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work of boughs overhead, dappling the forest floor 

 below. The atmosphere is hushed; evergreen needles 

 muffle ever)' footfall. The grove has all the feeling of a 

 Gothic cathedral, with pillars soaring to a vaulted ceil- 

 ing. You half expect to hear the Angelus. 



Bevond the grove, you reach the park of tomorrow- 

 the National Park Service's proud restoration project. 

 Rehabilitation has removed 180 miles of logging roads 

 and skid trails, planted 684,363 trees and returned 

 26.330 acres to their natural state. Removal of logging 

 debris and sediment has brought fish back to the 

 streams, and wildlife to the woods and grasslands. 



"A magnificent stand of timber up there^ 



The results to date are impressive. John A. Campbell, 

 CEO of Pacific Lumber and one of the environmental- 

 ists' favorite villains, says admiringly, "Eventually, that's 

 going to be a magnificent stand of timber up there." The 

 project attracts foresters and environmentalists from all 

 over the world. The park has been designated a World 

 Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve. 



One criticism is undisputed: Redwood National Park 



is almost invisible to visitors. Highway signs welcome you 



to ''Redwood National and State Parks," but, says John 



Dewiti, "Redwood National Park is like a ring without 



the setting." The real "gems^-'the finest redwoods that 



e\er existed," Dewitt calls them-are ii Prairie Creek 



Redwoods, Del Norte Redwoods and Jidediah Smith 



Redwoods state parks. Technicallv the 27,000 acres of 



old-growth redwoods in these parks are authorized bv 



Congress to be within the national park's 106,000-acre 



boundaries. But the state parks are separately managed 



and their independence is jealously guarded. 



j The state parks are also more easily accessible from 



•Highway 101, so few sightseers venture beyond them, 



I preferring to meander among the giant trees of the state 



park groves and to admire the herds of Roosevelt elk. In 

 fact, the most popular visitor destinations in national 

 park terriior)- often aren't trees at all. 



Assembling the park in two stages ten years apan pro- 

 longed the acrimony. The post-World War II building 

 boom fueled a huge demand for redwood decks, panel- 

 ing and picnic tables. By the 1960s, even locals became 

 alarmed at the speed with which the ancient forests were 



