SAVING THE REDWOODS 



By Madison Grant 



Mr. Grant's recital of the inroads zvhich are being made upon some of the 

 oldest and most magnificent forests of the nation will be read with keen interest 

 by every member of the National Geographic Society, zvhich was largely respon- 

 sible for rescuing the finest group of Big Trees {Sequoia gigantea, or Washing- 

 toniana) of the Sequoia National Park from the fate which now threatens the Red- 

 zvoods of northern California. The members of the National Geographic Society 

 will recall that at a time when, through a failure of Congress to appropriate a sum 

 sufficient to prevent the Big Trees of the Giant Forest from falling into the hands 

 of private lumber interests, the Society supplemented Congress' appropriation by 

 a subscription of $20,000 in order that these age-old monarchs might be preserved 

 in perpetuity {see "Our Big Trees Saved" in The Geographic for January, 1917) . 



THE eastern tourist visiting Cali- 

 fornia feels that he has explored 

 the State when he has crossed the 

 Sierra and the central valley, with per- 

 haps a side trip to Lake Tahoe and to 

 the Yosemite Canyon, with its Mariposa 

 grove of big trees, and has completed a 

 leisurely trip down the southern coast. 



After a journey of this character, 

 which is all that is accomplished by nine 

 out of ten visitors, he carries away an 

 impression of a golden brown, semiarid 

 countryside, waterless stream beds, end- 

 less fruit orchards, entire absence of turf 

 and grass, abundant flowers, a rainless 

 sky, and a pitiless sunlight. 



There is, however, another and differ- 

 ent California on the coast from San 

 Francisco north to the Oregon line. This 

 region is heavily wooded, with running 

 streams and abundant moisture, fogs tak- 

 ing the place of rainfall during the sum- 

 mer months. 



Much of the immediate coast is an old 

 Pleistocene strand, elevated about 1,000 

 feet above the sea and cut through at 

 various points by rivers and streams. 

 The new boulevard runs along this ele- 

 vated ■ beach-line for many miles, and 

 when completed will be one of the finest 

 motor highways in the world. 



With high mountains to the east, the 

 traveler looks out over the vast expanse 

 of the Pacific toward the setting sun. 



It is along this northwestern coast that 

 the great redwoods of California are 

 found, and it is here that the photographs 

 accompanying this article were taken. 



The impending destruction of these 

 forests is the most serious question con- 



fronting California in the effort tor the 

 preservation of some portion of her vast 

 inheritance. It has been stated officially 

 that all of the old stand of forests in the 

 United States will be cut off within the 

 next sixty years, but this period will be 

 materially shortened by the new methods 

 of logging. 



Before describing these groves, it may 

 be well to say a few words about the 

 genus Sequoia, as there is much confu- 

 sion regarding the big trees of the Sierra 

 and the redwoods of the coast. 



SEQUOIAS WERE FLOURISHING WHEN 

 DINOSAURS ROAMED THE EARTH 



The genus Sequoia, to which the two 

 surviving species of the great trees of 

 California belong, stands widely sepa- 

 rated from other living trees. Together 

 with closely related groups, it once spread 

 over the entire Northern Hemisphere, 

 and fossil remains of Sequoia and kin- 

 dred genera have been found in Europe, 

 Spitzbergen, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, 

 and Greenland. 



Changes in climate and other causes 

 have led to their gradual extinction, until 

 the sole survivors of the genus are con- 

 fined to California — one to high altitudes 

 in the Sierra Mountains and the other to 

 the western slope of the Coast Range. 



Fossil leaves and cones of genera 

 closely related to Sequoia occur in the 

 rocks of the Jurassic and of the Trias, 

 and the members of the genus Sequoia 

 were common and characteristic trees in 

 California throughout the Cretaceous. 



To give some idea of what this bald 

 statement means, these trees, virtually 



519 



