Redwoods. Several years wear & tear
Grove of Titans & Sir Isaac Newton .. examples
Continued from Coast Redwoods Main Page
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2014 - 2017 by Mario Vaden
Several giant redwoods are shown with side by side comparison 2008 to 2013 ... about 5 years time .. to show impact from visitors. The issue is not so much just visiting. The problem was people who were not careful. If people moved gently and didn't step on plants, the change shown below would not have happened. Also, people were wrapping tapes to measure trunks. That's not neccesary anymore. There are photos available. If you are looking, bring an image and you won't need to thrash vegetation wrapping tapes needlessly.
Lost Monarch - note the foot trail. One path doesn't seem like much, but swaths were worth in three other directions outward. Chesty Puller - note ferns missing in front. Sir Isaac Newton - thinning is evident in front. Note the absense of the large Red Huckleberry that used to be in front. Screaming Titans - the photo barely tells the story. You can see one fern under my right hand missing. There's trampled area not seen in the image. Hundreds of square feet worn bare. Select images to enlarge and to close. Read more following these images.
The reason I post information about these largest of Coast Redwoods is for education. Redwood National and State Parks tried to shift attention away from the largest specimens, and in doing so, slowed down awareness of this wear and tear. They seem to be getting on board these days with the educational approach.
It became apparent that my site's redwood pages have a platform from which to help reduce impact to these largest Coast Redwoods. Some other sites talk about them ... but few discuss how people can move in the vicinity to lessen impact in the understory.
There are a few peoplewho look at these redwoods with blinders, seeing just the large trunks and not the entire collection of plants in the vicinity. They judge national treasure as a single redwood, not the redwood and the entire garden around it. It's rare to find titan redwoods anymore where the entire natural surrounding remains mostly untouched.
To get these documentary photos, we didn't step on any plants including ferns and sorrel.
These two pages may provide some useful feedback ...
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