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SAVING CALIFORNIA'S REDWOODS

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EXCERPTS FROM THREE ADDRESSES BY J. D. GRANT, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, SAVE THE ° : REDWOODS LEAGUE : :

1 At Eureka, California 11 At Palisades Interstate Park, New York 111 At Stanford University

| With Illustrations showing Redwood Groves already saved] Front cover photo by H. C. Tibbitts Back cover photo by Pillsbury Picture Co.

Published by the SAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE

Library Bldg. University of California Berkeley, Calif.

Scene from ‘‘Ersa of the Red Trees’’, a play and pageant directed by Garnet Holme, and produced by the Mountain, Desert and Forest Players, headed by Katharane Edson, in the Big Basin and at the Giant Forest. The theme is the saving of the Redwoods

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AFTER THE-DEDICGATIO sam BOLLING MEMORIAL GROVE

[ MEETING WITH CITIZENS OF EUREKA, CALIFORNIA ]

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Kae these matchless forests happen to be located here. Hum- WA}| boldt County has in the Redwoods an asset of incalculable Kemet] value, and we are fortunate that her citizens have been farsighted enough to lead the fight against their destruction. These workers have been the first line of defence. The state and nation are now coming to their aid. There is a growing realization of the charm and beauty of the Redwoods. Travelers are visiting them from all parts of the United States. But this is only the beginning. In years to come, if we save these trees as we propose to do, thousands upon thousands will journey to this part of California to see the greatest and oldest of living things.

Dr. John C. Merriam tells us that there was a time when the Redwood flourished throughout the northern hemisphere and pretty much over the whole world. Changing temperatures, varying conditions of moisture, the aggressive rivalry of other growths, have slowly forced it from point to point to a final retreat in California. Even here it is not supreme. Nature's forces, defined in the oak, the pine, the laurel and a thousand

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JAN 8 1923

9

Photo by California State Forester

The highway winding through the Redwoods.

These trees, thousands of years old,

if once destroyed cannot be replaced for many generations to come,

other forms, still meet it. But as in its days of universal empire the Redwood stands erect, its head in the stars, its feet firmly clasped to earth. In this kindly clime, in this sympathetic soil, here where the airs are sweet and where along our salubrious coast there is abundant moisture, the Redwood may still hold its place and defy both its rivals and its enemies— . all sare man! We who are here today, with those whom we represent, are associated for aid and protection of this remnant of a great race, so to speak, proud and beautiful as in the days of its widespread glory. Here it may withstand all assaults save those of man. From the destructive hand of man we are organized to save it.

The Redwood has been witnesser of great events. It has stood sentinel over a thousand changes in the structure and order of the material world. In the passing centuries it has witnessed, if not the birth of man, at least man's development from the lowest estate. It has seen the rise of civiliza- tion. It has looked upon the growth and fall of empires. No phase of history, cosmic or human, has disturbed its serenity or marred its dignity. In this, its last stand, the Redwood holds itself vital, proud and beautiful.

The appeal of the Redwood for protection by those who love impressiveness and beauty, is a solemn, dignified appeal. The Redwood is no cringer for favor. It makes no truckling plea. Still erect, with head still in the stars, it is silent, save for .its whisper- ings under kindly summer breezes and its soughings under the stress of winter storms. If it is to be saved it will not be in servility, but in dignity and nobility.

In this thought, for us, volunteers in its cause, there should be high inspiration.

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Photo by N. B. Drury

A Sequoia turned to stone at the Petrified Forest, noma County.

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THE REDWOODS

AND THE STATE PARK MOVEMENT IN CALIFORNIA

[At National Conference on State Parks, Palisades Interstate Park, New York,

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their return, he and his companions had been depressed and saddened by traveling along what is now the California State Highway, “The Highway of the Giants’, and seeing acres upon acres of once beautiful Redwood Forest hacked and burned and rendered a desolate waste

through lumbering operations.

“Is there not’, he said, “some way in which this

terrible devastation can be.

stopped? Does not California intend to save for posterity some of her priceless Red- woods?"

This man was Madison Grant. His companions were John C. Merriam and Henry Fairfield Osborn. Madison Grant's words rekindled in my own mind a long-cherished intent to do something to- wards saving a part of the California Redwoods.

Importance of Redwoods

To us early Californians Redwood has meant a great deal economically and indus- trially. We have always looked upon our supply as practically inexhaustible, and it is with a start that we have recently realized that the end

ay 22-25, 1922]

HREE years ago, there came to my office in San Francisco an old friend. He had just returned from a camping trip in Northern California. With two other distinguished Americans, he had been spending a wonderful vacation 23} among the Redwoods in Northern California. But on

Photo by Andrew P. Hill

On the ‘‘Redwood Highway’’ in Sonoma County,

before the Redwood belt is reached. The brown

rolling hills, dotted with oaks, are a pleasant contrast to the more rugged scenery further north.

5

Photo by Dr. J. C. Phillips

In Mendocino County, on the ‘‘Redwood Highway’’, just before reaching the Redwood belt. Redwoods are seen on the skyline.

of this supply is measurably in sight. And it is significant that Calif- ornia’s first interest in the State Parks Movement has been shown in the preservation of natural objects which are unique and distinctively Californian—the Redwoods. Three years ago we established in Calif- ornia the Save the Redwoods League, whose object was to preserve for posterity the finest representative areas of Sequoia sempervirens, or Redwoods. Nowhere in the entire world are these trees found except along the Northern California coast. They share with the Sequoia gigantea of the Sierra the distinction of being the oldest and grandest of living things. Construction of the California State Highway through the north- ern counties made these trees accessible and gave facilities for lumbering operations that threatened to destroy for all time the beauty and mag- nificence of one of the greatest scenic routes in America. We therefore banded together and came to the assistance of these ‘giants making

their last stand’’. The Redwood Belt

The original Redwood Belt is a remnant of the massive forests of this and related species that in prehistoric times covered a considerable part of the northern hemisphere. It averages 20 miles in width and extends some 450 miles from Monterey County, California, to just above the Oregon line. In the Southern part of this belt, in Santa Cruz County, the State of California, in 1901, established a State Park, preserving what is known as the Big Basin, containing many magnificent trees. Muir Woods, on the slopes of Mt.Tamalpais, has already been made a National Monu- ment. And now, as a part of the Save the Redwoods movement, the nucleus of another State Park has been preserved in the northern portion of the Redwood Belt, in Humboldt County in the basin of the South Fork of the Eel River, and adjoining the California State Highway.

Humboldt State Park

The Humboldt State Redwood Park, which is the beginning of a larger area to be preserved, consists of about 2000 acres, extending 14 miles along the California State Highway, where it skirts the eastern bank of

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Photo by Dr. J. C. Phillips A coast scene in Del Norte County, on the ‘‘Redwood Highway’’. In beauty and variety, this is one of the wonderful scenic drives of the world.

the South Fork of the Eel River, between Phillipsville and Dyerville. It contains perhaps 200 million feet of some of the finest Redwoods.

The Humboldt State Redwood Park is 230 miles from San Francisco on the main State Highway leading to Eureka, California. It is adminis- tered for the State by the California State Forestry Board. Accessible through the year by train or motor, it affords unexcelled recreational opportunities to the motorist, the camper and the lover of the great out-of-doors.

Bolling Memorial Grove

One of the tracts of Redwood timber to be saved for future generations is the Bolling Memorial Grove, which is within the Humboldt State Park. It was established by Dr. John C. Phillips of Massachusetts, in memory of Colonel Raynal C. Bolling, the first American officer of high rank to give his life in the World War. Last summer we dedicated this grove. It was most impressive not only because of the eloquent words of John C. Merriam, Madison Grant and others, but also because of the appropriateness of Dr. Phillips’ act in creating this ever-living memorial of majestic Sequoia sempervirens.

California is trying to do her share to prevent the annihilation of the Redwoods. We have saved a part of the “Highway of the Giants” as part of a State Park. We have interested our county governments in the establishment of public parks and memorial groves. We have aroused the consciousness of the nation to the fact that there must be saved a large area—at least 20,000 acres of primitive Redwood forest— to be kept inviolate as a national park. And since we cannot hope to raise more than a fraction of the sum necessary for this purpose through state or county appropriation, the immediate need of Federal action toward the establishment of such a park on behalf of all of our citizens becomes the more manifest.

“The Mystery of the Forest’’—a view in the heart of the Redwood belt in Humboldt Count Madison Grant says: ‘‘We have reason to believe that no finer forest e

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Photo by N. B. Drury

The type of desolation which has been prevented along the ‘‘Highway of the Giants’’, through the efforts of the Save the Redwoods League, cooperating with the State Forestry Board and the officials of Humboldt County.

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SAVING CALIFORNIA'S REDWOODS

AT LELAND STANFORD, JR. UNIVERSITY, OCTOBER 25, 1922

| WI CE during the past two years I have had brought home to me the beauty and the unique value of the Redwoods. Once, in Humboldt County, when in the summer of 1921, a group of lovers of the Redwoods met in the open to dedicate Bolling Memorial Grove, in memory of Colonel Raynal C. Bolling, first American officer of high rank to fall in the World War. And again, this summer in Santa Cruz County, when a troupe of players, at night in the Big Basin, presented the play and pageant, “‘Ersa of the Red Trees’: Both times my mind went back to recollec- tions of the Redwoods near Pescadero, where I spent part of my boy- hood, and to my keen disappointment, when, returning in later years, I found that once beautiful forest turned to a waste of blackened stumps.

If anyone asks: ‘Why have a group of ‘practical’ men turned aside from personal affairs and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to this movement to Save the Redwoods?’ surely the answer is found in such incidents as I have cited.

But there are a number of reasons for saving the Redwoods. First of all, we are saving them as trees of indescribable beauty; next, we are saving them as one of the scientific wonders of the world; finally, we are saving them as a great economic asset of the state and nation.

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Without the experience at first hand, it is impossible to visualize the impressiveness and beauty of the Redwood area in its primitive state. The gigantic size of the trees, im- pressive as it is, is but one of many features making this areaa veritable wonderland. The scenic beauty is marvelous and ever-changing. Dense stands of timber, beneath whose branches there is eternal twilight, cover canyons and hillsides, river bottoms and flats. Sometimes they reach to the very ocean's edge. Through the moving branches, three hundred feet aloft, occasional shafts of sunlight dart—striking the bright green of luxuriant under-growth and delicate ferns or, in the springtime, a profusion of tender wildflowers, sharply in contrast to the massive cinnamon-colored trunks of these ancient trees.

Grape stakes from thousand- year-old Sequoias.

There is also the scientific interest of the

Redwoods—their extreme age and scarcity, and the interesting habits of their growth. Mankind, after countless centuries of indif- ference, has at last become concerned with all matters pertaining to the origin and history of life. In the Redwoods we have a chapter in the book of life earlier by far than many that are to be read only through painstaking

stand. Thousands of years ago, trees or their: Sort covered much of the northern hem- isphere. Geolog- ists tell us from their stucy of fossil remains that this family dates back not only thousands, but millions of years—to the early stages in the formation of the world as we now know it. During the glacial period all were blotted out except a few groves representing two species: the Big Tree (Sequoia gigantea) in the Sierra of California and the Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) along the Northern California coast. Thus the Redwoods repre- sent, with the Big Trees of the Sierra, the remnants of a family of trees now otherwise extinct.

Redwood Products

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excavation and years of research.

The Sequoia of California have been likened to an ancient race of giants making their last

Railroad ties cut from giant Redw

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Photo by Herbert Gleason

“Through the moving branches, three hundred feet aloft, occasional shafts of sun-

light dart—striking the bright green of luxuriant undergrowth, or, in the springtime

a profusion of delicate wildflowers, sharply in contrast to the massive cinnamon- colored trunks of these ancient trees.”

To one accustomed to ordinary trees, the tales of the Redwood forest seem unbelievable—thousands upon thousands of trees, ten to eighteen feet in diameter, towering three hundred to three hundred and seventy- five feet toward the heavens. Many of these Sequoia now standing were here before the birth of Christ, and many were full grown trees long before Columbus discovered America.

Another reason for conserving the Redwoods is a decidedly material one. I refer to their economic value—not alone as lumber, but as an asset to the state. This value will certainly increase as the years go on.

After considerable effort the Save the Redwoods League has finally persuaded the authorities, both county and state, that the Redwoods, standing, are of much greater potential value than they would be if cut up into lumber. The trees are for all time; the timber vanishes. The Redwoods are drawing increasing thousands of people to California. Particularly is this true of those trees which line our traveled highways. The “Redwood Highway” is one of the wonders of the world. The build- ing of roads by the state, and by the Federal government, particularly a new road along the Klamath River, has finally opened the Redwood Belt to the public, and before long this region, because of excellent roads and climate that is always temperate, will be for countless tourists an all-year-round playground, adding much to the health and outdoor enjoy- ment of the nation.

Facts About the Redwood Area

Figures from the Forest Service show that the original Redwood timber area comprised 1,406,393 acres. Up to the present year, 1922, approxi- mately 455,269 acres of these trees have been cut. The remaining stand of virgin Redwood timber is therefore 951,000 acres, or a little less than a million. Forest Service figures further show that this area is being cut over at the rate of 6,500 acres per year.

At this rate, and allowing for only the normal increase of cutting due to expanding markets for Redwood, all of the original trees will disappear in the next 100 years. The most conservative government estimate is 150 years. Moreover, the rate of cutting is bound to increase very greatly within the next generation or two. And, the most important considera- tion is this: That the Redwoods in their finest form and in the regions where they are most accessible to the public are already rapidly disappearing. Most of these will be gone within the next ten years. The best Redwoods are being cut first. It is these that must be saved.

Let me say a word on an important subject, that of reforestation. It is claimed that Redwood trees can be reproduced by sprouting from the stump so that within 40 to 50 years they represent merchantable timber. This is true. But this does not help to save the ancient giants. The “second growth’ Redwoods are not in size, quality or appearance in any

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Photo by Mrs. E. E. Ayer

Grove at Phillipsville saved by Mrs. James Hobart Moore and Mr. E. E. Ayer.

And last year, in 1921, the California State Legislature, at the instance of the Save the Redwoods League, appropri- ated $300,000 to save some of the finest trees along the four- teen mile stretch of highway between Miranda and Dyer- ville, Humboldt County, in the basin of the South Fork of the Eel. This appropri- ation made possible the Hum- boldt State Redwood Park, which is the beginning of a larger area to be preserved. It consists of about 2000 acres. It is 230 miles from San Francisco on the main

way comparable to the thousand-year-old ‘Sequoia sempervirens’ that constitute one of America’s priceless treasures. They are totally different trees, and will remain so—at least for a thousand years.

Years ago, in i1gol1, the State of California, urged by the Sempervirens Club, gave evidence of her interest when almost the sole remaining original stand of Redwoods in Santa Cruz County, in the “Big Basin, was made a State Park—at a cost of $250,000.

Photo by N. B. Drury In Gould Grove, saved through the co-operation of Mrs. Frederic Saltonstall Gould, in memory of her husband, Dr. Frederic Saltonstall Gould, ‘‘a lover of trees’’.

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Photo by Mrs. E. E. Ayer A Fallen Giant. Thousands of years to grow. A few hours to cut.

State Highway leading to Eureka, California. It is administered for the State by the California State Forestry Board.

Lumbermen Help

The work of the Save the Redwoods League has been done in a spirit of fair-play toward the lumbermen and they in turn, have given us full cooperation. The Redwood industry has been an important factor in California's development, and we have found that the men engaged in it are, on the whole, sympathetic toward the object of our movement. They do not want to see the finest of the Redwoods perish. They do not want to have our highways traverse scenes of desolation. Four lumber companies have already made gifts of Redwood timber to the League.

Organizations Aid Movement

The Sempervirens Club of San Jose, under their late president, Andrew P. Hill, and their present leader, Mr. Murgotten, have been pioneers in this movement. Organizations such as the Sierra Club, the Elks and the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West are also interest- ing themselves. The Bohemian Grove, of course, is an example of preservation of a fine Redwood stand by a California organization. Here, under ideal conditions, the club.produces its annual Grove Play.

In this connection a thought occured to me as I witnessed the pro- duction of the Mountain, Forest and Desert Players in the Big Basin this summer. It seemed to me that the movement which this Redwood play represents is one that should spread and undoubtedly, with proper encouragement, will spread throughout the United States, each com- munity using its characteristic forests as the setting for outdoor plays and pageants. As you know, the Bohemian Club years ago established the precedent for such plays on a more elaborate scale; but here we have an adaptation of the idea in simpler form and suitable for the use and enjoyment of great masses of our population, the productions relying for their effect mainly upon the beautiful setting furnished by the Redwoods. Through the medium of these productions much can be accomplished.

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Future Preservation

Now let me say a word about the objects and the future activities of the Save the Redwoods League.

The aims of the League, briefly stated, are three-fold: first, to save as complete a stretch of timber along the main highways of the state as is feasible; second, to aid in the administration of our forests, both standing and cut-over, to the end that through scientific forestry and refor- estation, future generations may gain their maximum use and enjoyment. And third, to bring about through Federal appropriation, a Redwood National Park, in keeping with the other units in the National Park System. It should be truly representative of the Redwoods in their maturity, and should be of adequate size—probably not less than 20,000 acres. The area selected should have the scenic features which are most characteristic of the Redwood region, should be accessible, and should present adequate opportunities for recreation.

In 1920, Congress passed a resolution calling for an investigation by the Secretary of the Interior on this subject of a Redwood National Park. A survey has been made in accordance with this resolution.

A ‘‘Highway of the Giants’”’

While the establishment of a Redwood National Park is the most essential part of the plan to save the Redwoods, the preservation of the trees along the highways which will lead to the park is also most impor- tant. This is the present task of the League. Ultimately there will be in California a ‘Highway of the Giants,”’ traversing the entire original Red- wood region from ‘The Southern Sentinel”, southernmost Redwood in the world, a few miles below Monterey, to the northernmost tree of this species a few miles above the California-Oregon line, and connecting each of the isolated groves of Sequoia sempervirens which have been saved, such as, for instance, the State Park in the Big Basin, the famous Santa Cruz Grove, Muir Woods in Marin County, the Armstrong Grove in Sonoma County, the Humboldt Redwood Park, and the various groves farther north, until the highway culminates in the Redwood National Park.

Photo by N. B. Drury

One of the groves being favorably considered by the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoos, the Lumbermen’s fraternal organization.

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SUNSET PRESS, SAN FRANCISCO

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