Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article about remarkable growth of Coast Redwoods during the last 100 years. The Coast Redwoods are growing at an unprecedented rate.

“The last remaining old-growth redwood trees along the California coast and in the Sierra are in the midst of a growth spurt the likes of which has never been seen before, a climate research study revealed Wednesday. (August 14, 2013)

The ancient trees produced more wood over the past century than they have during any other time in their life, a stretch that dates back, in at least one case, a thousand years before the birth of Christ, according to a study released by the Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative.”

The photos below were taken in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. One shows Prof. Steve Sillett (Humboldt State University) moving through dense understory to reach one of their study groves. The other shows research climber Anthony Ambrose communicating by radio with other climbers in a giant coast redwood, shortly after he descended by to the ground level.
Prof. Sillett also puts interesting photos online at his own page. See …

http://www.humboldt.edu/redwoods/sillett

Browse the menus and links there for photos and other information

Other excerpts about the Coast Redwood growth include these …

“Using multiple core samples … scientists were able to identify tree-ring patterns, …  traced back to the year 328, extending the dendrochronological record, … by more than 1,400 years.

One tree in Redwood National and State Parks, near Crescent City, turned out to be 2,520 years old, breaking the previous age record …”

And …

“The new chronology … helped Stephen Sillett, a professor of forest ecology at Humboldt State, … What he found was that both redwood species grew at a relatively stable rate for 650 years and then, about 100 years ago, suddenly began to grow faster. There was a slight slowdown in the 1950s and 1960s, and then in the 1970s the tree growth accelerated faster … “

If it remains online, the entire article can be found at > San Fransisco Chronicle Ancient Redwoods

Prof. Sillett of Humboldt State University

Anthony Ambrose in Coast Redwood Forest