AMERICAN FORESTRY 



6f3 



VOL. 28 



NOVEMBER, 1922 



No. 347 



FORESTRY AMONG THE GIANTS 



By Woodbridge Metcalf 



: Associate Professor of Forestry, University of California 



\V7" HEN the average person is asked to think about 

 ^^ California and what he has heard or read about 

 the wonders of the golden state, I presume that nine 

 out of ten will mention the redwood tree among the 

 first three things. So famous have those great trees 

 become because of their age and massive proportions 

 that most people would not consider a trip to California 

 complete unless they had 

 seen a grove of either the 

 big-tree of the Sierras or 

 the redwood of the coast, 



and many people have trav- 

 elled from the ends of the 

 earth in order to walk 

 amid the great trunks while 

 they strove to comprehend 

 the marvels of these most 

 ancient of living things. 

 All of the other important 

 western timber trees are 

 found in several states but 

 to California alone has been 

 given the coast redwood 

 and the giant big-tree. So 

 indelibly has the image o. 

 the redwood tree become 

 interwoven with the name 

 California in history, song 

 and story that it might well 

 be emblazoned on the state 

 flag instead of the grizzly 

 bear. That ferocious mon- 

 arch of the bear family has 

 not been seen in California 

 in a generation while King 

 Sequoia will probably con- 

 tinue to rule over the syl- 

 van slopes of the west 

 coast, exacting homage 

 from men and trees alike. 

 for untold future genera- 

 tions. .\nd it is not onlv 

 the old patriarchs that wil] 

 thus rule, but millions of 



their descendents will arise to uphold the honor of their 

 ancient lineage and have a part in moulding the forest 

 destiny of the ultimate west. The following discussion 

 has to do only with the coast redwood (Sequoia sem- 

 prrvimis) which is entirely distinct both in range and 



characteristics from the Sierra big-tree {Sequoia </r 

 gantea). 



When after the gold rush of '49 there came a demand 

 for lumber the great stands of redwood stretching from 

 San Francisco Bay north along the coast a few miles 

 across the Oregon line, and south to Monterey County, 

 soon attracted attention, and logging began with the 



crude implements available 

 in that early day. Recent 

 estimates lead us to believe 

 that at that time there 



.\MONG THE GIANTS IN BULL CREEK FLAT, HUMBOLDT 

 COU.VTY THIS IS SAID TO BE THE FINEST GROVE OF RED- 

 WOODS NOW STANDING. SINGLE ACRES OF TIMBER SUCH 

 AS THIS HAVE YIELDED OVER A MILLION BOARD FEET 

 nv ACTUAL SCALE. 



were about a million four 

 hundred thousand acres of 

 redwood timl>erland con- 

 taining in the neighborhood 

 of one hundred billion 

 board feet of timber. No 

 one in those early days had 

 any definite idea how much 

 tedwood timber there was. 

 That there was enough was 

 evident and the matter of 

 o-wnershij) being a trivial 

 matter, several small mills 

 r.tarted cutting along the 

 accessible river bottom flats 

 in Sonoma and Mendocino 

 counties. When Uncle Sam 

 got around to it many 

 years later he collected a 

 tidy sum for timber cut on 

 his lands in trespass but 

 that, of course, is another 

 story. 



The days of early logging 

 and settlement in the red- 

 wood region were full of 

 action and many stirring 

 tales of those days have 

 been handed down concern- 

 ing them. One of these has 

 to do with the origin of the 

 name of Bull Creek, in 

 Hunibcjldl County, which has become famous in recent 

 years because the flats adjacent to its banks are said 

 to contain the finest stand of redwoods now extant. 

 The story as told to me by the son of one of the chief 

 actors in the episode begins with the importation by one 



