84 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. [Proc. 3D Ser. 



In the National Geographical Magazine for May, 1899, 

 Gannett asserts that a region naturally forested with red- 

 wood will not become reforested with the same tree if the 

 standing timber is felled. He says (1. c, p. 151) "Nowhere 

 is there any young growth. The youngest trees, which are 

 found only in the northern portion of the [redwood] belt, 

 are several hundred years of age. When the timber has 

 been cut, there is no sign of reproduction from seed. In 

 many localities sprouts are starting from stumps in the cut 

 areas, but even this form of reproduction is limited. In- 

 deed, everything seems to indicate that for some reason, 

 probably a progressive drying of the climate, the forest 

 environment is not favorable to the growth of redwood, and 

 that with the clearing away of the present forests, the end 

 of the species as a source of lumber will be at hand." 

 Gannett furnishes a photograph of sprouted redwoods in a 

 cut area. 



It is true, as Gannett says, that the major part of the red- 

 wood forest is north of San Francisco, especially in Hum- 

 boldt County, California; but in the Santa Cruz Mountains, 

 south of San Francisco, there are more than merely " scat- 

 tered groves " of redwood trees. The amount of redwood 

 lumber here cut is evidence that the redwood has attained 

 profitable size and that it still occurs in profitable quantity. 

 Redwood forests must have been abundant in the mountains 

 between the southern arm of the Bay of San Francisco and 

 the ocean, even within comparatively recent years. Much 

 of what was once forested land is now tilled, but by the 

 roadsides and along the fences one sees great blackened 

 stumps which prove the recent presence of redwood forest. 

 In the canons and on the steeper hillsides, where land can- 

 not under present conditions be profitably cultivated and 

 need not be used for pasture, some of the old redwoods 

 remain. In these same places young redwoods are coming 

 up, some from the stumps, more from the uninjured and 

 still living underground parts of trees which have been 

 felled, and some from seed. So far as this region is con- 

 cerned, the alarm which Mr. Gannett's remarks arouse 

 seems not to be well founded. 



