He also wrote that this forest grove has more wood per unit of area than anywhere else on the face of the planet!

cbh 57 feet, 10 in!

 I measured 22 trees with a circumference of over 40 feet yesterday. Four of them had a circumference over 50 feet, and two more were fused redwoods with circumferences over 50 feet! Most definitely a single day record for me.

cbh 54 feet, 10 in!

 Shortly after lunch, I was already beginning to feel pretty exhausted. I didn't want to over do it, especially since this could be the last time I spend time here until after the Continental Divide hike. After that who knows, so the possibility of never seeing this place again also occurred to me. The whistle of the varied thrush once again brought me into the present moment. What a great whistle, even though so simple.

 Once again, I didn't cross paths with anyone all day. I saw one family crossing the creek, but that was it. Before heading home, I stopped by the visitors center to look for some huge stumps across the road.  It was a halfhearted search, I decided to call it a day.

cbh  43 feet, 6 in.

By afternoon, the skies were really beginning to darken, and the comforts of home were calling. By the time I hit highway 101, it started to pour down rain. Once again, another memorable day with the giants...

Massive Fused Redwood Trees

Fused redwood trees: cbh 58 feet, 6 in.

This tree was another one of the highlights of yesterday. It is a huge double redwood. It's circumference at breast height is 58 feet, 6 in. Many redwoods seem to fuse together with a smaller tree growing by its side. This tree was no different. The original tree would have been enormous in it's own right. The smaller tree attached to the side just added a little more extra girth. There was a huge cave on the opposite side. An amazing tree...

Bull Creek Giant

Bull Creek Giant

I finally came across the Bull Creek Giant yesterday. It's the 10th Largest Coast Redwood with a height of 337 feet, 22.3 foot diameter, and 31,144 cubic feet wood volume. It's also the largest tree in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I knew it was out there, but my progress has been so slow do to the amount of enormous trees in the area. It felt great to finally see it in person. I thought there was a chance that somehow I had missed it. You'd be surprised how easy it is to miss a giant tree lurking in a redwood forest. I felt extremely blessed to be able to spend another day exploring this amazing place...

Tall Redwood Albino

I found this beautiful tall redwood albino yesterday in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, thanks to a tip from Zane Moore. Not only has Zane been excelling in the world of tree hunting, but he is currently studying redwood albinos. There will be more exciting discoveries coming from him hopefully in the future. This may be one of the tallest albino redwoods in existence at the moment. From the angle of this photo, it almost looks like a skull and cross bones...

Caltrans Bypass Construction and Destruction: Willits, CA

Catrans Bypass: Willits, CA (Trees are Falling)

Construction crews have begun clearing the trees along the route of the Caltrans bypass in Willits, California. A heavy police presence remains in town...

Caltrans Bypass: Willits CA, March 23, 2013

Heavy police presence occupying former tree sit site

 A lot has happened in the past week in Little Lake Valley, where the proposed Caltrans bypass is scheduled to be built. Essentially, construction equipment has moved in to begin preliminary development. 7 protesters were arrested on Thursday. "Warbler," the young 24 year old female tree sitter, remains in her tree for now, but the area where many protests occurred at the base of her tree and along the highway, has been fenced off and is now occupied by a heavy police presence. There are two more tree sits that went up in another location, but they also have been surrounded by the police and will be without resupply.

"Warbler" remains in her perch for now

Yesterday, a call went out that the CHP was beginning the process to extract Warbler from her tree.  About 50 of us gathered on the opposite side of the highway to bear witness and give support. Turns out, it was a false alarm. We were greeted with a strong police presence on the opposite side of the highway, complete with ATV's, cameras, video recorders, and plenty of twist ties for arrest if we dared trespass.

For me, its a sad realization. However, I still believe the cause is just, the land is important, our environment is worth standing up for all across this country.